Nomar Garciaparra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
|---|---|
| Los Angeles Dodgers — No. 5 | |
| First baseman | |
| Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| August 31, 1996 for the Boston Red Sox | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through 2006) |
|
| AVG | .318 |
| SLG | .540 |
| OPS | .907 |
| HR | 211 |
| RBI | 833 |
| Former teams | |
|
|
Anthony Nomar Garciaparra (born July 23, 1975, in Whittier, California) is an American baseball player of Mexican descent who currently plays first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Previously, he played shortstop and third base for the Chicago Cubs, after several years as the star shortstop of the Boston Red Sox.
Garciaparra was part of the so-called "Holy Trinity" of shortstops that debuted in the mid '90s, which also included Alex Rodriguez (now a third baseman) and Derek Jeter, who were considered the best shortstops in baseball. Of the three only Jeter remains a shortstop.
Garciaparra is married to Olympian and World Cup Champion soccer star Mia Hamm and the couple welcomed twin girls, Grace and Ava on March 27, 2007 in Los Angeles.
Contents |
[edit] High School Years
Garciaparra attended St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California and was a letterman in football, soccer, and baseball. He graduated in 1994. St. John Bosco High School retired Garciaparra's baseball jersey. [1] St. John Bosco High School's Activities Office window is home to an area dedicated to Garciaparra's baseball career both at the school and with the Dodgers.
[edit] Major League Baseball Career
[edit] Boston Red Sox (1994-2004)
Garciaparra was a first round pick of the Red Sox in 1994 following a successful career at Georgia Tech. At the time, Boston's starting shortstop was John Valentin, who finished ninth in MVP voting in 1995. But by late 1996, Nomar won the job. Garciaparra's talent was enough to displace Valentin, who was moved to second base (then third base) to make room for young Garciaparra, who batted .241 with 4 home runs, 16 RBI, and 5 stolen bases in his initial stint with the club, near the end of 1996. As a rookie in 1997, he hit 30 home runs and drove in 98 runs, setting a new MLB record for RBIs by a leadoff hitter. He was named Rookie of the Year in a unanimous vote, competed in the Home Run Derby, and finished eighth in MVP voting. He also won the immediate admiration of Red Sox fans, who referred to him in Boston accents as "Nomahh". With his hard work and idiosyncratic quirks, his popularity easily stretched well beyond Red Sox Nation.
From 1998-2000, Garciaparra emerged as the one of the better hitters of the Holy Trinity of shortstops, with the highest career OPS of the three by the conclusion of this period. He finished with 35 home runs and 122 RBI in 1998, and placed as the runner-up for AL MVP. Garciaparra then led the American League in batting average for the next two years, hitting .357 in 1999 and .372 in 2000, finishing in the top ten in MVP voting both years. He is one of the few right-handed batters to win consecutive batting titles, and the first since Joe DiMaggio.
In February of 2001, Garciaparra appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, with the headline "A Cut Above... baseball's toughest out". The week after the issue hit newsstands, Garciaparra reported to spring training with a serious wrist injury, which essentially aborted his season. He recovered by the start of the 2002 season and drove in 120 runs while hitting a league-leading 56 doubles. However, he had a difficult time playing as strongly defensively as before, and his batting average dipped substantially.
[edit] The End of Garciaparra in Boston
Before the 2002 season, a new ownership group purchased the Red Sox. The baseball operations staff, led by Theo Epstein, stressed on-base percentage on offense and strong defense, the two areas where Garciaparra was about to decline precipitously from his pre-2001 levels. Still, Garciaparra was able to recover from an injury-filled 2001 season and bat .310 with 24 home runs and 120 RBIs in 2002. The star shortstop was up for a contract extension following the 2004 season and hoped for a deal before that deadline. Garciaparra, still considered one of the best shortstops in baseball, hoped to receive salaries in the ballpark of peers Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. A four year deal worth $60 million was agreed in principle, but fell apart during the 2003 season.
In 2003, Garciaparra ended a solid but unspectacular season with a miserable September, closing with a career-low .301 batting average. He then followed that with a poor post-season, contributing zero home runs, one RBI and ten strikeouts in 12 games vs. the Oakland Athletics and rival Yankees, who eliminated the Red Sox in seven games.
