Sandy Alomar Sr.

While I consider myself to be a pretty big Cubs fan, there is still a lot about this franchise and its players and coaches that I continue to learn. Today's ATCRCS card of Sandy Alomar Sr is a perfect example of that.

Prior to making this card, to me, Alomar Sr was merely Sandy and Roberto's dad. Sure, I knew he had been a ballplayer himself but he was done playing before I started following the game. And he had never played for the Cubs so what did that matter?

Well, it mattered in the sense that from 2000-2002, Alomar was the first base coach for the Cubs under manager Don Baylor. I vaguely knew he had coached his sons while in San Diego but I had no idea that after San Diego, he had been a roving minor league instructor for the Cubs for most of the '90s. When Baylor was fired during the 2002 season, Alomar finished out the season but moved onto the Colorado Rockies to be their third base coach in 2003.

I hadn't even really thought about making cards for coaches in the all-time set even though I did make them for last year's team set. Managers, sure, but not coaches. When I saw that Alomar would be helping the Blue Jays in Spring Training this year, and that I was already sending a few things into somebody getting in person autographs at Blue Jays camp, I threw this one in as well.

I haven't made a back yet because I never really thought the coaches/manager cards through. It will probably be similar to what I've been using for the colorized versions of these cards, with a removal of the stats boxes leaving more room for the blurb.

This is the 43rd ATCRCS card I've gotten autographed and my non-player card.