When Roberto Alomar was first eligible for the Hall of Fame, for the 2010 class, he missed by eight votes. He made it the next year with 87 more votes than he needed. It was fairly clear that some voters had decided to make Alomar wait a year as punishment for the worst transgression of his career: spitting on an umpire in 1996.
On Friday, Commissioner Rob Manfred made a decision on Alomar that had no time parameters. After reviewing an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the Hall of Fame infielder, Manfred placed him on the ineligible list — not for a year, not for a decade, just “ineligible,” a sentence that amounts to a lifetime lockout of an all-time great.