Second to None: The Roberto Alomar Story

Since earning his PhD from the University of Waterloo in 1992, Andrew Thomson has taught Canadian history at several universities, most often at Wilfrid Laurier University. For the past 16 years, he has created and taught a wide range of Canadian history courses from the history of French Canada to Canadian business history. Dr. Thomson has written for The Dictionary of Canadian Biography and been a guest lecturer at Kitchener Public Library’s Ideas and Issues series. He has recently been an active instructor in the Lifelong Learning program at Wilfrid Laurier. Dr. Thomson is also the Academic Reviewer for the Business History section of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada and also works with the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier.

Globe and Mail reporter Stephen Brunt’s biography of Toronto Blue
Jay’s second baseman Roberto Alomar benefits a great deal from
Brunt’s obvious talents as a writer, but in the end it suffers from
the problems associated with attempting the biography of someone who is
only 24 years old.

Brunt constructs his biography around the events of the 1992 postseason
success that led the Blue Jays to their first World Series championship.
Descriptions of important plays in the playoff and World Series games
are supplemented by flashbacks to Alomar’s youth and early baseball
career. The book concludes with a detailed summary of the final game of
the 1992 World Series and Alomar’s role in it.

Second to None is strongest in recounting the events of the games. This
is not surprising, given Brunt’s background as one of Canada’s
foremost sports reporters; his descriptions of the plays and players
sparkle. The book is less effective in detailing Alomar’s youth, but
the impression emerges of a young man obsessed with baseball and
committed to following in the footsteps of his father, a successful
major leaguer. Alomar’s years as a minor leaguer in the San Diego
Padres system are dealt with briefly and serve primarily to show the
development of Alomar’s work ethic as a ball player.

Although Alomar’s continuing success underlines how quickly books of
this genre become outdated, Brunt’s abilities lift Second to None
above the level of most athlete biographies.