Meanwhile, new stars and cult heroes, led by David Ortiz and Kevin Millar, began to emerge in Red Sox Nation. Millar coined the catch phrase "Cowboy Up" in 2003, and convinced nearly every player on the roster other than Johnny Damon and Garciaparra (whose wedding with Mia Hamm followed the season) to shave his head. For his part, Garciaparra became more reclusive and isolated as his star slowly faded in the new, more team-oriented era of Red Sox baseball. To a similar extent, the demise of Boston's star culture for a populist approach also alienated pitcher Pedro Martinez, another holdover from the late '90s Dan Duquette regime which encouraged a different set of standards for star players, particularly Martinez and Garciaparra.
After the 2003 season, Red Sox management explored trading Manny Ramirez to the Texas Rangers for shortstop Alex Rodriguez. Details of this trade and the subsequent agreement that would send Garciaparra to the Chicago White Sox for Magglio Ordonez quickly became public. The mega-deal fell apart when the MLBPA refused to approve a restructuring of Rodríguez's contract, and Garciaparra returned to Boston as a lame duck for 2004 in the final year of a contract he signed in 1997.
Garciaparra missed three months of the 2004 season with an injured Achilles' tendon when a foul ball hit him in spring training. Many critics felt Garciaparra exaggerated the injury since he was bitter that the Red Sox had tried to trade him and were now offering $12 million per year instead of $15 million per year. This was widely felt to be the final nail in Garciaparra's coffin in Boston. Garciaparra told manager Terry Francona that he would have to miss much of August and September, causing Theo Epstein to decide that the struggling team needed a new shortstop.
[edit] Short Career with Cubs
On July 31, 2004, at the MLB trading deadline, Garciaparra was traded from the Red Sox to the Chicago Cubs in a four-team deal, in which the Red Sox acquired Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz. He expressed his appreciation to Red Sox Nation in a speech to media and left for the Windy City. In spite of losing a player with a lifetime average above .320, the controversial trade is often credited as giving the Red Sox the spark they needed to win the World Series in 2004.
In the 2005 season, a torn left groin forced him onto the disabled list yet again for more than three months. Garciaparra resumed play on August 5, 2005. Because Cubs regular third baseman Aramis Ramírez was on the disabled list for the last few weeks of the 2005 season, he temporarily played third base. Aside from his first game in the majors, in which he played second base, he had played shortstop in all of his other major-league games up to that point in his career.
[edit] Los Angeles Dodgers (2006)
In 2006, Nomar returned to his home town signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Also on the team are former Red Sox players Bill Mueller, Derek Lowe, and manager Grady Little, however, early in May, Mueller suffered a serious knee injury preventing him from playing a majority of the season.
Though he was able to retain his original number 5 jersey, he moved to first base in order to minimize the risk of injury while the Dodgers signed Rafael Furcal from the Atlanta Braves to step in for the recovering Cesar Izturis at short. Healthy for the first extended period of time since 2003, he has regained his offensive stroke, evidenced by a one-point .370 batting average and by remaining constantly productive. By the 2006 MLB All-Star Break, Nomar was tied with Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez for the lead amongst all MLB infielders and all NL batters with a .358 batting average, to go along with 11 home runs and 53 RBIs, carrying a 21-game hitting streak into the break.
He also appears to be adjusting well to playing first base, having committed only 1 error through 588.2 innings played--a .998 fielding percentage. He also was elected to the final spot of the 2006 NL All-Star Team, receiving around six million votes. It was his sixth trip to the Midsummer Classic, and his first as a first baseman and a Dodger. Garciaparra also capped off the one of the most amazing games of the season, on September 18. That night the Dodgers hit four consecutive home runs in the ninth inning against the San Diego Padres to tie the game; after the Padres scored a run in the tenth inning, Nomar hit a walkoff two-run home run in the bottom of the tenth to win the game 11-10. Unfortunately, a combination of oblique strains, knee injuries, and simple struggles caused Nomar's play to drop off dramatically in the second half. His .358 batting average steadily declined to just a hair over three hundred by the end of the season.
On October 7, Garciaparra was named the National League's Comeback Player of the Year for 2006. He received 72,054 votes.
On November 20, 2006 the Dodgers resigned Garciaparra to a 2 year contract worth $18.5 million, keeping him with the team through the 2008 season.
