For my 19th birthday my little brother gave me a series of photographs depicting a Red Sox jersey-wearing Nomar Garciaparra in different parts of his swing. Hanging next to my computer, it serves as a daily reminder of his beautiful, obsessive-compulsive swing, honed with guidance by Teddy Ballgame.
Alongside these pictures is a Sammy Sosa baseball card from the year he raced Mark McGwire for the home run title. Just a few years later, both players are shadows of those that dominated the game and my bedroom wall. The decline of Sosa and Garciaparra, two ex-Cubbies recently heralded as some of baseball's biggest stars, has left baseball fans looking for their renaissance or retirement.
Needless to say, my 19th birthday was quite a few years ago, the season before the Red Sox dumped their literal Achilles heel in Garciaparra to the Cubs and went on to shed an 86-year curse. In the past two years, my hometown affinities have realigned to Jason Varitek, but my enchantment with Nomar's twitchy but magical swing has remained.
This offseason, Garciaparra became yet another addition to the Red Sox West, also known to those who care about the National League as the Los Angeles Dodgers. A perennial shortstop, Garciaparra has been moved to first base, where he has taken to shopping for new gloves like Vanessa Bryant for diamonds. Once ranked as one of the game's best three shortstops, he has remained sidelined for the better parts of the last two seasons with various injuries. Long troubled by wrist problems in his time with the Red Sox, he ended his East Coast career with a suspicious Achilles tendon ailment, which continued with the Cubs, where he then sustained a ruptured groin muscle the following season.
Substantial talk surrounds Nomar's heralded return from the disabled list. Finally off the bench in September, he batted well, but his defense was not in top form. His career batting average is still above .300 - .320 to be exact - but that wasn't hard to maintain when he was spending the majority of two seasons watching from the dugout. More importantly, his signature pirouettes and backhanded side-armed throws are polished plays of the past - additional signs of his declining athleticism.
In short, I'm not holding my breath for a new and improved Nomar. Despite suggestions that Garciaparra will be rejuvenated in his new position and his native California, it's more likely that the Dodger newbie will only continue his recession. Given his propensity for the disabled list, his best bet would be to leave the National League and find a spot as a designated hitter.
Sosa had a comparatively pitiful showing in 2005 with 14 home runs and a .221 batting average. His career has been besmirched in the past three years not only by his terrible statistics, but also by accusations of steroids, a quick temper, corked bats and now a false retirement.
At 37, a recovery looks even less likely for the right fielder after a rash of hip and back injuries. In what turned out as a blessing for the Cubs, Sosa defected to the Baltimore Orioles after the 2004 season and subsequently tanked. Rumors swirled of steroid-related injuries as testing finally kicked up in Major League Baseball. Though Sosa showed glimmers of the power that once propelled him into the national limelight, his deterioration, mentally and physically, hampered any permanent recovery in hitting records.
This offseason, Sosa has leaked rumors of retirement, turned down a $500,000 offer from the Washington Nationals and equivocated on his decision to play in the World Baseball Classic. He yells at coaches, fails to produce at the plate and lets his greed and hubris narrow and marginalize his career. Sosa is a hobbled chimera of his former self - a veritable monster from his steroid use, and a specter of the potential that existed in his heyday. Expect little this season from what was once one of the most recognizable names in baseball. For the way he's playing, the retirement sham might as well be true.
The future is not nearly so bleak for Nomar as it is for Sammy. With two and 30 years and a honeymooner's spring in his step, Garciaparra is the best bet for a comeback. Sosa, on the other hand, should have taken a page from his Moriarty, McGwire, and left the game before he began his downward spiral.
Either way, I think it's time for a redecorating.
Kate Klonick '06 anxiously awaits the day that pitcher Edgar Martinez is called up to the Red Sox, giving her another player whose name she can pronounce ending in "-ah."
