Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
Ted Williams played in Boston for 21 years. These days you’re lucky if you get 10 seasons out of your franchise players. Recently, Drew Bledsoe, Lawyer Milloy, Curtis Martin, Mo Vaughn, Ray Bourque and Antoine Walker have all exited the Boston sports scene, and many of us fans have closets full of jerseys that we can’t wear anymore because our heroes skipped town (or were run out). The latest head on the chopping block is Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, and I’ve got to tell you, it doesn’t feel right.
The Sox want to trade Manny Ramirez to Texas to acquire reigning AL MVP Alex Rodriguez, then trade Nomar to the Angels or Dodgers so A-Rod can play shortstop here. There’s no arguing that Rodriguez is one of the best players in baseball, and may even be better than Garciaparra, and that moving Ramirez wouldn’t be such a bad idea. But the idealist in me says that this deal is bad news.
If you’re a college-age fan, odds are you’ve spent the last six years ignoring statistics and blindly arguing that Nomar was better than Jeter and A-Rod. Nomar was the first superstar you knew, and he’s your boy. He always says the right things about playing hard everyday, and he works his tail off in the off-season. He does a lot for the kids in Boston. Heck, Ted Williams was his mentor. Does he really belong anywhere other than Fenway Park?
Boston fans have also spent years bashing George Steinbrenner and his Yankees for buying championships, but now we’re about to do the exact same thing. This town loved the Super Bowl Patriots because they were an army of blue collar men, and we love this year’s Patriots because there’s no high-priced talent – just solid, unselfish football. Where’s that mentality with the Sox?
What if Rodriguez gets hurt, and winds up the next Ken Griffey Jr.? Not only that, but is Rodriguez really that good? The Sox have to give up two all-stars to get him; is any player on the planet as good as Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez combined? Do we really need all this high-priced talent to win? Look at last year – was there any fanfare around the signings of Kevin Millar, David Ortiz and Bill Meuller? That worked out just fine, didn’t it?
The Sox aren’t being fair to Garciaparra, either. Imagine how he’ll feel if this deal doesn’t go through, coming into spring training knowing he was the team’s second choice, that the team he helped build wanted to throw him out with yesterday’s trash. He’ll play hard everyday because that’s the type of player he is, but it might make him think twice next year when his contract is up.
We all know the number one goal is to win, but shouldn’t there be a little loyalty left in sports? It’s time for the fans to step up and reject this trend of shuffling players from team to team every year. You used to be able to count on stars being with their team for the long haul, you could get to know The Red Sox broke my heart in October, but I would rather have my heart broken every year by a team whose players I know and love than win one with a bunch of imports we bought.
In the last four months we’ve seen two team captains and city icons go, and Garciaparra is likely next. There’s a serious problem in sports when a guy who has done as much for a team as Nomar has for the Red Sox is left wondering if we still want him around. There’s a serious problem when a fan is afraid to shell out sixty bucks for a jersey because he’s afraid that name on the back won’t be around next month.
But in today’s big market, big money world the only thing left to say is watch out Joe Thornton, best player in hockey and team captain, because you’ll probably be the next one on a bus away from Bean Town. Good grief.
Bangor Daily News