Nomar to Retire as a Red Sox

[blumj]

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/


The Red Sox will be holding a press conference at 10:30 here in Fort Myers for Nomar Garciaparra to announce his retirement from baseball.

Garciaparra is expected to sign a one-day minor-league contract with the team then also announce that he's taken a job with ESPN.

[Eric_the_Red]

One of my favorite players. Sadly, I think he is a prime suspect for PED use, but I'll always remember him as "Nomah Garciapahrah".

[_Sir_Charles_]

I just read the article on ESPN about Nomar...they actually have a poll on there asking if Nomar is a Hall of Famer? This stunned me that they would even put that in there. There are people really considering this? I don't think he's even a FRINGE HoF'er. Does anybody here think he belongs?

[oneupper]

Nomar Pre-Juice?

http://cdn.bleacherreport.com/images_root/slideshows/195/slideshow_19596/display_image.jpg?x=861563

Been working out?

http://cdn.bleacherreport.com/images_root/slideshows/195/slideshow_19595/display_image.jpg?x=271263

[blumj]

I just read the article on ESPN about Nomar...they actually have a poll on there asking if Nomar is a Hall of Famer? This stunned me that they would even put that in there. There are people really considering this? I don't think he's even a FRINGE HoF'er. Does anybody here think he belongs?

Not even Red Sox fans think he's close. I can't imagine he'll be very good on tv, either.

[westofyou]

http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/pierce/2010/03/hello_goodbye.html



Hello, goodbye

I am not opposed to Nice Happy Time Moments, per se. But that whole Nomar Garciaparra comedy show this morning stretches my inner Fred Rogers to the breaking point. Here's a guy, coming back for a one-day dumbshow so that he "can retire as a Red Sock," because that, apparently, has been a dream of his since shortly after he realized he couldn't get around on a major-league fastball any more. This is a guy whose presence in the Red Sox clubhouse lingered like a case of cholera for two years before they finally shipped him out of town, who openly loathed the team, but who, apparently having been visited last night by his Guardian Angel Clarence, now has decided that, glorioski, this was the bestest place he ever played.

I sincerely hope that, one day, Manny Ramirez, with whom the Red Sox won two more World Series championships than they did with Garciaparra, is struck by a similar revelation. If it happens, I'm sure the Red Sox will indulge him the same way. Yes, and I am the Tsar of all the Russias.


http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/03/11/in_historically_bad_taste_here/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Red+Sox+News


Great player.

Total fraud.

Welcome home, Nomie.

I hate to be the fly in the punch bowl here, but yesterday’s lovefest involving Nomar Garciaparra and the Red Sox was truly nauseating. If Nomar had been hooked up to a polygraph, the machine would have exploded.

Truly unbelievable. There was Nomar, seated between Larry Lucchino and Theo Epstein, telling us how much he always loved the Red Sox, how much he loved the Nation.

Gag me. This was like watching Paul McCartney holding hands with Yoko Ono, telling us how much he always loved John Lennon’s wife — in a pathetic effort to sell some product, of course.

[George Anderson]

Trivia

Please don't look it up.

Why did Nomar's parents name him Nomar?

[Chip R]

Trivia

Please don't look it up.

Why did Nomar's parents name him Nomar?


It's Ramon backwards?

[George Anderson]

It's Ramon backwards?

Bingo.

His dad's name is Roman, they reversed the name for some backwards reason.

[M2]

Bingo.

His dad's name is Roman, they reversed the name for some backwards reason.

No, if his dad's name was Roman, his name would be Namor, which would make him the Submariner.

http://www.samruby.com/Heroes/Submariner/Submariner.gif

Actually, there IS a bit of a resemblance, but his dad was named Ramon.

Anyway, most Sox fans I know really liked Nomar when he was in town. I'm sure there's a clan of sports call-in types who have ginned up resentment over imagined slights, but Nomar did great things in a Boston uniform. During those years he was one of the most exciting players I ever saw play the game. He'll be fondly remembered in Boston for the most part.

[lollipopcurve]

.372

Kinda ungodly for a RH bat.

He was real good about signing autographs before games too.

[Eric_the_Red]

well, I know two Sox fans that will always love Nomar:
http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20051012&content_id=1247231&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

[Chip R]

well, I know two Sox fans that will always love Nomar:
http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20051012&content_id=1247231&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

Before I clicked on that, I thought you might be referring to the Boston Kids skit on SNL. NO-MAHHHH!

[M2]

One other quick thing to note, Nomar hit the wall at age 30, which is fairly common for shortstops. It's almost like 30 is when the SS magic deserts them and they turn back into pumpkins. Even guys who go on to play a long time at other positions, like Robin Yount and Ernie Banks, were effectively done as shortstops by age 30. If anything, Nomar reflects a fairly typical SS career path.

[klw]

Nomar will also be remember as the guy who before being traded by the Sox turned down an extension offer of 4 yrs and $60million only to play only 5 more years and earn $33. 3 million over that time. Nice 27.7 million dollar oops. (Made 1 mil in year 5, 32.3 in 4 years which would have been covered by the extension) Kind of makes Johnny Damon's turning down the Yankees offer look not so bad.

[RedsBaron]

I am not an advocate for inducting Nomar into the HOF, but it wouldn't shock me if decades from now he would be inducted.
His Hall of Fame Monitor score is 112, above the 100 score of the average member of the HOF, although not above the 130 level where pretty much everybody who either did not bet on the game or who wasn't strongly suspected to have used PEDs has been inducted (yeah, I know about the rumors of Nomar using PEDs, but who knows how important those rumors will be years from now).
He retires with a lifetime batting average of .313, with an OBP of .361, a SLG of .521, 229 HRs and 936 RBI. He had four consecutive seasons early in his career where his triple crown stats line went: .306 30 98, .323 35 122, .357 27 104, and .372 21 96. He won two batting titles. He was a multi-times all star.
Has Nomar posted those stats during the 1960s he would probably be in the HOF today. It is hard to say how impressed media voters may be by those stats when he is still on the ballot during the late 2020s, or what may happen to the Veterans Committee. Remember, Bid McPhee made the HOF a mere century or so after he retired.

[Tom Servo]

Brian Giles also retired.

[Roy Tucker]

Don't it always seem to go,

That you don't know what you've got till it's gone.