On a bright sunny day in Goodyear, Sandy Alomar Jr. dialed it back to remember former teammate, five-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove Award winner Tony Fernandez who passed away at the age of 57. Alomar Jr. shared "he was a pleasure to be around, great teacher, very religious so he was mentally strong and helped a lot of the young guys." Fernandez played in the league for 17 seasons including one with the Indians in 1997. In Cleveland, he will be remembered as the one who sent the Indians to the World Series with a game-winning home run in the top of the 11th inning in game 6 of the 1997 ALCS.
As the Indians get ready for the upcoming season, Roberto Perez is making new friends and learning from veteran Sandy Leon. Leon was traded to the Indians in December in exchange for minor-league pitcher Adenys Bautista. Leon, appeared in 65 games for the Red Sox last season, hitting .192 with five home runs and 19 RBI. In parts of eight seasons with Washington and Boston, Leon has a .221 career batting average and a .615 OPS. Roberto is trying to learn as much as possible from him and noted "He's a veteran, he's been in the game for a long time, and he won a championship and has been on good teams." He continued "We are just trying to get along, it’s gonna be a long season [and] we have Sandy on our side, we are just excited to get going."
First full squad workout of the spring to happen tomorrow at the Indians Spring Training Complex.
Catch all of my Spring Training Updates online, on-air and on social.
Follow me on Twitter: @Michael_Picha
Follow WTAM1100: @WTAM1100