Royals Faithful Boo Return Of Alomar

Roberto Alomar heard boos, starting from the moment he was introduced.

Jeff King heard cheers, for his home run, double and final, winning fly ball.

Alomar made his return to baseball after a five-game spitting suspension, but the Baltimore second baseman was gone by the time the Kansas City Royals won their home opener 6-5 Monday on King’s sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.

Alomar went 2 for 3 and, still hobbled by a badly sprained ankle, left for a pinch-runner in the eighth.

It was Alomar’s first official game of the season. He was suspended for spitting in umpire John Hirschbeck’s face last September, but the penalty was delayed through the end of the 1996 regular season and playoffs.

A crowd of 40,052 booed Alomar during introductions and each time he came to bat.

Pesky out of dugout

In a break with tradition that rivals the departure of Roger Clemens and a new billboard above the famed Green Monster, the Boston Red Sox have banished longtime coach and goodwill ambassador Johnny Pesky from the dugout.

The 77-year-old former shortstop known to generations as “Mr. Red Sox” was told by the team he can continue to hit grounders during fielding practice, but then he must change out of his uniform and watch the game from the press box.

“It hurts me quite a bit, to be honest with you,” Pesky told The Boston Globe in Monday’s editions. “I don’t have much time left and I was hoping they’d let me stay in the dugout. I think some of the players like having me around there.”

“He is a permanent member of the Red Sox. We have an agreement to pay him for the rest of his life. Nobody’s throwing Johnny Pesky out of anywhere,” said former spokesman Dick Bresciani, who saw his own duties change as the Red Sox try to become more corporate.

“It’s not a slap. We want to expand his role. He was getting away from doing a lot of the things he had been doing,” Bresciani said.

Turnstiles clicking

Major league attendance was up 10.1 percent for the first week of the season, the largest increase since the end of the 1995 players’ strike.

The 76 games during the first week drew 2,258,009, an average of 29,711. Through 76 games last year, the average was 26,981.