Wednesday, March 10, 2010

On Nomar

I've been a huge Nomar Garciaparra fan from his earliest days as a Red Socker until the current minute. The #5 T-shirt I wore in a video from 1999 (It's all cued up to be the next in that me/Chan vacation video series!) is the same one I wore to Fenway when he came back last season. I, like a majority of Red Sox fans, am happy that A. he wants to retire as a member of our team and that B. the team is embracing the idea.

But here's what's gonna happen. People (90% being Yankee fans disguised behind their digital persona as a "neutral fan who hates the Red Sox and Yankees," 5% being members of the Boston media who love when bad things happen to the Sox and when the Yanks do well because it's a "better story," and 5% being those old, crusty, negative Red Sox fans who complain about literally anything the team does) will flood the e- and airwaves with talk of how "the Red Sox are stealing your money! Look at how bad and stupid they are! They'll probably charge you $10 to watch the press conference and FORCE you all to buy a commemorative bla bla bla." It's all cut-and-pasted from a template with (if they have half a brain) the relevant words and names plugged in. (A great example came yesterday when someone on a messageboard accused the Red Sox of suckering people in to spending money on a spring training game only for fans to see the stars for a few innings only, as if the fact that the stars playing only a few innings in early exhibition games doesn't happen with EVERY team. As a bonus, the guy said this about a ROAD GAME. Whoops! See, you can't just throw your template out there at any time when you have no idea what you're talking about. He also reeked of Yankee fan but as usual didn't admit it to make it appear that his opinion was shared by the masses.)

At that point, most of your co-workers will buy into the hype, and spew back to you what they heard on the radio/internet as if they thought of it (See Manny Ramirez). Some newer under-20 Yankee fans will also make fun of the "one-day contract" concept, as they will have never heard of it before because it's never happened in their fantasy league.

By then, it will appear as if "everyone" hates this whole idea, and that it's really dumb and un-awesome. And the sports radio hosts will laugh at us geeks who care about this stuff, when in reality their job exists because of it. Just remember, though, the bulk of fans (over 99%) don't post on the web or call radio shows. It was proven when Nomar returned to Fenway last year that Red Sox fans love the guy. So if you are a Nomar fan, and people are saying stupid shit to you, take a deep breath, and think about the situation: It's very simple, no one's trying to take your guns or money away from you, we're just letting a guy we love retire in a Red Sox uniform. The world will be the same tomorrow, except that Corey Haim won't be there. So when someone blindly says to you, "You hear about this Nomar thing, pretty shitty and stupid, huh? Lolcatz facebook tweet", you don't have to give 'em the giggle and nod, just say, "No. Totally fine. No problem. A nice gesture. Fine." (If they listen to sports radio, feel free to add that that's the "bottom line.")

Comments:
And I'm not gonna see the press conference till later obviously, and if there is anything crappy about it, like this is really the launch or Nomar brand cologne or something, of course I will admit that. But the point is the concept of him retiring a Sock, and I am 100% okay with that and I feel like finding a reason to make fun of it is just looking for something negative, know what I mean?

Also, in this post I could have written the Manny part as "(see Ramirez, Manny)" but I think that way is a little un-awesome.
 
The press conference was understated and very well-done. There seemed to be genuine good feelings between Nomar and the FO and at times it seemed like Theo was even watching out for Nomar (he was in his own world and Theo pointed out that he might want to mention his family, all of whom seemed to be there).

I was disappointed that they didn't give him a jersey to wear but that probably would have set the haters off even more.

I'm giddy at the idea of this part of the history of the Sox being put to rest in such a great way.
 
It's crusty ole D & C who plant those seeds into the minds of their morning show groupies. This is what happens when you've got no decent sports show alternative except "Toucher and Rich" who aren't even talking about sports on the only other Boston sports radio station. It's a shame, really, since Boston is such a huge sports city.
 
My biggest hope for the Sox is that they'll wake up and form their own radio station so in the dead of winter I can hear classic Sox games on the radio late night. It'd be really nice to hear a morning show that talked about sports rather than the latest headlines on drudgereport.com too.
 

Post a Comment

If you're "anonymous," please leave a name, even if it's a fake one, for differentiation purposes.

If you're having trouble commenting, try signing in to whatever account you're using first, then come back here once you're signed in.



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

My Photo
Name:
Location: Rhode Island, United States