This Alomar as Hot as a Roasting Spit

While Roberto Alomar may never be allowed to forget the September spitting incident with umpire John Hirschbeck, brother Sandy is compiling April statistics he hopes never to forget.

“I can’t ever remember being this hot before,” the Cleveland Indian catcher said. “Not even during my 17-game hitting streak [last year].

“It’s an unbelievable feeling that’s not going to last all year, but I’m going to enjoy it while it does.”

Alomar is batting a major league high .478 with 22 hits and six home runs in 12 games.

“Sandy is feeling more confident and he’s healthy,” Manager Mike Hargrove said.

Injuries, of course, are a key. Alomar was on the disabled list at least once for five consecutive years, starting in 1991.

His blistering start this year comes after the four-time all-star batted only .216 over the final three months of 1996, finishing at .263.

“Last year, I think Sandy felt he owed the fans and his teammates so much from all the years he was injured that he tried to pay them off in the final half,” Hargrove said. “He put a lot of pressure on himself. He wanted to do too much.”

He also has a new approach.

“I’m taking more pitches than before,” he said. “I used to get myself out on a lot of first pitches. You want to be an aggressive hitter, not a defensive hitter, but sometimes I was swinging at the first pitch without knowing the pitcher, what he threw or what his velocity was like, and I was being fooled a lot. I’m being more patient now, giving myself credit for being able to go deeper in the count.”

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The stumbling start of the Chicago Cubs has helped to obscure a similar stumble by the cross-town White Sox--4-11 and last in the Central.

The dynamic duo of Albert Belle and Frank Thomas has been anything but that, and Thomas said his touted team has played like “zombies” at times.

But teammate Tony Phillips said it’s much too early to get down.

“We’ve been through the wolves, but a start like this doesn’t mean too much to me,” he said. “When you look around at the talent we have, you know it’s only a matter of time.”

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The risk of spending big on pitchers in the June draft was underscored again this week when Billy Koch, the Toronto Blue Jays’ first selection and the fourth overall, went down for the year with a torn elbow ligament. Koch received a $1.45-million bonus. . . . The Koch injury and others won’t deter clubs from a full-court press on Cuban pitching star Rolando Arrojo, who attracted representatives from 19 teams to a five-day tryout in Costa Rica last week. Arrojo is said to be 28 and capable of moving into a major league set-up role by late summer. . . . Here’s how impressed Mo Vaughn is with Nomar Garciaparra, the Boston Red Sox’s rookie shortstop: “Nomar is like Spider-Man out there. He’s all over the place.” . . . Baseball’s two-year run of impressive young shortstops stretches to the Detroit Tigers’ Deivi Cruz, a Rule 5 selection out of the San Francisco Giants’ organization in the December draft. Cruz is only 21 and is jumping from Class A, but he has played so well in the absence of injured Orlando Miller he may force Miller to another position. “You can’t have a shortstop play any better than this guy has,” Manager Buddy Bell said. “He’s played in about 14 big league games and made it look like 1,400.”