A Legend Returns To Fenway
Well boys and girls the time has finally come for the greatest Red Sox of them all to make his triumphant return to Fenway Park. And if there is any justice in this world the cheers will echo through the heavens and wake god himself from his slumber. Now I know lots of you kids out there are probably too young to remember just how great Nomar was, but in my mind he is still the best Red Sox hitter I’ve ever seen. The only way to get him out was to have him hit a line drive of somebody’s face and hope it fell into their glove. He was literally that good. It’s just a shame that Larry Lucchino ran him out of town with a smear campaign the likes of which this city has never seen. For those of you who have forgotten this is how Nomar’s greek tragedy unfolded.
In 2004 Nomar turned down a 4 year 60 million dollar offer from the Sox. Lucchino would say it was an indication Nomar didn’t want to play here and wanted to go to the West Coast. Of course that same off season Nomar bought a multi million dollar house on the North Shore which is a strange move for a guy who wasn’t planning on sticking around. The reality of the situation was Nomar loved it here and had every intention of staying, but this first offer was a lowball offer. Sure it sounds insane, but both Derek Jeter and Arod had much more lucrative deals despite the fact that Nomar had out performed both of them at that point in their careers. So instead of signing this deal he decided to roll the dice and play the 2004 season. He figured if he put up another Nomar like season he’d get a better offer from the Sox. I believe people call it negotiating. Also keep in mind we’re not talking about Pedro or Manny here. Nomar never once complained about his contract even though he was vastly underpaid. He never threatened to hold out. He never said a peep. He just played as hard as he could and did his talking in-between the white lines. Yeah I’m sure he was bummed at the lack of respect from the new ownership group but he didn’t let it affect him. Instead what effected him is what happened next.
After Nomar turned down first offer, unbeknown to him the Sox tried to trade for Alex Rodriguez to replace him at shortstop. Actually I shouldn’t say they tried to trade for Arod, they did trade for him. But the deal was nixed by Bud Selig on a technicality. How did Nomar find out about this you ask? Via Sportscenter when Kevin Millar was quoted as saying he’d rather Rodriguez than Garciaparra. Hmm, hell of a way for the new ownership group to treat the heart and soul of the franchise for the past decade don’t you think? And people wonder why he sulked that last year. How would you like it if you’d worked your ass off at a company for 10 years only to have some slick out of town used car salesman come in and stab you in the back 5 seconds after they arrived? Well that’s what happened to Nomar.
Now the next part of this saga is where people get confused and to me the most disgusting part of this whole ordeal. Nomar had a legitimate ankle injury in 04. His production tailed way off and he had to sit out a ton of games. Lucchino took this opportunity to leak to the press that Nomar wasn’t really hurt. That he was faking his injury to force his way out of town. Kind of like what Manny did. And it all culminated with that game against the Yankees when Derek Jeter dove head first into the crowd on a routine pop up. The cameras panned to Nomar sitting in the dugout and his fate was sealed. Lucchino seized the opportunity to convice the public that Nomar quit on the team and needed to be traded. It was basically his way to prevent a PR nightmare for trading the team’s and regions’ most popular player/athlete. What everybody fails to realize is that once Nomar was traded to Chicago he missed 75% of the games the rest of the season with that same supposedly fake ankle injury. And this is why the Manny comparisons are infuriating. This wasn’t a situation where suddenly the guy goes from half dead to Babe Ruth after the trade. Nomar actually played less and did worse as a Cub that year than a Red Sox. AKA – He never quit on his team. He was legitimately injured. Was he pouting? Of course. You would to if what happened to him happened to you. The bottom line is that Larry Lucchinno and the new ownership group never wanted to resign Nomar. But they knew the only way they could get rid of him was by unleashing a smear campaign that would make Hitler blush and that’s exactly what they did. From the lowball offer, to trying to trade for Arod, to saying he was faking his injury, to never making him another offer it was one thing after another. It’s the worst any athlete of his stature has ever been treated by management in this town. So in light of all that Red Sox fans would be doing a disservice of unfathomable consequences if we didn’t give him the loudest ovation in the history of Fenway Park when he is announced tonight. It’s the least we can do for a man who gave us so much and got so little in return.
elpresidente | Random Thoughts | 07/6/09, 11:30 am |
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34 People have left comments on this post
Me >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Nomar
Can’t tell if this posting is a joke or not….At the time of the trade I thought Nomar was great, and they got 50 cents for the dollar on him…. but the guy turned out to be a joke. He’s been a broken down roid clown ever since he left here, and there’s been article after article about what a miserable jerkoff he is.
