Even now, Sandy Alomar's work throughout Cleveland's 1997 World Series run lingers as sheer magic

Editor's note: This is the final installment of a five-part series looking back 25 years ago at the 1997 World Series.

Even now, one hears it in the crowd when Sandy Alomar is introduced as first base coach.

It can be read in Alomar's 56-year-old face and heard in his timelessly melodic voice.

Cleveland loved Alomar long before and long after 1997. The feeling is mutual.

What Alomar did in 1997 lingers even now as sheer magic.

"1997 was my healthiest season," Alomar says 25 years later. "There were so many injuries earlier in my career. There was a microfracture that could have been the end.

"Sometimes when you're coming back from an injury, you try to make up for lost time, and that can get you in trouble.

"In 1997, I was able to focus."

We wrap up a 25th anniversary remembrance of Cleveland's World Series run in an interview with Alomar. It is a story of adopted home-sweet-home for a fellow who was a Cleveland catcher for 11 years and has been a Cleveland coach for the last 13.

1997 World Series - Part 1:25th anniversary special: Cleveland took 1997 World Series to the end of the line

1997 World Series - Part 2:Cleveland was on the 1997 World Series rocks when Baltimore's Davey Johnson looked like he saw an iceberg

1997 World Series - Part 3:Chad Ogea, who might have been MVP, believed Cleveland would win 1997 World Series

1997 World Series - Part 4:Cleveland's 1997 World Series thrill ride recalled by hometown hero Brian Anderson

Alomar takes deep satisfaction in his journey with the 2022 Guardians, runaway winners of the American League Central.

Brian Anderson, one of the pitchers Alomar caught during the 1997 World Series run, is among those amazed by the current team.

"The 2022 lineup and the 1997 team are not even in the same stratosphere," Anderson told us in a phone conversation from Florida, where he is a TV analyst for the Tampa Rays. "This team is so young. Everybody in the Cleveland Indians' 1997 lineup was a household name. Everybody in the country knew every hitter.

"The Guardians' lineup has been effective, but I'll bet not many people outside of Cleveland know who these guys are."

The Guardians traded their way into the postseason, to a certain extent. Alomar can relate.

Cleveland traded for him in 1990, also obtaining Carlos Baerga and Chris James from San Diego in exchange for slugger Joe Carter. Alomar promptly became 1990 American League Rookie of the Year while playing 132 games.

He averaged just 70 games over the next five seasons amid absences that left Joel Skinner, Junior Ortiz and Tony Pena as everyday catchers.

Alomar got his feet back on the ground in 1996 and ascended to a different place in '97.

In a season-opening road trip, he homered in five straight road games. In the home opener, he pounded four hits to raise his batting average to .581.

Starting before Memorial Day and stretching past the Fourth of July, he produced a 30-game hitting streak.

In the All-Star Game in Cleveland, he homered and was named game MVP.

He finished the regular season with career highs in hits, runs, doubles, home runs, RBIs, batting average and slugging percentage.

The magic lasted into the World Series, although the world almost stopped in an opening playoff series against New York.

Cleveland trailed the Yankees 2-1 with two outs in the eighth inning of Game 4. Mariano Rivera needed four more outs to close out the series three games to one.

Alomar smacked a Rivera slider into the right field seats at Jacobs Field.

"You play baseball to get to the postseason," Alomar says now, "and we were in an elimination game that night.

"To hit a home run there, against one of the best closers in the history of the game, to give your team a chance … that was probably the biggest home run I hit."

It does not stand as his "career moment."

"That came in 1995 when Jim Thome caught that foul ball," Alomar said.

It was Sept. 8, a Friday night, with Baltimore in town. The best crowd of the year wanted to see Cleveland clinch its first postseason spot since 1954, 12 years before Alomar was born.

Jeff Huson popped out to third baseman Thome for the last out in a 3-2 win. The stadium remained full and joyous long after the catch. It was just four years after Cleveland lost 105 games.

"That moment erased a lot of bad memories, a lot of negativity," Alomar said. "All the sacrifices of the early 1990s went into Jim's glove.

"The plan of the 1990s Cleveland Indians bringing in all those kids and signing them to multiyear contracts, and surrounding those kids with the right pieces, went into Jim's glove. I can still see the ball in the air.

"Going back in the clubhouse to put on the division champs T-shirts ... coming back out to raise the pennant … it still seeems unbelieveable I was a part of it.

