A general manager was discussing the free agent market. “Timing is everything,” he said. “Imagine if the Yankees had all that money to spend and had this market.”

Exactly one year ago this week, Friday, Dec. 18 to be precise, the Yankees signed CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. Nineteen days later, Jan. 6, they signed Mark Teixeira. No one knew it, but in that brief time they set themselves on the way to their latest World Series championship.

Obviously, the Yankees needed more to go right for them than good performances from Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira, but their signing, for a total of $423.5 million, served as the catalyst for the Yankees’ return to championship status.

But what if, as the general manager suggested, this year’s free agent class had been last year’s?

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Roberto Alomar is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, and what memory does his name evoke? Not his .300 career batting average, not his combined .814 on-base and slugging percentages, not his 2,724 hits, not his 10 Gold Gloves in an 11-year stretch or his four Silver Sluggers or his presence on 12 consecutive All-Star teams.

No, none of those. Those achievements will determine whether or not Alomar is elected to the Hall but so will the event that is best remembered from the second baseman’s 17-year career.

It occurred on Sept. 27, 1996, three days before the end of the season, in the first inning of Baltimore’s game at Toronto. John Hirschbeck, the home plate umpire, called Alomar out on strikes, Alomar vehemently disagreed, a heated argument ensued and Alomar spat in Hirschbeck’s face. It was an ugly scene, and it was a rare response by a player in a dispute with an umpire.

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Marvin Miller was surprised. “I got seven votes?” he responded incredulously when I told him Monday morning that once again he had not been elected to the Hall of Fame. His non-election did not surprise him; he had expected that outcome of the veterans committee vote. In fact, he didn’t want to be elected. He hadn’t even wanted to be on the ballot.

But he was surprised that his vote total had risen to seven from three two years ago.

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