That post was ALMOST longer than Trapp’s daily shopping list, almost.
why do you have such a man crush on Nomar?
never forget: Nomar trade = 1st world series in 86 years. he was a great ball player up until the early 2000s, when he started the great decline that is still in effect. it was about as clairvoyant as letting pedro walk…right off the face of the baseball cliff.
i’d make that Nomar trade every day for the rest of my life.
He blew the last couple of years. Nothing but infield pop-ups and couldn’t hit in the clutch. And he was a douche. Stupid to turn down that offer. 2 rings without him. 2 with Manny!
at the time I was pissed about us trading Nomar, he was my favorite player since I was 12. But who knows how 2004 would have turned out if we didn’t make the trade. Maybe Nomar stepped it up and mashed a homerun every game and we sweep the Yankees, the world may never know. A part of me still misses the days before we won the World Series, when year after year the Sox tested you as a fan, and way before all the pink hats jumped on board. But I’m not really complaining about winning, just all the assholes who come along with it… Anything less then a complete standing ovation that Nomar can’t help but to stop, tip his helmet, and wave to the crowd is a disservice to 10 years of this franchise. I mean fuck, I’m pretty sure we did that for Millar and he was a joke…
Anyone who says Nomar is a better hitter than Manny is a complete moron. This is not even open for discussion. Stick to you tube posts and shit like that. You don’t know shit about sports.
Who cares about Nomar, question is, is Mia coming too?
Id give her a Standing O!!!!!
“The only way to get him out was if he hit a line drive into someones glove”
…or a shallow pop-up to 2nd.
Manny is one of the greatest right handed hitters of all time.
Nomar would be lucky to sniff 1 hall of fame vote.
Trapp – Take Toronto today. Ricky Romero is filthy.
+158
me 1-0
you 0-2,321
Pres – post some of Nomar’s stats. He had a run there where he was DiMaggio like.
The trade, while probably a smear campaign in part, was a good move for the Sox. Sox ended up winning the World Series, and as others have mentioned, Nomar has never been healthy since and the reputation for being a jerko%% has never gone away.
It will be good to see Nomar at Fenway again, I hope the crowd gives him a standing ovation.
Among the rest of the baseball douchebags, the whole steroid monkey fact has kept me from paying a cent to watch those fucktards. Even if I was there for free, no applause.
Good stuff Prez – People are forgetting how good he really was…. The new era of sox fans were not sox fans when he was winning batting titles and tearing up the league.
I’ll always like him and remember him for giving me something to cheer about before the sox were making the playoffs every year.
Enough with bullshit about not getting a good enough contract offer. Nobody else has offered anywhere near that to him since. What a dumb move by him. He was roided up and he knew they were going to start testing. That would have been his last chance to lock up a good offer before either breaking down or getting busted but he wanted to push it. How’d that workout for you Nomar?
you gotta be high!!!!! Nomah the prince of steroids i’ll give nomah both my nuts if he isn’t on the LIST. he was and is the poster child for the
spoiled rotten modern athlete what a FRAUD!!!
I thought he was going to be the next DiMaggio or Williams. Instead, he turned out to be the new Fred Lynn!
YA Prez, Remember how clutch he was in the 03 playoffs against the Yanks??? Ya, me neither cause he wasn’t? Yes, he was a boston sports icon, but he was on a clear decline, if you can’t see that now then you’re in denial. They don’t make that trade, the sox don’t win in 04. Also I seem to remember Manny having the best numbers on the team when they got rid him last year
There is no question Nomar deserves a standing-O at tonight’s game, but as far as calling him the greatest Red Sox history is crazy. Manny’s name has already been thrown around for being better on here, which I will agree with, so I will compare.
In Nomar’s 9 seasons he averaged: 20hrs, 77 RBI’s, .360 OBP, .534 SLG, .313 AVG.
In Manny’s 8 seasons he averaged: 34 HR’s, 108 RBI’s, .412 OBP, .586 SLG, .312 AVG, as well as 2 world series rings.
