More Nomar Thoughts

Here is something I wrote last July:

I can't stop looking at Nomar Garciaparra and thinking about how much he physically looks like Ted Williams (except for Nomar’s big nose). People in Boston are already talking about whether Nomar will walk out of Boston as a free agent after the 2004 season. I have to wonder if Williams played today in Boston whether he might have been tempted to leave and play for a team like San Diego (his hometown) or the Florida Marlins (close to his beloved fishing in the Keyes). Williams had a loyalty to Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey but no such loyalty exists today in pro baseball.

Ted had his small clique of friends with the Red Sox and Nomar had his - except Nomar's friends kept getting traded away or released. Would it have killed the Red Sox to have kept Lou Merloni instead of David McCarty? Merloni was Nomar's best friend and if the Red Sox were serious about making him happy and keeping him in Boston - this small gesture of signing Merloni would have gone a long way to making Nomar a happier player in Boston.

If the current ownership was around back in Ted's day - can't you see them trading Johnny Pesky for financial reasons and having that souring Ted enough for him to sign elsewhere? I know that scenario is completely fictional and has as much real world relativity as the question "What if Superman fought for the Nazis?" but it's something I find myself wondering about.

One thing is for sure - the Red Sox have now painted themselves into a corner in terms of re-signing Pedro. To lose both Pedro and Nomar will be a PR nightmare for the Red Sox ownership.