Outtakes: Nomar Garciaparra on being traded to the Cubs

June 25th, 2006 → 11:16 pm @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments

This is the fourth in a series of outtakes from interviews done for Feeding the Monster, to be published on July 11 by Simon & Schuster. It is the second of three outtakes from this interview with Nomar Garciaparra, which was conducted in Austin, Texas on October 28, 2005. Read the book for exclusive details on Garciaparra’s career with the Red Sox, his reaction to the July 1, 2004 game against the Yankees, and the contract negotiations that began in spring training 2003 and ended on July 31, 2004.

On baseball management: If you lose the guy and then if you say anything great about him then why did you let him go? You should watch who knocks on our door and watch the death threats we get. That’s happened to all these guys—every single one—and when you are in that position and you are supposed to be focused on baseball and you are trying to block this out because all the stuff that is said about you. Probably the biggest problem [for players] was they got no support from the organization. And you see Mo [Vaughn], it was the same thing, and at the end with Roger [Clemens]. If you look, as a player, when you know you were getting all that heat from the media that’s one sided, that any little thing can be taken and run with, it sounded like all of those years when I read about it, when I read [Ted Williams’s] book as well, when I read about other players, when I talked to other players, people were just looking for support from your team. You want them to speak on your behalf, to eliminate some of that stuff. And a lot of times when they finally ask the management about you, and a lot of times its at the end of your contract, so they’re going, ‘Well I’m on the verge of negotiating with the guy and I can’t blow you up’ because if they blow you up so much they have to pay for it.

On whether he wanted to leave Boston: My fiancée at the time, we bought a home that year. I bought two apartments at this new building downtown, two places combined as one, spent over three million dollars on this place. I was like—and this is the discussion between us two, not that I ever let this out—’Well, at least we know we got the 15 million, four-year deal [that Garciaparra rejected before the 2003 season]. We are so close [to coming to an agreement] that even if we don’t get [more money], we are going to sign for that. So we might as well commit to this home.’ Because my wife and I are, shoot, we’re gonna be here for a while so let’s build our home. We are going to make a home here. So we purchased it and we were gung ho, and no one knew, it was just something we did. We didn’t want anybody to know, even though I can’t do anything in that city, I can’t go outside. I am showing my cards when I’m still trying to negotiate with the Red Sox. I knew it was going to come out anyway because I know you can’t do anything in that city without it coming out, so I’m thinking, even if it does come out, boy I’m really just showing my cards. But I’m like, ‘Whatever—I’m happy with this. That is fine, ok. I don’t want to go. I want to be here.’

On his reaction to being traded: It sucked. And then that night I got a phone call from Larry Lucchino. That was the last person I wanted to talk to. He called me that night in the hotel, and said ‘Hey Nomar, how are you doing?’ And I’m going, ‘I feel great. Just fine, I don’t want to talk to you right now, I’ve got a hundred phone calls and it’s all over.’ All my friends are going, ‘What’s going on?’ And I’m calling my family. And it sucks because I can’t call my wife because we are in different time zones. And I have to pack and now I gotta figure where I’m going tomorrow, because I have to play in Chicago. And there are just a million emotions going on and I don’t want to talk to the people who just got rid of me, who just changed my life in an instant. That’s what it felt like.

Post Categories: Baseball & Feeding the Monster Outtakes & Larry Lucchino & Nomar Garciaparra