He sure sounded like a guy headed to retirement after last night's game.


I sometimes marvel at how quickly a guy who was absolutely beloved in Boston dropped completely out of our collective consciousness.

I'll always have a spot in my heart for the guy. It ended badly in Boston for him, but from 1997-2003 he was a force. A force that had some injuries, but a force.

I sometimes marvel at how quickly a guy who appeared to be on a express train to Cooperstown ended up bruised and dazed on the side of the tracks. The fact that he hasn't had Al Reyes killed yet still boggles the mind.

I've always been hoping he'd comeback to the AL 1 year and get a shot to come back to fenway as a visitor and get his well deserved standing ovation.

He was one of the three best shortstops in MLB from 97-2003. But injuries and medications(?) killed his longterm career. he was a sure shot HOFer but now he will fall into the category of a Rick Burleson or Rico Petrocelli, a good, solid infielder who obviously could hit, but not Cooperstown material. Maybe he'll be in the Red Sox HOF but that's about it. As for the farewell ovation, unfortunately for Nomahh, that day, at least in a uniform, has quietly come and gone. Thanks for the memories beautiful!

Nomar being traded was the toughest sports related conversation I ever had with my then 8 year old son. I sure as hell hope history is kind to Nomar. Those were some great years, but the whole era of numbers falls under a cloud right now.

I think he was out of people's minds because the Cub and Dodger games don't get shown much around here. Plus, he was injured. When he played for the Sox, he was fun.
He may be toast.
I'm not sure why he was insulted. I think he may be a little too thin skinned to be a pro player.

I doubt he'll be back with the Dodgers next year. Unless he wants to play a limited role on a lower rung team, he is more than likely finished.

It was tough to watch him play the last couple of years for the Dodgers. He did make the All Star team in his first year with them (2006), but he's just gotten older and more injury prone since then. It's a shame, because he's just a shell of the player he used to be.

Just for kicks, current career lines:

Nomar: .314/.363/.525/.888 - 125 OPS+

CI: .316/.387/.458/.845 - 121 OPS+


BR comparison

Yeah, but that doesn't factor in the intangibles. (Sorry, someone had to say it.)

I still have an enormous reservoir of affection for Nomar. Whether as an opposing player or retiree, he'll make it back to Fenway someday and the place will explode.

I know I'm going to sound harsh, but I don't have a soft spot in my heart for Nomar.

Like Manny, he forced his way out of town by quitting on the team. In Nomar's case, he wanted out because his ego demanded that he be paid top dollar - not sure whether he was looking for A-Rod money, Jeter money, or what. But he wanted more than the 4/60 offer he got in early 2003 and because of how he played it, he ended up never seeing anything close to that kind of money. He also missed out on winning a World Series (or two) and his career fell off a cliff.

When he was here I loved Nomar like no other player. And then I watched him give us all a big FU in 2004 and we ended up winning it without him. And I learned that the opposite of love really is indifference.

At the end of the day, he's not "one of the 25." He's just a former member of the Red Sox who finished his career somewhere else.

My recollection was that he was seeking "Jeter money" because in the 2002/2003 time frame he was putting up basically identical numbers or a bit better (Nomar had an OPS+ of 121 in 2003, Jeter was 125 that year, but 111 the year before). Jeter was being paid $15.6M in 2003, jumping to $18.6M in 2004 - his agents were arguing that the Sox had to come up with a number closer to $18.6M per instead of $15M per. This bothered me as well, as I thought the 4 year/$60M offer was rather generous, given that Jeter was getting paid the "won 4 rings" premium that Nomar couldn't claim.....

Neither do I, and I can't really explain it. Maybe it's was his past outspokenness against drug testing -- http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...distrusts_test/ -- combined with the fact that his performance declined precipitously after drug testing was implemented.

Where did the power go?

Right, except Jeter did that in, what, 2500 more ABs? Biiiiig difference.