"Then you go forward to now, and you see the guys who came in the Francisco Lindor trade. Andres Giminez. Amed Rosario … I felt then like those guys feel now."

The 1995 team posted a stunning 100-44 record. It reached the World Series but lost the first two games in Atlanta and eventually fell four games to two.

The 1997 team lost Albert Belle in free agency and traded Kenny Lofton late in spring training.

"When we traded Kenny, it was a shock," Alomar said. "When the organization couldn't sign players long-term, they figured out ways to move guys around and bring in quality players.

"We got David Justice and Marquis Grissom for Kenny. Those guys were winning players, too.

"At the beginning of the '97 season, we were not playing according to our levels, but we caught fire after Jim Thome's birthday."

Thome turned 27 on Aug. 27, a Wednesday night in Anaheim. The team was slogging along with a 67-61 record and a 2 1/2-game lead in the AL Central.

For the first time, all of the players took the field wearing high socks, Thome-style.

A 10-run fourth inning blew the top off the birthday cake. The win launched a 9-2 hot streak.

Alomar smacked three hits on Thome's birthday, in keeping with his season and the playoffs.

"I wasn't nervous at all in the postseason," Alomar said. "I was having a lot of fun."

A week after his epic home run against the Yankees, in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Orioles, the score was 7-7 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Alomar ended it with a gap-shot hit to left-center, scoring Ramirez.

Through five games of the World Series, he was 10 for 23 with two homers and 10 RBIs.

"I tried to focus on doing the necessary, putting the ball in play, as opposed to trying to do too much," Alomar said. "Sometimes when you do the necessary, extraordinary things show up."

The World Series came down to Game 7.

Cleveland spent two hours in good shape, taking a 2-0 lead in the third and still on top, 2-1, in the top of the ninth, with Alomar on third, Thome on first and one out.

A 3-1 lead might have weighed heavily on the Marlins and led to Cleveland's first World Series win since 1948.

Alomar led off third base. Marquis Grissom hit a medium-speed chopper to Edgar Renteria. The shortstop made a chancy pause before deciding to go home. Marlins catcher Charles Johnson fielded a low throw and then raised the tag to the chest of Alomar, who did not slide.

"They were playing halfway," Alomar recalls. "It was shocking to me that they threw to home plate. I felt he would go to second and try to start a double play.

"I went on contact. I looked to see if the throw would beat me by a lot. I'm not the fastest guy in the world.

"I knew it was going to be very difficult because Charles Johnson already had the ball when I was getting close.

"I thought about trying to get in a rundown, but it was too late."

In retrospect, Alomar should have slid, perhaps giving himself a chance to avoid Johnson's tag, maybe enabling him to kick the ball out of Johnson's mitt. Chances are he would have been out anyway.

It would have helped if Grissom, who hit .444 in the 1996 World Series for Atlanta and .360 in the 1997 World Series for Cleveland, had come through one more time. Grissom singled and scored earlier that night. In his previous at-bat, he flew out into the right field corner.

It turned out to be Grissom's last at-bat in his only Cleveland season. It went to the bottom of the ninth with the Cleveland hoping its 2-1 lead was enough.

The Marlins tied it in the ninth and won it in the 11th, 3-2.

"We beat the Yankees, who were an unbelievable team," Alomar said. "We beat the Orioles, who we respected. The Marlins were kind of like us, a Cinderalla team. It was a very exciting World Series.

"Unfortunately, we didn't close the book. But I was so proud of the guys."

On the 25th anniversary of the 1997 World Series, coach Sandy Alomar is a reassuring presence in the latest wave of hope.

The 2022 Guardians are much younger than the 1997 team, but they stormed rather than struggled through September.

"You can have chemistry, but you've got to have talent," said Alomar, who thinks the Guardians have both.

"The culture Tito Francona brings to the organization is something all the kids respect and everyone who comes here adapts to.

"Tito brings us a level of confidence. He lets the coaches do their thing. The players, the front office, everybody is pushing in the same direction.

"There's a lot of good energy in that locker room. It's the best culture in baseball."

Can that culture irrigate one of the epic droughts in sports history?

Cleveland last won a World Series in 1948.

The 1997 team didn't finish the job, but Cleveland's love of Sandy Alomar, and his for Cleveland, is one reason to treat it as a happy anniversary.

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Cleveland's All-Star MVP Sandy Alomar remembers 1997 World Series