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Welcome Home, Nomar by Jared Carrabis
The legend of Nomar Garciaparra through the eyes of a fan

In the 1994 draft, the Red Sox used their first round draft pick (12th overall) on a model student-athlete out of Georgia Tech by the name of Anthony; Anthony Nomar Garciaparra.

After spending the first three years of his professional career in Sarasota, Trenton and Pawtucket respectively, Garciaparra made his Major League debut with the Boston Red Sox on August 31, 1996. The very next day, Garciaparra croaked a home run off of John "Waaaay Back" Wasdin. Garciaparra's first longball in the bigs was the very first hit in his soon-to-be legendary Red Sox tenure.

At the time of Nomar's burst to the big leagues, John Valentin was not only Boston's starting shortstop, but he was one of the premiere names on the Sox roster. Valentin had finished in the top ten (ninth) in the AL MVP voting the season just prior to Nomar making his big league debut. Just a year after Valentin had collected some MVP votes, he watched as Nomar Garciaparra took over the job of full-time shortstop in late 1996, while Valentin himself made his new home at third base.

in 1997, Garciaparra began to stake his claim as one of the best, if not the best, shortstop in Red Sox history. In his rookie campaign, Garciaparra launched 30 home runs and drove in 98 runs out of the leadoff spot. The 98 runs knocked in by Nomah set a new Major League record for most RBI by a leadoff batter. Although his power numbers were impressive, Garciaparra hit for average--high average. His 30-game hit streak in '97 stands as an AL Rookie record and is the second longest in Red Sox history behind the late Dom DiMaggio's 34 gamer he strung together in 1949.

The year after Garciaparra won Rookie of the Year by a landslide, the Boston shortstop batted .323 with 35 HR, 122 RBI and a .946 OPS. His incredible numbers earned him the runner-up to the American League MVP Award and propelled Boston into the postseason where Garciaparra batted .333 with 3 HR a double and 11 RBI in the Sox' four postseason games. Although the Sox couldn't advance, Nomar did all he could to force his team past Cleveland.

In 1999, he would get that chance to force his team past the Cleveland Indians in October after boasting a .357 average during the regular season to go along with 27 HR and 104 RBI. In that magical season of 1999 when Fenway Park was the host of the 70th All Star Game, Garciaparra's teammate, Pedro Martinez was named the MVP, as Boston rejoiced in their superstar's glory.

That October, Garciaparra one-upped himself in his second chance in the October spotlight. Taking Cleveland to the full five games, Garciaparra elevated his performance by hitting .417 with 2 HR and 4 RBI, along with six runs scored. Although Boston would later lose the ALCS to the eventual World Series Champion Yankees in five games, Nomar batted .400 with two more home runs and five more RBI.

As Nomar embarked on his fourth full season in Boston, the fans were wondering if they had ever seen a player of Garciaparra's caliber since the great Ted Williams. In fact, Williams himself even drew a comparison of Garciaparra to one of the all-time baseball greats, Joe DiMaggio. With a comparison like that, there wasn't a Red Sox fan out there that didn't believe that Nomar Garciaparra was going to be the franchise player that finally brought a World Series title to Boston. Well, he did...sort of.

The 2000 season soon would take away the comparison to DiMaggio, but for a good reason. On July 20, after game one of a double header in Baltimore, Garciaparra went 3-for-5 with a triple. At the end of that game in the second half of the season, Nomar was batting .403. His comparisons quickly changed from Joe DiMaggio to the greatest hitter who ever lived, the last man to ever hit .400, Ted Williams. After finishing the season with a .372 batting average, Garciaparra won his second consecutive batting title. Who was the last right-handed hitter to accomplish that feat? Joe DiMaggio.

2000 was Nomar's best season of his Major League career, as his worst would follow in 2001 when his ailing wrist limited the Boston shortstop to just 21 games. In 2002 when John Henry along with former Padres owner, Tom Werner, and former President and CEO of the same organization, Larry Lucchino, formed an ownership group at the last minute to purchase the Red Sox, the trio of baseball minds inherited a clubhouse in shambles and turned it into a model baseball organization.

Prior to the 2003 season, the new management still viewed Nomar as one of the centerpieces of their franchise and wanted to keep him in a Red Sox uniform well past the 2003 and 2004 options that Garciaparra had included on his contract. Things may have looked all well and good on the field for Garciaparra, but behind closed doors, the face of the Red Sox franchise was getting caught up in the business side of baseball. Which brings us to the 4-year, $60 million contract extension that the new Red Sox management extended Garciaparra's way.