Yes, of course. Clearly, Jeter has put up that 121 OPS+ over far more plate appearances. However, looking at counting stats, in those 2500 more ABs, Jeter had:

49 more 2Bs
5 more 3Bs
20 fewer HRs
82 more RBI

I find that pretty interesting.


Jeter also had 850 more Ks, and almost a thousand more BBs (which is partially why the XBH stats are as close as they are) - wow.


Again, just for kicks. What might have been...

My sentiments exactly.

In 1997, Nomar was the only shining light on an otherwise boring Red Sox team. He had 209 hits, winning the RoY, threatening for MVP. In 1998, Pedro came on board and Nomar was even better, coming in 2nd for MVP! By '99, Mo was gone; A changing of the guard..The nucleus for 2004 was getting stronger..Tek was full time catching, Petey was throwing well, Lowe was closing, Trot was mostly full-time in RF, and Nomar was tearing up the league. By '01, with Manny on board, the team seemed destined for greatness. It'd be the worst season since the Pedro came on board, but things got better. The team was sold, and the last few missing pieces were brought on. Johnny, Millar, Schilling, etc.

Nomar had a huge role in the turning around of a ballclub that was 25 players 25 cabs as recently as 1996. Was he selfish in '04? Maybe. Was it his 'quitting on the team' that got him traded? Maybe. In reality, it was that a 30 year old shortstop who was showing signs of losing range. They shored up the infield defense when they traded Nomar for spare parts.

Nomar was a thrill to watch. Aside from Big Papi and Manny at bats, Pedro starts, I don't think you could name a player who was as enjoyable to watch all-around than Nomar at his peak.

It amazes me how much people care about contract status and the final year of a players career with the team. If you consider Nomar's entire Red Sox career, 2004 is a blip. My lasting memory is the end of the 98(or 99?) playoffs where he stood at the top of the steps of the dugout and applauded the fans. I don't think it takes a fanboy to acknowledge the greatness of Red Sox Nomar and his contributions to the team history. There was history before 2004 that's as important as the history we've watched in the last 4-5 years. Nomar should get nothing but a standing-O on his return in any capacity.

I thought he would seriously challenge .400. He did that one year. He should have been a 20+ year Red Sox player. That one damn pitch to the wrist changed everything. I could have sworn hed be HOF and 3000 hits.

That sulking in the dugout in NY still is vivid in my mind. But we dont know what happens in the clubhouse or with management.

The shot of him there just sitting with his arms folded all ticked off.

But I still love the guy.

Hes another in the pile of what could have been if's ....... Just like Tony C. (to a lesser degree obviously but still)

Rick Burleson? Yikes. I think you could argue Rico Petrocelli, but if Nomar's going to be remembered as a Rick Burleson... tough crowd.

You can't help but wonder what would have happened to Nomar had the Sox won Game 7 in '03. Then again, you could say the same for Tito and Schilling as well, at the very least. Kinda funny how things work out.

You forget how great Nomar was because he's been so average and injured for quite a while. It amazes me that he's 35. He had some great years and for a time, I thought he was a lock for the Hall, but it just didn't happen. I wonder if he regrets leaving Boston? He should have been a hero here for longer than he was, and it's kind of sad the way it ended, but that's life.

Of course, none of this had anything to do with "how he played it" and everything to do with getting injured. Moreover, Nomar had missed out on his first mega-payday because he signed a contract extension so early in his career.



What FU did he give all of us? Has he been flipping off the fans of the Cubs and Dodgers with his injuries, too?

Nomar will live on as the poster child of what a broken wrist can do to you. That really did turn out miserably for him, so badly that I wonder whether the doctors who handled it were that competent. In the back of every Red Sox fan's mind when thinking about Papi must be that paranoia that comes from watching Nomar after 2000. He really was never the same except for a half season in 06.


