Nomar Garciaparra, he of 1231 hits, 173 HRs, 669 RBIs and 272 doubles, officially disgusts me now. I am sick and tired of Anthony Nomar Garciaparra.
Nomar Garciaparra’s quick and dirty history with contract extensions:
Spring 2003 – Red Sox offer Nomar Garciaparra four years at 15 million. (Just so you know, that’s 60 million.) Tellem rejects, negotiations closed.
Fall 2003 – Arn Tellem, Nomar’s agent, asks for 17 million a year for five years. The Red Sox counter with a decrease of their initial offer, offering 12 million for four years. An angered Tellem closes negotiations for the time being.
Winter 2003/04 – Nomar learns he is about to be shipped to Chicago for the White Sox’s Magglio Ordonez. Replacing him will be A-Rod. An alarmed Nomar calls into a radio station on his honeymoon and says he wants to remain a Red Sox.
Winter 2004/Spring 2004 – Nomar says he considers himself having been traded, so he’s already worked through all the emotions of being traded from the only team he has known. This is a veiled threat – I will walk away, I have no qualms now.
Spring 2004 – The Red Sox offer another contract, four years with an option of a fifth at 13.5 million dollars. The Globe reports that signing Nomar is the top priority of the Sox.
No, no, no! Worst thing I could have heard.
First off, Pedro is the first priority, not Nomar. Then it’s Varitek. Then Lowe. Then Nomar. Pedro is the face of the Red Sox – not Nomar. Hell, Kevin Millar is more the face of the Sox than Nomar. “Nosemar Grouchyaparra” does not like the media. He reached out to the media when, whaddyaknow, he was about to be traded – oh wait, he says he WAS traded.
Almost every picture of Nomar shows him being grouchy. And this is not including pictures of him winning games, or chatting with friends. When he’s with the media, when he’s doing other things … is he smiling? I think not.
The man rejected four years at 60 million. Jim Thome, one of the premier first basemen in the league, signed a six year, 85 million contract last year with the Phillies. That averages out to 14.16 million a year, or 56.6 million over four years. And we wanted to pay Nomar more. One would argue that Nomar is much more valuable than Thome because of his position – agreed. But a cursory glance at Nomar’s career statistics then point out – Nomar’s done. His prime peaked at 26.
Read a previous article I wrote on Nomar that is relevant.
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