Roberto Alomar- sad story if it's true...

[cjw]

Shocking allegations and very sad if true.

I met Roberto in 1994 and saw him almost everyday that he was not on the road in Toronto for the next two seasons. He lived in a 3-suite "apartment" in the SkyDome Hotel, where I worked as Room Service Manager and then Concierge. Interestingly, Roger Clemens took over the suite in 1997 and 1998 when he too lived in the Hotel, in season.

Robbie was always a great guy to speak to. Treated staff very well and has a great personality and sense of humour. He lived the eligible bachelor life. Parties, groupees, hangers-on were common. Nothing unusual there, considering the money and fame etc.

I won't comment on things speculated but wish him the best.

chris

[kingjammy24]

ok so the article just mentioned the rape but didn't intend for it to actually have anything to do with the story. my mistake. i guess they decided to be efficient and just wrap 2 unrelated stories into 1: alomar got raped once and oh yeah, he's got aids. but we don't mean to imply there's any correlation between the two stories.

"He could have very well been HIV positive from 2005 to recent ...and his HIV turned to full blown AIDS."

according to the story, the couple's relationship began in 2002. "..she lived with the ex-Met for three years and watched in horror as his health worsened... Alomar's skin had turned purple, he was foaming at the mouth and a spinal tap "showed he had full-blown AIDS," the suit says... In 2004, Dall says she noticed cold sores in his mouth. In 2005, after a physical exam ordered by the Tampa Bay Rays, he was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia purpura, a blood disorder sometimes linked to HIV, she claims..It goes on to say that around the same time Alomar developed a persistent cough and was bedridden with extreme fatigue. He developed thrush, a yeast infection.."

from the article, she "watched in horror as his health worsened", from 2002-2005, during the 3 years she lived with him. clearly these symptoms are alleged to have occurred before 2005. so they started a relationship in 2002 and she watched in horror as he turned into some version of the elephant man complete with purple skin and foaming mouth. here are 4 photos from that time period. 1 from 2002, 1 from 2003, 1 from 2004, and 1 from 2005. this is a man whose health his girlfriend was watching deteriorate "in horror" during these years:



"To the best of my knowledge you have to be specifically tested for HIV. No random team medical test do."

teams don't simply issue "random" medical tests. in signing a player, medical tests are a stipulation. you're about to pay millions and millions of dollars for a player (alomar made over $76mm in his career. in 2003 alone, the mets paid him $8mm), you're going to ensure that you're getting a healthy player. you don't pay $8mm a season and cross your fingers and say "we hope he's ok! maybe sometime down the season, we'll give him a random medical test". you're going to make the contract contingent on a complete physical. apparently, alomar passed all the physicals.

secondly, all of these players are insured. when they go on the DL and cost the team millions, for example, the teams file a disability insurance claim with the insurer. ever wonder why player contracts are filled with "dangerous activities" clauses? because if the player engages in certain activities, then they can't get insured. these are incredibly valuable investments on behalf of the team and they're insured to high heaven. you don't think an insurance company, in insuring a player for millions, is going require a full range of tests first? how did magic johnson actually discover he had HIV? "Johnson discovered his condition when he tried to obtain life insurance and tested positive on the compulsory HIV test conducted by Lakers team doctor Dr. Michael Mellman". so the Lakers had a compulsory HIV test in 1991, but the white sox, indians, mets never had anything of the sort in 2002-2005, right? after the magic johnson incident, most teams probably didn't get on board with mandatory HIV testing, right? after all, these are multi-million dollar investments, who often incur cuts or abrasions, and often sharing close quarters. why bother with HIV testing right?

"Early in the evening of October 25, as I walked into the offices of Dr. Michael Mellman, a Los Angeles Laker team physician and one of my personal doctors, I was more curious than worried. I had been rejected for a life-insurance policy that the Lakers had tried to purchase.."

you're saying a $76 million dollar athlete, who played consecutively for 16 seasons, as recently as 2004, for 7 different teams, was never subjected to a mandatory HIV/AIDS test from either the team or the insurance company and that such results never revealed themselves in any testing from the team and/or insurance company? this guy, reportedly during his playing years, was turning into a purple-skinned, foamy-mouthed, fatigued creature and yet in 2002, managed to hang in for 590 ABs and in 2003 516 ABs, all while managing to keep his apparently visible and grotesque condition a complete secret from the insurance companies and the teams. as i said, it could be true but a lot of things don't seem to add up.

rudy.

[kingjammy24]

I don't believe team medical tests include HIV testing in any professional sports. If I remember correctly, Magic was diagnosed as part of his testing for his life insurance not a team required test.

from Sports Illustrated:

"Early in the evening of October 25, as I walked into the offices of Dr. Michael Mellman, a Los Angeles Laker team physician and one of my personal doctors, I was more curious than worried. I had been rejected for a life-insurance policy that the Lakers had tried to purchase ..."

it was a test required by the insurance company for a policy that the team had tried to purchase for johnson.

rudy.