I liked the guy and still do. There's a ton of politics about his departure (let's not forget the Sox tried to fob him off on the White Sox in the A-Rod fiasco) but I don't hate the guy, and I still wish he was playing well. There's certainly not the interest and adoration for Nomar that I have for Pedro, but the guy is a shell of his former self and I don't care how much of a dick he was, that's just not fun to watch.

Why the Hell do you think he could have had 3000 hits? That's crazy.

I swear a ton of posts in this thread left logic at the front door and barged in with fake memories.

Let's just look at the hits... which were Nomar's greatest asset as far as making the Hall Of Fame.

This is Nomar's career:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/garcino01.shtml

He was not a MLB regular until he was 23. Not only that but he missed most of 2001. But let's take it right at at the end of 2003.

He had 1231 hits going into his Age 30 season. He would need to average 177 hits over the next decade to get 3000 and I don't think anyone thought that was going to happen with him.

At the end of the day, the guy had 6 great years, 1 good one and a bunch of hurt/bad seasons mixed in. Mo Vaughn had 6 great seasons with the Sox too... how come we don't weep nostaligic for him too?

Couple of points.

First, I think his injury had a great deal to do with how this turned out. If he's not injured in early 2004, he most likely stays with the team through that year and perhaps they get together on a contract and everything is different. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

Second, the "FU" was the playbook he created (and that Manny apparently followed this year) where he told the front office that if they did not trade him at the deadline in 2004, he might not be available to play all that much for the remainder of the year. In essence, he quit on the team to force a trade. To answer the second part of your question, I'm not aware that he's done this to any other club. But I haven't been paying attention.

In my eyes, the only difference between Manny and Nomar is that Manny came up big for us in the postseason and won two world series and Nomar did not. This is the only reason my memories of Manny are fonder than they are of Nomar.

I think he was saying that he imagined 3,000 hits before Nomar lost almost a full season of his prime. Still a bold prediction for a player at that stage of their career, but it's a little more feasible when you look at ti that way.
Nah, I don't think hits were his #1 HoF resume item. He also played SS (big HoF points right there), hit for decent power, ran well, made highlight-reel plays. He was pretty much a 5-tool player in the early stages of his career.



Mo Vaughn was healthy until he left for free agency. The injuries set in once he was old and overweight. Nomar is the embodiment of "what could have been", derailed during the prime of his career.

I take it you don't like Nomar.

Captain Intangibles will get 3,000 by the end of 2011 if he can average 162 hits per year over the next 3 seasons. He broke in one year younger than Nomar and they were both on very similar paces through their first four years. At the end of the 2000 season (with an assumption that the wrist injury would heal during the offseason), was it really that bold to think Nomar would play until about 38 or 39 and get to 3,000? Of course he'd have had to stay healthy, but I liked his chances back then better than Cappy Jeets'.

2 questions:

1. So, do you think he was making up the fact that he was injured?
2. How do you square this with the fact that he missed more than one-third of the Cubs games post trade deadline with injuries?

It was that bold. Here's why.

First off, a year makes a HUGE difference when a guy is 21 or 22.

Secondly, you were ready to say a guy was going to get 3,000 hits after 4 seasons? Really?

Are you still stunned with how Vada Pinson's career ended up? Do you walk around wondering what happened?

As far as hating Nomar...I didn't hate him at all. It was obviously his time to go when he did but I enjoyed his time here. As someone who enjoys baseball history, the idea that someone could he would have 3,000 hits and make the HOF after 6 full seasons is insane to me.

That's a nice start right there, but I think there's a good bit more to the difference between them.

Nomar was never exactly loveable as a persona, and I think that got worse with him over time. By contrast, we all knew there were "issues" with Manny, but he had a loveable stage presense that Nomar never had. Manny was exasperating without a doubt too, but still endearing.

