It’s just something new every day so far this baseball season, I just can’t catch a break. First Guzman, then Nathan and now Nomar is retiring? It appears that this morning my original man-crush Nomar Garciaparra will retire as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Reports say he will make the move to the booth and join ESPN’s broadcast crew, not quite sure how I feel about that yet.
I first became a fan of Nomar back in 1998 when he hit .323, clubbed 32 home runs and drove in 122 runs which earned him a second place finish in the AL MVP voting that year (He finished second to Juan Gonzales who was obviously on the sauce, so there is that).
During those years the three-headed monster of Jeter-Nomar-ARod were establishing themselves as the top three shortstops in the league. It was always assumed that you backed on guy and hated the other two guys, and as it still holds true I hope Jeter and ARod take a two-hopper off their respective faces.
There were just so many cool things about Nomar that drew me to becoming a fan of his. From the way he flipped his batting gloves in-between every pitch to the fact he married Mia Hamm, Nomar was a flashy guy without being flashy. He just has this essence of smooth about him, to me was Pedrioa before Pedrioa.
When Nomaaa was traded to the Cubs in 2004 it was like Christmas come early. I was in Mexico with my family at the time but I remember everyone just looking at me very strangely when I came sprinting down to the pool screaming the Nomar song (to the tune of Hava Nagilah: Noma-Garcia-para). After one of the most gruesome groin injuries that I have ever seen in 2005 Nomar strung together a few “off into the sunset” seasons (including a 2006 All-Star selection) culminating with his retirement today.
So congratulations and thank you to my original man-crush and one of my favorite players of all time. Please don’t suck as an announcer.
