Nomar traded to Chicago

I don't know how many baseball fans there are on this board, but I have to at least vent to you guys, even if you DONT share my pain.

The Red Sox traded Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs yesterday. That alone made me very, VERY sad, causing me to spend yesterday on the couch eating Yodles and cookie dough.

So, today I felt a little better. I flip on the TV, and what do I see but NOMAR in a CUBS UNIFORM. AND his number has changed from 5 to 8. I didn't expect it to happen so soon, is all. I thought maybe they'd give him a couple of days off to adjust, but I guess not.

I guess I'll just have be a Sox fan AND a Cubs fan. I can do that. Only problem is, I'll want to kill myself twice as much come World Series time. And I know that the Red Sox management treated him like sh*t during the whole A-Rod thing last winter, and he's probably happy now. It's just not going to be the same.

I need some love, guys. Help me out here.

*steps off soapbox and returns to lying on the couch in her Nomar shirt, watching Footloose, surrounded by empty bags of chips and Devil Dog wrappers *

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Broadwaybaby I feel your pain. I was bummed all day today thinking about it. Now I can't even watch him play unless they happen to show a Cubs game on ESPN...this stinks!

Thanks Maggie :)
I don't even know if I can watch him play anymore. Oh well. I suppose I'll get used to it. It's just gonna take some time.

Oh, and I love your icon.

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I'm a Mets fan. I'm used to pain.

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But the Red Sox come close to the playoffs every year. Texas is hasn't had this kind of season for practically a decade.

But hopefully Texas wins the AL West and I don't have to pick sides. Until they play each other in the playoffs.

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I dont follow football

Thanks Lady. Actually my dad is a huge Yankee fan so I've heard all about this trade.

I also feel the pain BB614! I was in NYC when I heard that news.The question remains ... Just how dumb is Red Sox's management? Answer VERY!
But on the bright side the Cubbies are my favorite NL team, so maybe this will be the year they finally win. ( From my lips to Gods ear!)

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Au contraire, mominator. I believe that Red Sox's management is actually pretty smart, though whether they're as brilliant as some sabermetric Sox fans would have you believe is questionable. You know Nomar hasn't been the same since he broke his wrist.

But anyway, I'm disappointed in you, papa. Judging a player by only his postseason record? And only the last postseason, at that?

Soriano was pretty bad this past postseason- in the ALCS and WS levels, at least. He actually did quite nicely for himself against the Twins. But are you forgetting 2001, for instance? He hit a game-winning home run in game 4 against Seattle. He hit the game-winning single in Game 4 of that year's World Series in extra innings. He would have had the game-winning home run in Game 7 if Mariano hadn't blown the lead. And this is just in his rookie year.

Now for some bizarre reason Sori has a reputation as a player who can't handle pressure while Pettite is revered as a "clutch" player. (There is no such thing as a clutch player, by the way, with very few exceptions.) Sure, Pettitte's performance against the Braves in Game 5 of the 1996 World Series is legendary. But did you forget that it was partially made necessary by his absolutely disasterous start in Game 1?

Sure, Pettite did great this past postseason. But are you forgetting how badly he did in the 2001 World Series? (Clemens absolutely saved the Yankees' asses that time.) Or what a disaster he was in the 2002 ALDS? The 1999 World Series? The 1998 ALCS?

That's not to say that Andy Pettite is a postseason stinker. He's not. But, like the vast majority of players, he doesn't do quite as well overall during the postseason as during the regular season because the level of competition is higher. In fact, the only member of the Yankees dynasty who really lifts his performance in a statistically significant way during the postseason- the only one who's a true clutch god- is Mariano Rivera.

Alex Rodriguez is a better hitter than Soriano, no doubt. (Though thanks to the unbelievable hitter's park at Arlington, the difference isn't as great as it seems.) But it's also true that Sori was home-developed, much cheaper, and dammit, I was attached to him. And he was a good player, one of the top 2 or 3 second basemen in baseball for the past 2 years. The Yankees had solid reasons for giving him up, but he's by no means a disaster.

This dynasty started in the mid-90's with the core of Jeter, Posada, Pettitte, and Rivera all coming up from the minors. With Nick Johnson (potentially brilliant but often injured) and Soriano (already brilliant but streaky), I kind of thought the foundation was being set again. Not to mention Ted Lilly, who was partially developed by the Yanks. It's damn discouraging to see everyone young being traded away, and the farm system so completely desolate. Unless the Yankees start drafting smarter and stop relying on nothing but money to fix their problems, they will go down. End of story.

Oh, come on. The Mets won in 1986, didn't they? And they were a lot closer to beating the Yankees in 2000 than the near-sweep would indicate.

Updated On: 8/2/04 at 10:17 AM

the team to watch is going to be texas. buck showalter is down there quietly building another world series winner. he built the core of the yankees team that won the bulk of the 90's series's before being cast aside for torre (who'd never won a thing in his life before coming to the yanks), then he went off and built the diamondbacks franchise (not just the team that eventually beat the yanks, but the actual franchise itself from the ground up) before being cast aside again. now he's down in texas with a young team that's in the groove for the wildcard spot and has nothing but upside. if el duque can keep his head and we can ger moose and brown healthy, we can take the series this year, but in the long haul, ya gotta love the rangers chances.

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At least we in Cleveland realize there really isn't a next year.

Now we can only watch the All-Star game each year and see where our team has gone.

As an I-77 guy, I stuck with the Tribe, although the Rocker trade was a pretty obvious bad idea, even at the time.