Almonte was 18. While in the National Amateur Baseball Federation (NABF) wood-bat summer league, he played for Youth Service. There had been some reports that Almonte would be selected in the 2006 Major League Baseball Draft, though this did not happen. He attended a Major League tryout in October 2006. After the draft he said he would play baseball for New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, New Mexico. The team made it to the National Junior College championship game in 2007. Later that year, Almonte joined the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League, an independent minor-league circuit—and thus forfeited his NCAA collegiate eligibility. He pitched his first game on May 27, 2007, against the Evansville Otters. The Miners lost, 3–2. He was released on June 30, 2007. Almonte's record was 0–1, with a 5.29 ERA in six appearances. By at least one account, his poor performance was due to his being out of shape at the time. In fall 2007, Almonte enrolled as a freshman in Western Oklahoma State College, a community college in Altus, Oklahoma, where he pitched and played right field for the Pioneers. Almonte and the Pioneers were ranked fourth in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division 2 poll and advanced to the NJCAA D-2 World Series. Almonte finished as one of the top hitters in JUCO baseball, hitting .497 with fourteen home runs and going 7–1 with one save as a pitcher. In his second year at the school, Almonte hit .472, with eighteen home runs, and had a pitching record of 9–0. Despite those statistics, however, he was not selected by any Major League Baseball organization in the Rule 4 draft. Forced to give up pitching due to a sore arm, Almonte played semi-pro baseball in the summer of 2009 as an outfielder. As of 2010, Almonte had returned to the Bronx, where he was serving as a volunteer assistant coach for his high school alma mater's baseball team. At that time, he was reportedly no longer with his wife, though he would not discuss details of the relationship. Almonte indicated an intent to return to semi-pro baseball that summer, after the end of the school year, but said that he no longer held expectations of some day playing in the Major Leagues. In popular culture The episode "Foul Play" of the legal drama series Law & Order was inspired by Almonte's story.