And about the postseason performance issue: in fairness, the '98 and '99 ALDS Nomar WAS an absolute terror. By 2003, however, he was clearly bothered by something in the playoffs (the old wrist injury?), and was looking like a shadow of himself. Unlike Papi, Manny, Trot and a few others back then, there was NO sense that Nomar was going to do damage during his playoff AB's that year. Nomar does not sit in memory as a major character in any of the great 2003 RS playoff games, on a team that history tells us was the lead up to the 2004 WS Champion Boston Red Sox. Not one of the 25? In memory, Nomar seems to be barely part of the "almost" 25 who led up to the "ultimate" 25.

After recalling his 2003 playoff performance, you then add in the memory of Nomar in the last marquee game he played with the Red Sox, that dreadful "Jeter into the stands" game in the Toilet. Here Nomar followed up his disappearing act on the field with a disappearing act right off the field.

So when you contrast Nomar with Manny, it's not JUST that Manny was a postseason legend while Nomar was not. It's a good ways worse than that. Starting with the 2003 postseason, Nomar showed up terrifically small at a time when the franchise had put a team on the field capable of winning a world title - for the first time in almost 20 yrs. What a legacy that is, huh?

Nomar was a great player for a while, but without anything to endear him to the fan base other than his great play. He leaves no legacy beside that behind him. It gets him a standing O as a part time player on the Mariner bench in 2009, and that's about it.

To be fair, we would remember Nomar's triple (and run scored on a bad throw) in the top of the 7th of game 6 in '03 as a really major turning point if game 7 had turned out the right way. At that moment, the Sox were trailing by 2 and seemed totally lifeless, having not scored for three innings. I remember feeling really positive about the Sox chances of winning game 6 only after Nomar scored that run. So Nomar did have at least one big play in what I feel is a great '03 playoff win.

Like everyone, I know for a fact that he was injured that year. Hell, he only played 38 games for the Sox.

I also know that Theo said at the time he was traded that they had decided to keep Nomar until his agent came to him and indicated that if he was going to be staying, he would need more time off down the stretch. Theo went into to trading mode and made the move. Interestingly, when the Cubs talked to him to confirm his health, he did not mention anything about needing significant time off.

After the trade, he played 43 games out of 61 for the Cubs. (70% - As I said, I didn't pay that much attention, so I had to check.) He didn't quite miss "more than one-third" but I do acknowledge your larger point here.

Not really trying to make a big thing about it. I guess the last thing I'll say here is that I don't think of Nomar as fondly as you do. Apologies if you find this upsetting.

..and he also hit a wall ball double to start the big rally in Game 4 of the ALDS - though we tend to remember the Big Papi double over Jermaine Dye's head as the big moment.

I remember that in Game 5 Nomar hit a ball to that very high wall in LCF in Oakland, and I was sure it was gone or off the wall - and it was caught on the warning track. I remember thinking that there had to be something wrong - because his whole career Nomar never had "warning track power." He remains a footnote in the 2003 playoff run.

If you're going to compare Nomah and Jeter, you have to consider their home parks, too. Nomah's numbers wouldn't have been as outstanding early in his career with Yankee as his home park.
That said, Nomah was a ferocious line drive machine before his wrist injury...he could line the ball out of the park to all fields. He couldn't do that after the wrist injury (not a break, but a split tendon). He actually hit .372 WITH the bad tendon, but it flared up with a vengeance later. He was also mixing in more and more walks with his increasing averages, but those disappeared, too.
Nomah always struck me as self-centered and not much of a team guy, but that doesn't bother you as much when a guy is super talented. When the talent's gone...so long, loser.

If Nomar does retire, we do have to send him some love from RSN. His first six years in the majors were symphonic - as good as any initial six years of a career since T. Williams. The wrist injury obvious was the turning point for him. I still do wonder, however, given the infamous SI cover picture, if he ever did juice up. When I first saw Nomar playing for the Orleans Cardinals back in the early 1990's, his body type was Gary Geiger-like.

Harsh, dude, harsh.