To Nino24’s comment of Nomar being Dimaggio like for a stretch, shame on you for even speaking. Dimaggio hit under .300 once, under 20 homeruns only twice, never struckout more than 39 times a season, which Nomar only got to 39 once in his “prime years”, and in 13 seasons only had 1 season where he had more strikeouts than walks, his rookie year. So that pretty much blows nomar’s 6 reasonably good years out of the water.
Then again, even without any world series rings, Ted Williams is still, hands down, the greatest Red Sox hitter ever. But yes, Nomar deserves a standing-O.
Vince dimaggio
The “What if we never traded Nomar?” question is almost pointless. It’s like asking “should McNamara have left Clemens in?” or “should Grady have pulled Pedro?” – we all judge the decision based on what happened afterwards, but how can we be sure that the other choice would have led to something better? (or in the case of Nomar, worse?)
If I were at the game, though, I’d give him a standing O his first at-bat. Not after that, though – he’s no Dave Roberts
Wow, definitely drinking the Nomar kool-aid.
Nomar outperformed A-Rod at that point in their careers? (by 2003 you were talking about)… that statement alone clearly shows how biased you are in this argument.
By 2003, A-Rod had a batting title, and 2 HR crowns (or 3 if you count 2003 season, if Nomar was offered the contract prior to, or post 2003 season).
By 2003, Nomar had a great season (lets not make it sound amazing, A-Rod’s ‘96 season was better), and he had a really great season a year later when he hit .372.
This is where most people stop drinking the kool-aid because after that, he had a major wrist injury which knocked 40-50 points off his batting avg, and 150 or so points off his OPS, he was always fairly error prone in the field, and his nagging injuries knocked off a ton of range. To put it lightly, he was awful in the field by 2003-2004.
Prez, whether you like it or not, there were two versions of Nomar. The first version where he was amazing offensively, and tolerable defensively. The second version where he was a solid hitter, but terrible in the field. The Red Sox were not offering him a contract based on ‘99-’00, they were offering him a contract based on the current version of Nomar, which was barely worth the 4-60 they offered (and I think that was too high).
Bottom line, Nomar, like his kool-aid drinkers, still believed he was the ‘99-’00 version, and wanted to get paid like it, but the rest of the people living in reality thought otherwise.
That being said, I hope they cheer him tonight.
Fuck everybody, what about ME.
Every time nomar is mentioned, el pres wants an orgy with him. The truth lies in the size of each of their schnouzers
Nomar, the prodigal son returns. Some people forget how great he was when he was here in Boston, teh guy carried teh Red Sox to the 1998 playoffs and 199 playoffs, ask the Cleveland fans about Nomar and they start to shake.
The guy was on his way to the hall of fame after 5 season’s. Riddle me this, who was the last right handed hitter to win back to back batting titles ….. Yup, Mr. Garciaparra, you know who the the last right handed hitter to accomplish this before him? Joe DiMaggio! Only 2 Played in over 50 year’s have done this, Joe d and NOMAH! Stand and cheer, tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday….
Why do people say ’some forget how great he was’ because we agree with the decision to let him go when they did? I don’t forget how great he was, I also don’t forget the HUGE drop-off when he returned.
I’ll never forget what Ortiz did for the Sox during the past few seasons, but if they offered him a sizable contract right now, how many people would say ‘Some people forget how great he was’? If you pay players based on their past, you’re going to have a very poor future as a team.
LARRY was RIGHT………LARRY was RIGHT…..Face it Pres, Larry and his spy cams knew Nomar was backdoor juicin and breaking down right in front of his eyes. And so what if the pouting juicer was hurt, the Sox needed defense right then and they unloaded him for a low cost healthy body who solidified the infield…..and the rest is history.
No mention of steroids???? Plus anyone who thinks that Mia Hamm is attractive must be a homo. He should get a good ovation though.
First and third, no outs, Nomar to the plate, first pitch….swinging. Pop up to short, 2 outs.
And lets get one more concept straight, Pres. Nomar was the Anti-MoneyBall player. Theo, Lucky, and the mortician arrived in Boston on a mission to change the style of ball the team played. OBP was the new mantra and Nomar was a first pitch pop up machine.
Wait, wait, wait ,wait… ISN’T NOMAR INJURED? AGAIN? HE WON’T BE PLAYING AGAINST THE SOX! Yeah he’s “coming” to Boston, but he ain’t even gonna play. Why the long story Prez?
Do you know what hitting .379 for the Boston Red Sox, pre-2004 does for you?
It puts you in Sox immortality. Cheer the man like he more than deserves.
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