"You look at your teammates, what they are making," Garciaparra said in reference to his teammate's contracts, "Manny's making $20 [million a year]. Pedro's making $17 [million]. You see where you fit in, you see what you do. Alex [Rodriguez] is making $25 [million], Jeter's making $19 [million]. I mean, where do I fit it in? Let's figure it all out."

Personally, as a fan, I hate the business side of baseball. I can't stand it, I hate that the days of seeing a player spend their entire career in the same uniform died when Cal Ripken Jr. retired, but Nomar Garciaparra was of the same breed of Ripken where he was made to spend all his days in Boston. Although, from the common man's standpoint where we're fighting for every dollar we make, players do sound greedy when they bark over millions. But in all fairness, he was putting up similar, if not greater numbers than both Jeter in Rodriguez throughout the duration of his contract. It was only fair to put him on the same pedestal as those two, and unfortunately, players can't just be told they're on the same pedestal as the rest of the greats, the money has to deliver that message for them.

Garciaparra liked the idea of a 4-year deal worth $60 million, but "What I would like, though, I asked for a signing bonus for $8 million." Which would have dished out $17 million annually to the shortstop, as opposed to $15 million. While Nomar was in search of an extra $8 million on top of the initial proposal, Larry Lucchino thought, "We just weren't doing a contract for that kind of money."

So both sides entered the 2003 season with no extension to agree upon.

Looking to keep his value just as high as it was entering the season, Garciaparra was provided with a supporting cast of players who were under-valued by other general managers in baseball, but couldn't sneak past the eye of the, then, youngest GM in baseball history, Theo Epstein. In 2003, Garciaparra was surrounded with an entirely new infield, with names such as Bill Mueller, Todd Walker, a slugger with "promise" by the name of David Ortiz and a clubhouse favorite that was on his way to Japan before Theo had something to say about it, Kevin Millar.

That season, the Red Sox claimed the Wild Card, as Nomar again batted over .300 (.301) with 28 HR and 105 RBI. Garciaparra was selected to his fifth All Star Game as a member of the Red Sox, which certainly was a plus when it came to re-visiting contract negotiations in the winter--or so he thought.

The timing for Nomar's contract negotiations couldn't have come at a worse time. When the Red Sox' season was ended in brutal fashion after a heart-crushing walk-off home run by Aaron Boone in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, not one, not two, but six crucial pieces to the Red Sox roster were headed into their last season of their contract with the Red Sox. Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Derek Lowe, David Ortiz and Garciaparra were all going to watch their contracts expire after the 2004 season, so things were going to get interesting.

During the 03-04 offseason, the Red Sox were the talk of the sports world, as they tried to pull off one of the biggest blockbuster trades in baseball history. The Red Sox made their best effort to acquire superstar shortstop, Alex Rodriguez, from the Texas Rangers in exchange for Manny Ramirez. The trade would require Boston to then move Garciaparra to the Chicago White Sox to bring Magglio Ordonez on board to replace Ramirez in the outfield.

The Red Sox-obsessed media in Boston leaked the details of the trade talks between both sides to the point where it was impossible to go anywhere and not hear someone talking about it. A-Rod coming to Boston was such a big story that the New England Patriots were in the Super Bowl, and a picture of A-Rod was on the front page of Boston newspapers. Thankfully, that deal was shot down by the Players Association after their refusal to approve A-Rod's contract to be restructured.

Nomar began the 2004 season at shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, with Manny Ramirez over his shoulder in left, as Garciaparra batted .321 in 38 games for the Red Sox leading up to the July 31 trade deadline. It was made public that Nomar was upset at the fact that the Red Sox attempted to move him after all he had done for the organization, but the Red Sox had a chance to bring one of the best players in the game on board, and when you're trying to win a World Series, you have to do what you have to do.

The Red Sox were in Minnesota on the last day of July when manager Terry Francona submitted a lineup card with Garciaparra's name on it. Moments later, Francona submitted a second lineup card without Nomar's name. His name was gone from the card, and not much later, so would Nomar from Boston. In the final minutes of the trading deadline, Theo Epstein pulled off a trade that sent shockwaves throughout Red Sox Nation. In a four-team deal, Nomar Garciaparra was sent to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz.

