WEEI announced on Wednesday that Nomar Garciaparra has signed a one-day minor-league contract with the Boston Red Sox so he can retire in a Boston uniform. After that, Nomar will join ESPN as a baseball analyst for “Baseball Tonight” and the occasional game itself.
Quite honestly, I love stories like this. I still remember back to 2005 when Emmitt Smith signed a similar contract with the Dallas Cowboys. It shows that no matter where your career takes you, it is possible for a player to have such a profound experience on one team and with one fan-base that it stays with you throughout your entire career. Players want to play, but sometimes they also want to play in one particular place. In an age where athletes leave city after city chasing the next big contract, this is a heart-warming little story.
Nomar didn’t leave the Red Sox the way so many of our more famous athletes do. He didn’t jump to the Yankees for the biggest contract like Johnny Damon or make salary negotiations so complicated like Jason Bay did. He clearly wasn’t happy here in his final year (2004), but he sucked it up and dealt...
