Nomar Garciappara Retires

Written by: Bill Ivie on 10th March 2010

Nomar Garciappara Retires | read this item

At a press conference at 10:30 A.M. in City of Palms Park, Florida on March 10, 2010, Nomar Garciappara, a Baseball Digest Classic player, officially announced the end of his fourteen year career. Nomar signed a one year contract with his original team, the Boston Red Sox, and announced that he would be accepting a position with ESPN as an analyst.

Nomar’s professional career would have began in 1991 as he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers. After he elected to not sign and attend college, Nomar was drafted again in 1994 by the Boston Red Sox. By 1997, Nomar had achieved every young man’s dream and reached the major league’s as Boston’s shortstop.

1997 would bring a Rookie Of The Year award to Nomar, as well as an All-Star appearance, a silver slugger, and an eighth place finish in the MVP voting. It was a fitting beginning to what would be an outstanding career.

Nomar’s career would gain momentum over the next few seasons. He would finish second in the MVP voting in 1998 posting a .323 Batting Average, 35 Home Runs, and 122 RBI. 1999 would bring Nomar’s first batting title on the heals of a .357 batting average. The following season Nomar would prove that his hitting was no fluke, posting an amazing .372 batting average and winning a second consecutive batting title. Nomar would make another All-Star appearance in a game that would see four shortstops on the American League roster. Derek Jeter, in one of the most memorable moments of that game, would come to the plate and imitate Nomar’s unique batting ritual, tapping his toes and adjusting his batting gloves in what can only be described as a nervous twitch. 2001 would hit Nomar with his first injury shortened season, as he would be limited to 21 games. In 2002, Nomar would return to All Star form, playing in the Mid-Summer Classic and posting a .310 Batting Average.

2004 would change the landscape of Nomar’s career. In shocking news in July, the Boston Red Sox traded Nomar to the Chicago Cubs in a four-team trade that would bring Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera to the Red Sox organization. The Boston Red Sox would go on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Championship that season without the shortstop that had helped them achieve so much. In a private ceremony that speaks to the level of teammate and player that Nomar was, a group of Red Sox led by Jason Varitek would meet Nomar in Chicago the following season and present him with a World Series ring as a member of that 2004 team.

Nomar would begin a journey through teams that would see him play an additional year with the Cubs, three years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and 2009 with the Oakland A’s. Through these years, Nomar would battle through injuries and begin playing the corner infield positions as well as some time as a designated hitter. He would reach his sixth and final All Star appearance in 2006 with the Dodgers.

Nomar was a player many will not forget. He was a classy ball player that many teammates looked up to. He played in an era marred with discussions of performance enhancing drugs and was never linked to them himself. He finishes his career as a lifetime .313 hitter with 229 home runs, 936 RBI, and 1747 hits. His fourteen year career does not appear to be one that will yield a Hall Of Fame induction, but for many baseball fans, he has inspired many memories and discussions for years to come.

Drop by the Baseball Digest Bleachers and discuss Nomar Garciaparra’s career by clicking here!

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Topics: All Star, Baseball Digest, Batting Average, Batting Gloves, Boston Red Sox, Chicag, Chicago Cubs, City Of Palms Park, Derek Jeter, Eighth Place, ESPN, Home Runs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Memorable Moments, Mid Summer, milwaukee brewers, Nervous Twitch, Nomar Garciaparra, Nomar Garciappara, Oakland A's, Palms Park, Professional Career, Retirement, Shocking News, Shortstop, Shortstops, Silver Slugger

Gobias Industries says:

March 10, 2010 at 12:26 pm

“He played in an era marred with discussions of performance enhancing drugs and was never linked to them himself.” Well, maybe he was never “officially” linked to them. But I just did a Google search for “Nomar Garciaparra” and “steroids” and got so many hits that smoke started billowing out of my computer.
Bill Ivie says:

March 10, 2010 at 1:54 pm

Gobias,

Thanks for the comment and reading, I appreciate it immensely.

I have always prided myself on providing correct information in my articles and my writing. When I read your comment, I immediately wanted to check up on it.

Doing a Google Search for “Nomar Garciaparra Steroids” here:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=nomar+garciaparra+steroids&aq=5&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=nomar&fp=3d121c88310e67e3
I found the first page of results to be interesting. One comes from Bleacher Report, which is, generally speaking, a place for any blogger to post his opinion, no matter how valid the accusation. One from “Heartbeat of the Bronx” that is self-admittedly speculation on the writers part. More than a few from Nomar himself denying the claim.

Possibly the most interesting of this search is from Hall Of Fame pundit Peter Gammons here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/gammons/story?id=2055896

In this article, Gammons himself says: “If a player is thrown into the public stocks by hypothetical or deductive guesswork, he is damaged, with little recourse. There is no better example than Nomar Garciaparra. His famous Sports Illustrated cover was quickly thrown up as ‘roid proof when he got hurt in spring training 2001. Now, any Gold’s Gym bodybuilder and trainer will take that picture and point to the fact that he’s developed in but two places and actually has love handles, a surefire sign that he is not a juicer. “That,” says Mark Verstegen of Athletes Performance Institute and Garciaparra’s trainer going back to Georgia Tech, “was the worst shape he was ever in.”…”

Forgive me if I will tend to cite Mr. Gammons work over the others on this list. I stand by my statement, he was never linked to Performance Enhancing Drugs.
Tom Hannon says:

March 11, 2010 at 2:16 pm

Every player that played from 1986 to 2004 has the label over there head fairly or unfairly.

My question to the poster, do you realize PED’s started in the late 1950′s and congress had investigations in 60′s and 70′s as well and found wide spread use. those guys get no grief though . . . Baseball has these type of things through all era’s . . .

If Steroids alone made players great there would be a superstar at every position. Many things helped players, scouting reports, equipment, various nutrition and certainly various ped’s. As they have for 50+ years.

He was a great player and should be looked at as such.