[edit] Letter to Dodger fans (2006)
Dear Dodger Fans, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your support this season. Since I signed with the Dodgers in December, you have been tremendously supportive and have welcomed me more than I could have ever hoped. And, I have even more reason to be grateful, as many of you took the time out of your busy day to make the Final Vote and send me to the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
As a Major League player, one of the greatest honors is being selected to play the All-Star Game. It is something I have been fortunate enough to do several times, and it is such an incredible experience to be able to meet and play with so many talented players from both leagues on one playing field.
This year, it means even more because I am going to represent my hometown in the game. I look forward to sharing the experience with my family, and seeing many friends from other teams as well as playing for the National League to secure home field advantage in the World Series.
Again, thank you very much. This is truly an honor, and I look forward to representing the city and fans of Los Angeles in Pittsburgh next week. See you at the stadium this year.
Sincerely,
Nomar
[edit] Style of play
When making defensive plays, Garciaparra throws from a sidearm motion. This motion is often coupled with a seemingly off-balance running stride, which looks inefficient and even injury-prone, but which produces a throw with surprising accuracy and high velocity.
What's more, Garciaparra is also known for his idiosyncratic tics when batting-- which includes an elaborate routine of glove adjustments and alternating toe taps on the ground prior to an ensuing pitch.
[edit] Trivia
- Garciaparra wears the number 5, although for his first game as a Cub he wore the number 8 because catcher Michael Barrett already wore the number 5 on his jersey. He and Barrett then swapped numbers.
- He is a six-time All-Star (1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2006).
- In five postseason series he has batted .323 with a slugging percentage of .625.
- Despite being traded mid-season, Garciaparra received a World Series Championship ring as a member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox.
- Garciaparra holds the unofficial record for most home runs and highest batting average on a player's birthday. Alex Rodriguez has the second most home runs on his birthday.
- On November 22, 2003, he married soccer legend Mia Hamm.
- His brother, Michael Garciaparra, is also a ballplayer. As of the 2006 season, he is an infielder with the Tacoma Rainiers (the AAA team for the Seattle Mariners organization).
- He played in the 1994 college baseball national championship game for Georgia Tech. Former Boston teammate Jason Varitek was also a member of that team.
- WROR-FM's Tom Doyle spoofed the Lou Bega song "Mambo No. 5" for him, entitled "Nomar's Number Five." It went through several iterations until his departure from the team in 2004, at which point it was entitled "No More Number Five."
- Both he and Mia Hamm were on Olympic teams in their respective sports. Garciaparra was on the 1992 Olympic baseball team, and Hamm was on the 1996, 2000, and 2004 women's Olympic soccer teams.
- Derisive names for Garciaparra used by hecklers include "Nosemar," "Mr. Hamm," "Garciapopup," "Garciaerror" and "No Mas", meaning "No More" in Spanish.
- On the Kate Hudson/Radiohead episode on season 26 of Saturday Night Live, Nomar Garciaparra cameoed in a "Boston Teens" sketch.
- Nomar's unique name comes from his father's name spelled backwards. His father's name is Ramon.
- On October 8, 2005, Garciaparra and his uncle Victor Garciaparra were alerted to the screams of two women who had fallen into Boston Harbor outside his condominium. One of the women sustained injuries to her head after hitting the pier on her way in. Garciaparra quickly jumped into the harbor and saved both women, who were later taken to the hospital. [2]
[edit] Related Links
[edit] External links
- Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
- Nomar Garciaparra at ESPN.com
- Page at Baseball Library
- NNDB Profile
| Preceded by Derek Jeter |
American League Rookie of the Year 1997 |
Succeeded by Ben Grieve |
| Preceded by Manny Ramirez |
American League Player of the Month May, 1999 |
Succeeded by Rafael Palmeiro |
| Preceded by Bernie Williams |
American League Batting Champion 1999-2000 |
Succeeded by Ichiro Suzuki |
| Preceded by Ken Griffey, Jr. |
NL Comeback Player of the Year 2006 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
Categories: Major league players from California | Baseball Rookies of the Year | American League All-Stars | National League All-Stars | Major league shortstops | Boston Red Sox players | Los Angeles Dodgers players | Chicago Cubs players | 1975 births | Living people | Olympic competitors for the United States | Baseball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's baseball players | American League batting champions | Mexican Americans | Mexican American Sports People
