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Nomar on the Farm
A gracious Nomar Garciaparra thrilled fans, teammates, and reporters alike during his recent minor league rehab stint with Pawtucket.Dan Hickling
Minor League News
07.01.04 - Toledo, OH -- Elvis was never in the building, but Nomaaaaaah was.He stayed three days before he took off for Boston, having tested his injured right Achilles tendon while on rehab recently with the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Nomar Garciaparra, took off in style too, slugging a two-run double, then homering in what was supposed to be his last at bat, before tacking on one more game with the PawSox in Pawtucket just to make sure.
"I got my work in," said Garciaparra, who left after leading off the seventh with his first round tripper. “In all, I'm pleased."
As well he should have been.
Garciaparra showed nary a sign of the injury that had kept him out of action since Spring Training, making several stellar plays at shortstop during his stay.
The toughest of those came in the first inning of his first night in Toledo, when he made one of his trademark snags in the hole at short, on a hot-hopper by Eric Owens.
Garciaparra spun, planted, and fired a perfect strike to first baseman Trace Coquillette, nipping Owens by an eyelash, drawing appreciative applause from the Fifth Third Field crowd of 6,746.
New England's most famous tendon had passed its stiffest test.
"That was pretty big," he said. "I was glad I was able to do that. Plays like that, I want to be able to do instinctively. Not have to think or worry, but to (be able) to go all out. I was able to do that on that (play)."
While it was clear that they layoff did nothing to dull his fielding instincts, getting his batter's eye back took a little longer.
At one point, Garciaparra was stuck in a 0-for-9 mini-slump, and was having trouble, in hitter's parlance, "seeing the ball".
Not surprising since he was going through the equivalent of Spring Training about three months late.
Nomar had no problems seeing a 1-0 fastball from Toledo reliever Eric Eckenstahler. In fact watched it sail over the fence in left center, capping the PawSox scoring in a 7-2 win.
It was the just the sort of swan song that Garciaparra had wanted.
"That felt alright," Garciaparra said. "You always appreciate it when you can do that."
The four-time American League All-Star wasn't the only one in Toledo with something to appreciate.
Mud Hens fans, who couldn't quite get their flat-Midwestern accents around the name "Nomaaaaaaaaaah" (it was more like "Nomarrrr"), were thrilled to have him in their midst, even if he was wearing an enemy uniform.
You could almost call it a love affair, one that began the first night of his stay.
In a local promotion in which Garciaparra was the designated ‘K-man of the game’, striking out twice and earning free ice cream for some lucky fans. "I came here to please the fans," he said. "Make sure they're taken care of."
That sound like a guy who was "big leagin' it?" You do know what "big leagin'" is don't you?
That odious attitude brought by many big leaguers that come down to work off their war wounds.
Autograph requests turned down, interviews blown off, and special treatment in the clubhouse. If you've been on the wrong end of any of that, you've been "Big Leagued".
But you weren't "Big Leagued" by Nomaaaaaah.
If the hundreds of autographs he left behind weren't evidence enough of that, then consider his "just one of the guys" rapport with his much less heralded PawSox teammates.
"I enjoyed my (previous) experience in minor league baseball," said Garciaparra, who doled out his share of high-fives and batting cage banter. "You respect every single guy out there, because they're trying to get to the big leagues. I know what it's like. I was blessed and fortunate enough to make it. These guys are going out and pursuing it. You respect it and have fun. It's still baseball, no matter what level it is. You appreciate the game and have fun with it."
Although known for sometimes-icy relations with some pounders of the Bosox beat, Garciaparra twice-nightly confabs with IL media members were veritable love feasts. The numbers were much smaller and the questions softer.
"You guys have been great," he said to a cozy group of six reporters. "You can all jump on the plane with me, and I'll drive you to the park, personally."
Including the 2001 season, when he missed all but 21 games with a wrist injury, Garciaparra has had two extended stays on the DL since reaching Boston in 1996. And the lessons to be gleaned about the rehab process have not been lost on him.
"There are two reasons you don't want to put a timetable on an injury," he said. "No. 1 is that you're going to try and beat it. That's just our competitive nature. And No. 2 if you don't beat it, you feel like you're a failure, and why would you want to do that? Especially when the doctor doesn't even know how long it's going to take."
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