An All-Star again and a worried man no more, Nomar Garciaparra boarded a private jet Sunday night in Los Angeles with his wife, father and a Dodgers teammate, freed from controversy, injury and a losing team (although he still thinks Cubs fans are “just phenomenal”).
Boston got rid of him. Chicago let him go. Now his batting average is .358, as good as anybody’s in the National League. He is playing a first-rate first base. And he is so happy to be playing it for his favorite boyhood team that he feels like the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
Could he have stayed with the Cubs, done all of this for them?
“Well, we chatted a little bit,” Garciaparra says, going out of his way to offend no one, so upbeat is he about how this whole experience has worked out.
“They were as classy as could be. They told me it was time for the Cubs to go in a different direction, and I could understand that. I’ll always wish them luck. My first day there, that ovation I received was so awesome. I’ll never forget that for the rest of my life.”
So parting was hard?
“I think maybe I let myself sulk for one day,” he says.
Something came up Oct. 8 to take his mind off baseball in a hurry. A woman fell into Boston Harbor, directly across from a condo Garciaparra still owned there. And then a companion of hers fell in as well. Garciaparra and his uncle, Victor, saw it happen and couldn’t believe their eyes. Nomar jumped in and helped pull both women to safety.
After that, it was time to get back to work.
Garciaparra didn’t dwell on his run of bad luck. He began a search for a new team. He continued to work out. Physical ailments during the 2005 Cubs season had caused him to miss 100 games. But he felt nearly 100 percent.
Still, would he ever again be the player he once was?
Garciaparra was a young sun god, Boston’s beloved “No-mahhh,” the skinny kid with the crooked nose and the nervous tics at home plate who in 1998 banged out 35 home runs, who a year later hit .357, who a year after that raised it to .372.
Where did that guy go?
Magglio Ordonez could relate. He was the pride of Chicago’s South Side, an object of adoration (“O-ee-oh!”) and a regular All-Star until his body broke down. Then his relationship with the team did the same.
Ordonez was cast off by the White Sox and insulted by manager Ozzie Guillen once he was out the door.
“What I went through these last two years,” says Ordonez, now a star for the Detroit Tigers, “made me wonder if I could ever be the same player I used to be. My first time as an All-Star was very special to me, but this time is the most special.”
Guillen personally named Ordonez to the American League’s team. It didn’t hurt that the two men made up after their spat.
“I went to him,” Ordonez says. “We were like, OK, who’s going to go first?”
An additional parallel between Garciaparra and Ordonez is that each was a late addition to the All-Stars, with the Dodgers’ fans getting out the vote for their man.
So in a way, both could have missed out on Tuesday night’s Midsummer Classic if somebody out there didn’t like them.
Garciaparra wrote a public letter to L.A.’s fans, thanking them for what they did. A six-time All-Star, he wrote: “This year it means even more because I am going to represent my hometown.”
He has a shot at a World Series ring–this is another thing he and Ordonez have in common after seeing their former teams hit the jackpot in 2004 and 2005–and says of joining the Dodgers, the team he first saw at age 4, “I could sit here and talk to you for three hours about that.”
“I have been blessed with the places I’ve played, the uniforms I’ve been able to wear,” Garciaparra says. “I have played in front of phenomenal fans. Chicago’s fans, that’s what they were, just phenomenal. Somebody up there is looking out for me.”
He had to learn how to play first base.
In a twist of fate, the Cubs let him go because they were set at that position, only to have Derrek Lee get hurt … at Dodger Stadium, no less.
Jaime Jarrin, the Dodgers’ Spanish-speaking radio voice and a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame, says, “You should see Nomar play first base. Just beautiful. It’s like he was born there.”
Nomar won’t go that far.
“I’m a work in progress,” he says. “I remember showing up early in spring training and somebody thinking that I’m going to be moving to an `easier’ position. Well, people ask me now if I’m comfortable yet at first base and I say, `No!’ It doesn’t take weeks or months to get it right. It takes years.”
Sunday night, he and his wife, soccer idol Mia Hamm, watched a tape of the World Cup title match on the plane to Pittsburgh. He also chatted with his dad, Ramon–Nomar is that name backward–and with Brad Penny, who will be the NL’s starting pitcher.
“Am I happy to be an All-Star again?” Garciaparra asks. “The way I feel, just being in the major leagues makes you an All-Star. You could fill up an All-Star team three times over and everyone on it would be deserving.”
There is only one Cubs player here, Carlos Zambrano, who spots Garciaparra and calls over, “Good to see you!”
“Good to be seen,” Garciaparra says.
Once more, the player he used to be.
The starting lineups
AL TEAM
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RF Ichiro Suzuki Seattle
SS Derek Jeter N.Y. Yankees
1B David Ortiz Boston
3B Alex Rodriguez N.Y. Yankees
LF Vladimir Guerrero L.A. Angels
C Ivan Rodriguez Detroit
CF Vernon Wells Toronto
2B Mark Loretta Boston
P Kenny Rogers Detroit
NL TEAM
LF Alfonso Soriano Washington
CF Carlos Beltran N.Y. Mets
1B Albert Pujols St. Louis
RF Jason Bay Pittsburgh
SS Edgar Renteria Atlanta
3B David Wright N.Y. Mets
2B Chase Utley Philadelphia
C Paul Lo Duca N.Y. Mets
P Brad Penny L.A. Dodgers
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mikedowney@tribune.com
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