Numbers, injuries, and his '04 immolation aside, you can't deny that Nomar was the first Sox superstar in years (since Yaz?) who embraced all things Red Sox. From applauding the crowd after getting eliminated in '98 (that was 10 years ago - whoa) to his relationships with Ted & Pesky, Nomar was the All-American Kid who played his ass off and did it with a smile and LOVED being a Red Sox. You didn't have the bullshit baggage & ego that came with Roger & Mo, or the whininess that came with Greenwell, Val, and a host of others, or a couple of years later, the diva aspect of Pedro or the vacant aloofness of Manny.

And he was a complete character himself in his own way... the weird name, all the goofy, neurotic OCD shit, the body of a perfect athletic specimen topped off with the nose of Gonzo... Nomar was to Jeter as Fenway was to the Terlet - you could argue which one was better but it was obvious which one was more interesting and which one had more soul.

As for his change in attitude & the events leading up to his departure, I'd be willing to bet that it's equally the fault of Nomar, the FO, and burn-out from being "NOMAH!" in a major city that feels like a small town (complete with the coffee clatch mentality of the press). Hell, maybe Mia even played some sort of Yoko-type role - who knows and, ultimately, who cares?

My favorite quote from the Nomar era comes from Slappy, of all people. I think it was during the '99 All Star Game - ARod had a concussion (?) and couldn't play, so Fox stuck him in the booth and asked him for his take on the Big 3:

"Jeter's the richest, I'm the youngest, and Nomar's the best."

Not true (and pretty funny in hindsight), but during the waning days of the Yawkey Era, that was so refreshing to hear... I mean, it sure beat putting all your eggs in Troy O'Leary's basket, right?

To make a really bad analogy, Nomar was Anakin. By leaving the fold, they both wound up bringing balance to The Force.

I haven't really missed him since he got traded, but the single-most depressing moment for me this post-season wasn't watching Manny being a six-tool player, and it wasn't the beaten up Sox losing Game 7... it was seeing the 35 year old, slightly thicker-in-the-middle Nomar pinch hit with two out in the 9th and doing exactly what everyone expected him to do - popping out to end the Dodgers' season.

Nomar was the last Sox superstar to toil in futility. For a team with such a rich and scrutinized history, that's gotta mean something.

Thats a fantastic post Greg on so many levels. You really capture the Nomar experience here, and do so touching on the Boston experience pre titletown. (I absolutely agree he burned out on being NOMAH!! I bet he regrets that now) I for one soured on him on his departure, (he paved the way for Manny in that regard) but there is no denying what a special player he was before it all went bad. Circa 1998 I used to tell people that I wouldn't be surprised if Garciaparra hit .400 or bashed 60 home runs. At the time I wasn't laughed at.

There is not a single HOF-eligible player who (a) began his career after 1900, (b) had at least 5000 career ABs, and © finished with a better career BA than Nomar's current mark. Yes, that's cherry-picking. A few players with higher BAs had 4000+ ABs, and two active players who aren't HOF locks (Todd Helton and Ichiro) are likely to finish with better career BAs than Nomar. And while sophisticated fans (a group that includes most SoSHers) know BA is overrated, the triple-crown-loving old guard will continue to hold sway at BBWAA for many more years.

My point isn't to argue that Nomar is as worthy as eligible non-inductees like Ron Santo, Dick Allen and Tim Raines, but to point out that Nomar may get substantial HOF support. Hell, he wouldn't be a worse selection than Bruce Sutter.

I don't understand where this comes from, as I remember Nomar as a guy that wouldn't talk personal stats with the press as he didn't want to take away from the team, etc etc. I always considered him the anti-Boggs.

I think he threw a lot of that sentiment away with his attitude/actions during his last year. One of the lasting memories I have of Garciaparra is him sulking in the dugout while Jeter was tossing himself into the stands to make a catch in Yankee stadium. I was a HUUUUGE Nomar fan unil that last season. I still have a bad taste in my mouth about that and its probably why I went bananas this year when Ramirez pulled a similar stunt.