[Mr.3000]

You know as much as I do right now Jammy....nothing more than what the article says...and all from her perspective.

We'll all have to sit and wait to see how this unfolds. And see what Alomar's response is...if and when he makes one either personally or through his attorney.

Until then all the pictures in the world and all the assumptions and or speculation don't make anything more or less factual.

[emann]

Jammy-

If you have the desire to Google past what I just did, feel free. But I found this from 1996 (4? years after Magic)...

"Most major sports organizations in this country - including professional basketball, baseball, football and hockey, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the U.S. Olympic Committee - have policies concerning HIV and AIDS awareness and infection-control standards. However, none plans to institute mandatory testing because it might be challenged on civil-libertarian grounds. National Football League players do not have to leave the field if they are bleeding, but professional basketball and hockey players do."

I didn't elaborate but as said above it is a privacy issue for HIV testing. Magic was probably an exception to the rule in that he got tested by the Lakers. I'm still relatively certain that no sport has a mandatory test. Baseball isn't a contact sport and the players have a very strong union, so I'm sure MLB has even interest to fight for testing (and we've seen how slow to test for other things they've been) than the NFL. This means if Alomar didn't want to be tested- he would not be tested. The article says he only found out because he fell very ill and needed a spinal tap. They allege to have determined he had HIV as a result of that.

I took the comment about him being raped basically as a tactic used in the lawsuit to humiliate him and make a comment regarding his sexual disfunction (and possibly his sexual orientation). Either way, it was low class to include that in the suit...

The pics you posted mean nothing as to his health status.

[suicide_squeeze]

Incredibly bad news.

But one has to wonder about his personal life......his sexual orientation is at question now, obviously.

Don't start throwing the ignorance card at me. I'm fully aware there are a zillion ways to obtain this desease that's not involving sex of any kind. I'm not the one questioning it, just stating that it WILL be questioned.

It's just too weird that he would have said what he said to his girlfriend if there wasn't some other kind of sexual connection with men. Being "raped" by "two Mexican men" is not something you just openly tell someone. He's obviously covering up something else. I guess maybe in time it will come out.....or not. Whatever the reality is, any time you hear something like this, it's really sad.

I remember (umpire) Hirschback telling a few sources at the spitting incident that Alomar had said to him "You're just bitter because your kid is dead" (referring to the fact that Hirschback has lost a child at an early age)......a brutal thing to say to anyone under ANY circumstances.

If that is true, then I guess karma is what they say it is......truly a bitch.

[raider1088]

i remember a few years back when the story about mike piazza being gay was going around,which obviously was false.but there was also a story going around at the same time that there was a player on the east coast who played in the majors that was gay. alot of people were mentioning robbie alomars name.like i said there is no way to ever verify that but i find it interesting that this lawsuit comes out now and is said to have happen around when that story was making it's rounds back then.

[mr.miracle]

My neighbors best friend used to date Roberto Alomar when he played for the Orioles in 96 & 97. I think they dated for about 2 years. She never indicated anything off but who knows.

[suicide_squeeze]

My neighbors best friend used to date Roberto Alomar when he played for the Orioles in 96 & 97. I think they dated for about 2 years. She never indicated anything off but who knows.

I can only imagine how she'll feel when she finally gets word and reads this news.....

[kingjammy24]

I'm still relatively certain that no sport has a mandatory test. Baseball isn't a contact sport and the players have a very strong union, so I'm sure MLB has even interest to fight for testing (and we've seen how slow to test for other things they've been) than the NFL. This means if Alomar didn't want to be tested- he would not be tested...
The pics you posted mean nothing as to his health status.

whether or not the MLB or team tested, there's still the issue of the insurance company testing. magic got tested as a requirement for life insurance. alomar had no insurance taken out on him by any team?

anyway, i think it's interesting that she's suing for $15 million for "AIDS phobia". she didn't contract anything yet simply the emotional distress of "AIDS phobia" is worth $15 million. the lawsuit says she learned of it in early february 2006. she filed the suit in late january 2009, almost 3 years after she suffered such a traumatic experience.

as for anyone who brings up the hirschbeck incident, i'll assume that you know what hirschbeck said to alomar first to provoke that reaction. there are some widely accepted ideas and alomar only confirmed it to be a "racial slur". if the lip-readers out there are right then hirschbeck got the least of it. i'll also assume that you're over the age of 12 and have progressed enough as a human being to understand that AIDS isn't "karma" for spitting on someone 10 years prior.

rudy.