Late Nineties Mets Short Stop: Manny Alexander (1997)

Manuel de Jesus Alexander was Born on March 20, 1971 in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. He was signed at the age of 17 by the Baltimore Orioles in 1988. 

Alexander spent fourteen seasons in the minors throughout his career with brief call ups to the majors debuting in 1992. He was not known for hitting but being a fine defensive shortstop, voted the #39 top prospect by Baseball America in 1992. 

He didn’t see much action at short for the Orioles as Cal Ripkens back up so he played over at second base, third base & occasional outfield in his Orioles years (1992-1996). In Spring Training of 1997, he was sent to the New York Mets for Hector Ramirez.
Alexander debuted in the Mets second game of the year in San Diego as a defensive replacement for Carlos Baerga. He also got a single in the 9th inning in a game the Mets lost in extra innings. He would play in 54 games for the Mets at second base & short stop making four errors posting a .980 fielding %. He hit stole 11 bases hit 2 HRs with 9 doubles 3 triples 15 RBIs while batting .248.

One of his biggest days at the plate was in Colorado on May 6th, when he had three hits & an RBI in the Mets 12-11 loss in a game that had 34 hits combined by both teams. Then in early July he had another three hit day in Atlanta helping the Mets to a 10-7 win. First he hit a solo HR off John Smoltz in the 8th inning bringing the Mets to within a run. Then in the 9th he tripled, scoring Carl Everett breaking the tie & then scoring on Edgardo Alfonzo’s hit. On August 14, 1997 he was the player to be named later in a deal with the Chicago Cubs which sent Lance Johnson to Chicago for Brian McRae, Mel Rojas and Turk Wendell.

Alexander would go on to play two seasons with the Cubs, then go to Boston in 2000 but had his career derailed when illegal seroids were found in his car. He returned to the big leagues four years later with Texas, then he moved on to San Diego ending his MLB career in 2006 batting .231 with 293 hits 50 doubles 12 triples 15 HRs 115 RBIs in 37 stolen bases in 593 games over 11 seasons.

In 2008 Alexander player in the Italian baseball League (Serie A1) & hit .331 for Rimini. Rimini is located on the Adriatic Sea in the province of Emilia-Romagna. It is one of largest seaside resorts in Europe & is known as the Miami of Europe. He also played in the 2009 European Cup baseball tournament.