Looking back I'm certain Nomar has regrets about how things unfolded in 2003 and 2004. He was a GOD at one time here.

I don't understand the harshness of your reaction. Going back to pre-2003, I don't see what's so "crazy" at all about thinking that Nomar could play 10 more years, gathering around 190-200 hits/year over the first 5 and 165-170 or so for the 5 after that. The guy had one of the sweetest swings that I believe many of us have ever seen, even if he didn't have the best plate discipline. He also appeared to have the build to last, which seems a bit humorous now.

Now, we can all wonder how his career may have played out with the Sox and what may have happened with the franchise, but I would have put even money down on the guy becoming a HOF player pre-injury. He certainly had the talent and displayed it for a solid 7-8 years.

If this is the end, it's really a shame that he never got one last ovation at Fenway. He deserved it, even if he and management had a bitter parting.

Yeah, I guess I miss-counted.

It's not even that I remember Nomar all that fondly; I'm pretty ambivalent. And it's not upsetting. I just find your reasons for disliking him curious. I don't know how you square "quit on the team" with knowing that he was really injured.

Career Win Share totals, recent HOF and near-HOF shortstops:

Yount - 423
Ripken - 419
A-Rod - 399 (though he might eventually log more games at third)
Appling - 378
Larkin - 347
Cronin - 333
Banks - 332
O. Smith - 326
Jeter - 320
Trammell - 318
Reese - 314
Aparicio - 293
Boudreau - 277
Vizquel - 267
Rizzuto - 231
Nomah - 218

Like Trammell (who played alongside Yount, Ripken, and Smith) Nomar suffers by comparison: as great as he was, his career is diminished when placed alongside CI and A-Rod. I don't think he cracks the HOF.

That said, I thought Greg's comments were both insightful and eloquent. Whether it was through his own efforts, or merely a matter of timing, Nomar came to represent a change in the culture of the Red Sox.

Kudos on an absolutely outstanding post. You brought back memories for me of when Nomar was basically infallible (at least in my eyes). I remember one offseason, maybe 98 or 99, reading (on a newsgroup) some discussion of the next season's lineup, and in Nomar's place someone just put "God". Another poster responded, "I hope God's as good as Nomar," and the amazing thing is that it was pretty much accurate. He was just incredible to watch.

I also remember when Manny first came to the Sox, and we had the unique treat of watching three superstars, each in the prime of his career, all playing on the same team. Pedro, Nomar, and Manny...wow.

I'll definitely have a soft spot in my heart for Nomar (and Pedro, of course), after all the joy he brought me. I'll probably eventually feel that way about Manny, but it's going to take some time to get over the breakup.

First off, let's be a bit more precise than "HUGE". In the case of Garciaparra and Cappy Jeets it was just about 200 hits.

At the conclusion of Garciaparra's Age 26 season (which, for him, was his 4th year), he had amassed 812 hits. At the same points in their careers (the conclusions of their Age 26 seasons), Wade Boggs had 531 hits and Craig Biggio had 624. At the same point in his career, Pete Rose had 899. So an argument that not getting started until Age 23 categorically precludes a player from reaching 3,000 hits doesn't look like it can be supported.
Gee, I thought my post was pretty clear.

BTW, At the end of the 2000 season, Garciaparra was the only player in MLB history to hit over .300 (.306) in his rookie season and then increase his BA by 15 points or more over the next 3 years (.323, .357, and .372). The anticipation that Garciaparra could accomplish some very special things was pretty widespread among Sox fans back then. By the end of most players' 4th seasons, we know they're not heading to Cooperstown. But this was definitely not the case with Nomar. Of course, he had a long way to go. But he was undoubtedly on the right track.
What I wonder is: Are you interested in a conversation or is being "provocative" is your real focus?

