Sandy Alomar would be a recognizable name in baseball circles if for no other reason than he fathered two major leaguers – his namesake Sandy, who caught in the bigs for almost two decades, and Hall of Famer Roberto, who also won a pair of World Series championships with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The elder Sandy had a major league career of his own though, one that included a brief stop in New York for a couple of seasons. He was gone before the Yankees broke a long World Series drought in 1977, but
Alomar’s tenure in the Bronx did enable him to experience postseason baseball for the one and only time in his career.
Name: Sandy Alomar
Born: October 19, 1943 (Salinas, Puerto Rico)
Died: October 13, 2025 (Salinas, Puerto Rico)
Yankees Tenure: 1974-76
In 1973, Sandy Alomar was 29 years old, playing for the California Angels, his fifth club since he debuted with the Milwaukee Braves in 1964. To that point, his durability was his claim to fame. By September, he’d appeared in 648 consecutive games. Unfortunately, he suffered a broken leg while turning a double play against the Chicago White Sox. That broken leg snapped his iron man streak. It also changed the trajectory of his career.
That offseason, the Angels brought in Denny Doyle from Philadelphia to man the keystone, relegating Alomar to a utility role for the Angels. That lasted until July 8, 1974, when the Yankees purchased his contract from California.
Alomar quickly acclimated to New York, hitting .269 for the Yankees in 1974. Unfortunately, the Yanks finished two games back of the pennant-winning Orioles, so instead of playing October baseball, Alomar returned to Puerto Rico as he did every winter to play ball there.
Alomar got off to a very slow start in ’75. By late July, he’d been mired in a four-month slump. Murray Chass wrote for the New York Times that:
“…physically he doesn’t really resemble Rip Van Winkle. For a while, though, it seemed as if the Yankee second baseman might challenge the Sleepy Hollow napper for the New York State sleeping title.”
But Alomar started to come out of his funk and carried a hot stick into August. Over a nine-game stretch that culminated in a three-hit, two-stolen base performance on August 7th, Alomar went 13-for-34 (.382), raising his batting average 23 points, safely above the Mendoza Line at .217.
Alas, there was no playoff baseball in ’75 either. The Yanks finished the season 12 games back of the Red Sox, who went on to lose an all-time great World Series to The Big Red Machine, depriving Alomar of playoff baseball yet again.
The 1976 season saw Willie Randolph come into his own as the Yankees’ second baseman. Accordingly, Alomar once again found himself the utility man. For the ’76 Yanks, Alomar played all over the field. He neither pitched nor caught but otherwise manned every position on the diamond. And the ’76 Yankees won the pennant, their first since 1964. For the first and ultimately only time in his career, Sandy Alomar got to play October baseball. He pinch-hit in Game 4 of the ALCS, flying out to end a Yankee loss to Kansas City. It was the only playoff plate appearance of his career.
He did have the best seat in the house though for Chris Chambliss’ famous pennant-winning home run in Game 5. Having pinch-run for DH Carlos May earlier in the game, Alomar was in the on-deck circle when Chambliss propelled the Yankees to the World Series.
Alomar did not appear in the World Series, which the Yankees lost to the Reds, who notched their second consecutive title.
That was it for Alomar in pinstripes. In February 1977, the Yankees dealt him to the Rangers in a deal that brought Brian Doyle and Greg Pryor to New York. Alomar played two seasons for the Rangers before they released him, ultimately ending his major league career. Baseball was not done with Alomar, however. He coached the Puerto Rican national team from 1979-1984 and, obviously, had two sons who went on to long and distinguished major league careers.
Sandy Alomar died less than a week before his 82nd birthday, on October 13, 2025, in his hometown in Puerto Rico.
Sandy Alomar was not a Yankee for long. But his stay in the Big Apple allowed him his sole taste of MLB postseason baseball, though his time came to end a year too early for him to win a championship. Happy birthday to the patriarch of one of baseball’s most famous families.