There are some bitter fans out there that say Garciaparra "quit" on his team, that he "didn't want to be there", but Nomar himself described the experience of his being traded by saying, ""I just felt empty. Just like, no way." He described leaving Francona's office and facing his teammates for the last time, "I go to my locker and I see D-Lowe there, and I go, 'Don't worry, it's not you, it's me. See ya, bro.' And word starts spreading around and I'm just trying not to cry." Really sounds like he wanted out of there, huh?

The Red Sox recieved two lesser-known players in exhange for Nomar. If you stacked up both Cabrera and Mientkiewicz compared to Nomar, it was 5-0 in favor of Boston's former shorstop when it came to All Star appearances. The trade was all the buzz around baseball, and it didn't even strike the general manager who made the gutsy move until he saw his former franchise player in his new uniform.

"[That's when] it hit me for the first time, emotionally, that there would be real consequences to the organization and to me personally if it didn't work out [well]," Epstein said.

You must feel like the loneliest man in America," Red Sox principal owner told Epstein. "It was the right trade, but no one likes it," Epstein replied. Well, we all know the rest of the legend. The Red Sox go on to win their first World Series in 86 years. O-Cab becomes a fan-favorite and Mientkiewicz gloves the final out of a game that Red Sox fans thought would never come.

The players in the Red Sox' clubhouse who had brought Boston fans their first World Series title since 1918 all voted, and the decision was a no-brainer. Nomar Garciaparra was voted by his former teammates as a player worthy of a 2004 World Series ring, and Curt Schilling even said that if it were not for Nomar, the Red Sox might have not even been in a position to win that World Series.

Nomar Garciaparra finished his Red Sox career with a .323 batting average and 178 home runs. Garciaparra's final game in a Red Sox uniform came just one day after the "brawl that started it all" on July 25, 2004. At the time, the fans didn't even know to say goodbye, neither did he. Nomar went 1-for-5 in his final game at Fenway, packed his bags for the Sox' roadtrip, and never came back.

Four years, 11 months and 12 days later, he finally came home. Now with the Oakland Athletics, and now a teammate of Orlando Cabrera's, Nomar Garciaparra made his return to Fenway Park for the first time since his days with the Red Sox. Batting sixth as the A's designated hitter, Garciaparra made his way to the plate in the top of the second inning. Fenway Park erupted into cheers as both Garciaparra and the Fenway Faithful made their long-awaited return to each other. It was Nomar thanking the fans, it was the fans thanking Nomar. It was a very special moment in Red Sox history, and I am honored to have been a part of it.

The standing ovation seemed like it lasted forever, and I never wanted it to end. If you didn't get chills watching Nomar achknowledge the fans, then you either have no pulse, or you have no idea what a half-full Fenway Park looks like in person.

Being that Nomar was my childhood hero, it meant a lot to me to finally get to see him return to Fenway Park. I always had a feeling that something was missing in my being a Red Sox fan, and it turns out that saying goodbye to Nomar was that missing piece. As it turns out, Nomar appreciated the moment just as much as the fans did, if not more. It was a moment that I will always cherish as a Red Sox fan and a moment that will live on forever in the hearts of each and every Red Sox fan who ever got to see Nomar Garciaparra grace the infield dirt of Fenway Park.

Garciaparra's abrupt and bitter end in Boston will soon be overshaddowed by everything that he has done for the Red Sox, the city of Boston and of course, the fans. Nomar gave Boston something to cheer for when October wasn't the annual event that it has become these days. Nomar gave the Red Sox fans everything he had each and every night he took the field. He was a rolemodel for children everywhere, a hero to many and above all, he was proud to do it all in a Red Sox uniform.

So in closing, maybe it's not goodbye afterall. Maybe, just maybe, it's see ya later.
-Jared Carrabis

"The minute I put that uniform on I dreamed I was gonna start my career in Boston and end my career in Boston. I still have that dream. The only difference from the original dream is that I wasn't supposed to put another uniform on. But that dream is still there."
--Nomar Garciaparra

Final Score: Nomar, we love ya.

I want to thank my friends at Ace Tickets for hooking me up with the seats to see a moment that, as a fan, I will never forget.

The quotes used in this piece were from Seth Mnookin's Feeding The Monster

(Photos from Boston.com)