Your memory is a little fuzzy, perhaps. That was not the last marquee game Nomar played for the Red Sox. The last marquee game he played for the team was this little number. Note the PBP in the bottom of the ninth.

I don't think there's any comparison between Manny and Nomar. Manny hated Boston even as he signed to come here, and fought to get out even as he was being paid a king's ransom and winning championships. Nomar showed love for the city, the team and the fans, played his balls off for seven years and made a team chock full of stiffs into a contender. The circumstances of them leaving were comparable but not identical. They were both famously unhappy at the time but in the end Nomar was traded off his team because he was injured, Manny was kicked off his team because he quit on it.

Anyway, I hope he's not done. If he does retire, I hope he becomes a hitting coach.

this and greg blosser's post are spot on.

one of the sad things about being a sports fan are seeing other fans who are in it mostly to be haters. i definitely wouldn't mind being part of an ovation for Nomar in appreciation of some truly thrilling years he contributed. the idea of getting all bent out of shape over his last year, especially when we weren't in teh clubhouse and don't really know what happened, is just lame.

I love Nomar. I loved his zest, and even his aggressiveness. The not-walking was a little annoying, but it was part of his package, and I liked his energy and his aggression. I just never got the sense that he played with fear or reserve, until 2003 or 2004, when it started to go bad.

If he gets 300 more hits, he ends up with just over 2000, and you can start making a Hall of Fame case for him. I prefer peaks to accumulations, and his 6 year peak was amazing. That pitch was a tragedy -- not quite Conigliaro bad, but really bad. He won't ever make it, but he's a better candidate in my mind than most people probably think.

I'll be rooting for him to come back and have a late-career renaissance.

No doubt at all that when he was here, when he was in his prime, he was given the kind of love we now extend to David Ortiz. I do think it was more about where we thought he was going to take us (i.e. to the promised land of a championship)-- and we all did know he was better than Jeter.

Once Nomar was hit with injuries, and yes the change in ownership-- the lack of chemistry there, things were not as special for him here.

I do think my only regret about 2004 (if it were possible to have any) was not having Nomar in the clubhouse, celebrating when we won it all.

How ironic it was that the event that put into motion the circumstances to us over the top was the act of trading him. I was at one the Manchester Bash game with a bunch of SoSHers the night he was traded-- and it was for sure a shocked group.

Back in June I was out in L.A. on business, and went to one of the Dodger-Angels games at Chavez Ravine. Nomar, was very, very popular in L.A.. A ton of 'Garciaparra' shirts in the crowd walking into the stadium. Maybe I was just more sensitive to it because of his history here, but clearly he was appreciated by the Dodger fanbase.

A Dodgers-Red Sox WS would have been a trip down the rabbit hole into bizarro-land.

Manny, Nomar, Lowe, playing in Fenway for the championship against our Sox, and coached by Joe Torre.

I think if Nomar ever comes back to Fenway as a player or otherwise, he gets a huge, huge ovation.

He was so amazing when he was on. He was fantastic against Cleveland in the 1998 ALDS. Nothing but home runs and lasers around the field, it seemed. The Indians were right to be scared of him, very, very scared of him in 1999. His first time up in deciding game 5 against Chuck Nagy (whom the Sox had never hit worth shit), he lined a ball up around his eyes off the centerfield fence. The Indians wanted NOTHING to do with him. You've gotta be pretty fricking terrified of a hitter to IBB him later in a game, give up a 3 run homer to the guy after him and then IBB him again! Again!!!! And give up a slam to the guy behind him. Did you hear a huge chorus of controversy about the Indians IBB'ing Nomar? No. Of course not. He was that great in his prime.

The guy drove me nuts with his approach and he wasn't a good fielder. But, for a while there, when he was at his peak, he was amazing.

But, yeah, he looks done. There was one ball against the Cubs that he hit *right* on the nose and it just went for a medium deep flyout to left. It was sad and surprising to see. '99 Nomar would have put that ball 10 rows deep.