Defending Nomar

David Gassko has a piece on Nomar Garciaparra today at The Hardball Times (I was sorely empted to call it a hit piece). The piece was slanted to make it seem Nomar is through and nobody in Boston loves him anymore. That is BS.

It is fitting that on the day Cam Neeley will be honored by the Hockey Hall of Fame that Nomar becomes a topic of conversation. It is fitting because the two players lived parallel lives. Both were Boston icons, both were among the most charitable athletes this town has ever seen and both were slowed in their primes by freakish injuries (Neeley's thigh and Nomar's wrist). Neeley was the prototypical power foward while Nomar was the prototypical power shortstop. The difference between the two players is the fact that the Bruins were loyal to Neeley while the Red Sox front office employed the sort of leak and smear campaign against Nomar that just made Theo Epstein leave in utter frustration.

Yes Nomar's been hurt the past couple of years and yes his skills have diminushed but if you asked Boston fans who they would rather have at short - Reteria or Nomar - the results would probably be 99% to 1% in Nomar's favor. Same question but Jeter vs. Nomar and the results among Boston fans is probably 80% to 20% in Nomar's favor.

Last season Nomar again had a freakish injury. This time a torn groin muscle. Yet Nomar still managed a .772 OPS and 9 HR (a HR every 25.6 AB). Between them - Bill Mueller and Edgar Renteria only doubled his HR output but they did it in almost five times the at bats. If given a full season then I'm confident that Nomar's numbers place him in the top 5 for all statistical catagories among MLB shortstops (right up there with the Tejada's, the Michael Young's and the rest).

Nomar is down but he's not out. Nomar and Furcal still have the best arms at shortstop and nobody (and I mean nobody) runs the bases better than Nomar. As Kenny Stabler would say "Glassko is throwing Nomar out when he ain't done pissin'".