Comments on: Nomar Garciaparra

By: redsoxeveryday

redsoxeveryday — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:08:12 +0000

Part of the reason I love this site is rummaging through older posts. This really -was- a farewell. We’ve had the opportunity to say farewell with a Nomar Day and the one-day retirement contract..but it’s not quite the same as saying farewell in their last game in Fenway as a player. Would anyone have guessed a decade ago that Nomar wouldn’t be playing ball, at all, in 2010?!

By: shealives

shealives — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:44:12 +0000

Josh, in regard to Rice’s election to the Hall, I think someone would have to have followed MLB closely from ’75 through the ’80s to understand why he deserved election. I’m shocked how many people disagree with him getting in. I agree that Nomar back on the Sox for the stretch run would be perfect, ala Burks in ’07.

By: redsoxeveryday

redsoxeveryday — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:40:57 +0000

Great capture of Nomar. He was one of the only reasons to watch the Sox in ’97, and the first guy I believed would have 3000 hits in my lifetime of watching the team every day. Before he was 30, he amassed 1200ish hits. Averaging nearly 200 a season. In 6 seasons since his last 190+ hit season, he’s had around 400 hits. He should be pushing 2500 hits!

It’s a random stat to look at, but you don’t see 200ish hits year in year out. Then again, you don’t see Nomar in his prime year in year out.

I would LOVE for them to bring him back as a 1b/3b backup for the stretch run. A pipedream for sure, but wouldn’t it be wonderful?

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:16:06 +0000

That’s a good comparison, Lynn and Nomar. I agree that neither seems Hall-bound, but you could probably make a case for both. Lynn has a higher career OPS+ (by one point) than his old cohort in ’75 rookie sensationalism, Jim Rice, and Rice only managed to play a few more games than Lynn in his career. I think that most people who have an inkling of what “OPS+” is would probably use the comparison of Lynn to Rice in that regard as a way to disparage Rice’s election, but I’m going to be a homer and say they were both pretty damn good.

As for Nomar, he currently has an above 100 Hall of Fame moniter rating on baseball-reference.com. Hall of Fame moniter is defined thusly: “another Jamesian creation[, it] attempts to assess how likely (not how deserving) an active player is to make the Hall of Fame. It’s rough scale is 100 means a good possibility and 130 is a virtual cinch.” Nomar is at 112; however, that ranking assumes continued production for a few more years, which seems pretty unlikely.

By: shealives

shealives — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:29:31 +0000

Josh, as usual, you captured the mood perfectly for Nomar’s greeting. I thought the reception was beautiful as was Nomar’s appreciation of the fans. His career has become very sad ever since he turned down the 4 yr./$60 million contract. I also thought it showed what a true pro Smoltz is the way he waited patiently for the moment to play itself out. I draw some comparison between Nomar and Lynn in that they both burst on the scene as Rookies of the Year and seemed to be on a path as surefire HOFs but do to injury and other factors they both bounced around and neither has a chance in hell to make it to the Hall now.