Flashback Friday: Roberto Alomar’s Tomahawk Chop

This weekend, Roberto Alomar will finally make his long awaited debut in Cooperstown when he will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Alomar’s career was a veritable highlight reel in its own as he was the quintessential five-tool player. Strangely enough though, aside from his home run off Dennis Eckersley from the 1992 ALCS, I had a tough time trying to find another single standout moment from Alomar’s career.

Luckily, after a little bit of research and soul searching, I found one. For this week’s Acid Flashback Friday, we take a look back at Roberto Alomar’s infamous tomahawk chop from Game 3 of the 1992 World Series.

The Tomahawk Chop was (and still is) the rally cry of the Atlanta Braves, and thus is was very prominent during their 1992 run to the World Series. Perhaps it should have been renamed the “Toma-mock Chop” as the Blue Jays used it to taunt the Braves in back to back victories.

After capturing Game 2 in Atlanta, the Blue Jays returned home to the Skydome with the series tied at 1-1. The game remained tied at 2-2 going into the bottom of the ninth with Braves starter Steve Avery coming back out to pitch the ninth.

Roberto Alomar lead off the inning and immediately made an impact by singling through the left side of the infield to put the go-ahead run on base. Joe Carter was the next batter, and on a 2-0 count, Alomar bolted to second and picked up the stolen base.

Now with Alomar in scoring position, Bobby Cox opted to give Carter the free pass and called for the intentional walk. The Blue Jays had runners on first and second, nobody out, and their cleanup man Dave Winfield coming to the plate.

Winfield sacrificed and laid down a bunt to advance Alomar and Carter up to second and third base, and put the winning run 90 feet away. The next batter, Ed Sprague walked to load the bases and Candy Maldonado delivered the final blow to the Braves with a single to right-centre field.

Roberto Alomar trotted home from third base to cross the plate and help the Blue Jays walk-off with Game 3 and take a 2-1 lead in the World Series. But Alomar didn’t just scamper home, on the way down the third base line he saluted the hometown crowd with a tomahawk chop of his own.

Just to add a little salt into the wounds, after the Blue Jays won the World Series, during the celebrations at the Skydome, Roberto Alomar brought out a wooden tomahawk and said something to the effect of “I stole the chop” (thanks to @Avesprini for that one).

For more Roberto Alomar career highlights, check out Chris Jaffe’s piece over at the Hardball Times.