I’m Feeling Optimistic. Yes, Really.

Starting fresh with a clean slate, optimism, and all that other happy stuff each spring really only happens if your baseball team doesn’t suck. I highly doubt Pirates or Indians fans are feeling particularly refreshed and optimistic this year. We’ve used the “wait ’til next year” line ad nauseum in the history of Red Sox baseball, but for the past decade now we’ve pretty much had nothing to complain about hope-wise in the month of March. In this spirit I’m feeling quite optimistic about the offense and a few of our offensive prospects. A couple of nice Spring Training wins in which the projected Opening Day line-up and starting pitching staff come out looking great will do that to you. Add in a few great looking prospects and suddenly I’m feeling like Brad Garrett dancing through that stupid 7UP or Sprite commercial he uncharacteristically he tra la la las through. (Or whatever soda he’s selling, I honestly can’t recall.)

After our unceremonious departure from the ALDS last October, and seeming lack of addition of any major offensive talent,  I was ready to hop on the gloom and doom train and ride that sucker straight through the 2010 season. I don’t really care about the loss of Jason Bay, he struck out way too much for my taste and while he was a solid player he wasn’t really lighting anything on fire. Yes, Beltre is a nice defensive upgrade to the broken remnants of the once great Mike Lowell, but his offense is slightly suspect. of once being juiced. He’s coming off injuries, blah, blah, we’ll see. Aside from the 2004 anomaly, his career numbers do not match up to Jason Bay’s, although he does seem to strike out less, so at least there’s that. Oh wait, I was being hopeful and optimistic. The Red Sox have a lot more talent than Seattle had to work with during Beltre’s stint with the Mariners. With a good surrounding cast he should rebound with another career year, n’est-ce pas?

Okay, okay, here’s where my real optimism kicks in. Enter Josh Reddick and Ryan Kalish, both outfielders. In a handful of Spring Training games they’ve dually impressed me. Hitting? check. Fielding? check. Put them next to Jacoby Ellsbury in a year or two and our outfield will be sick. They are the future and the future looks damn good right now. Like, bacon lollipop good. (That was a gratuitous reference for you bacon lovers, I don’t really like bacon. For realz.) I hope they’re with Sea Dogs all year so when I make my annual visit Maine this summer I can see them play. I want to see highly touted shortstop Jose Iglesias and pitcher Casey Kelly too. They are also having a nice little springtime visit to Florida this year. If everyone stays on their current course of progression the Red Sox are going to be mighty talented in 2012.

Nostalgia and Nomar

Close your eyes. Pretend it’s the summer of 1999.You’re in Fenway Park. The Red Sox are playing. Who are you there to see?

(Hint: Pedro is not pitching this evening.)

Nomar Garciaparra.

From 1997, when he burst on the scene as Rookie of the Year, to 2003, his last full year in a Red Sox uniform, he was the show in Boston.  Little kids all over New England wanted to grow up and be Nomar.  He was fun to watch, he could hit so well even Ted Williams was impressed, he was young, he was home grown from the farm system and he represented the future of the Boston Red Sox.

I was fourteen in the summer of 1997. I had seen Nomar play some AA ball in the previous summers when the then Red Sox affiliate Trenton Thunder would come up to Portland to play the then Marlin affliated Sea Dogs.  A friend of mine even got his autograph there. At the time he was just the player with the funny name who was nice enough to stop and sign for a few kids on his way into the ballpark, but that was how he got on my radar. As a kid at a minor league game you haven’t analyzed the prospect reports and statistics hoping to see the next great player in waiting, you’re just excited about the thrill of going to the ballpark and you remember the guys who were nice enough sign a ball or program. Want to build a loyal fan base future MLBers? Sign for every kid you can when you’re in the minors. They’ll remember and love you for it.

We came of age together. Nomar made it to the big leagues that spring and I started high school that fall.  I got my drivers license, first real job, and first car in 1999. Nomar hit .352 on the season and Ted Williams called him “my kid” surrounded by many of the greatest players ever to play the game on the field at Fenway Park before the All-Star Game. In 2000  I mulled college applications and wrote essays and Nomar hit .372.  We were growing up. The future looked bright. In 2001 we both took the year off. I graduated from high school and decided to take a year away from school to be what’s known in the horse world as “working student,” which basically means I worked 6 days a week for a horse trainer in exchange for room, board and training, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Nomar got hurt and only played in 21 games. In 2002 we came back with a splash. I started college and Nomar hit 56 doubles while making his 4th All-Star team. We were pretty much grown up.

2003 saw another heartbreaking end to the Red Sox season and our World Series dreams. It was the beginning of the end for Nomar in Boston. 2004 brought everything a Red Sox fan had ever dreamed of, but we lost someone special. Yes, there was some drama surrounding his departure, but it wouldn’t be Boston if there wasn’t. I believed in Nomar, along with Tim Wakefield, he was my favorite, and I still remember the night he was traded. I happened to be home in Maine at the time and was upstairs in my parents house checking my email. I think there was even a Red Sox game going on downstairs. Naturally I’m on the redsox.com mailing list, and I practically got the news in real time. Nomar had been traded to the Cubbies. I let out an audible yelp and rushed downstairs to share the news. Nomar was gone.

I kept an eye on him in Chicago and then LA and last year in Oakland. It was great to see him return to Fenway last summer and see my fellow fans let him know we still care, we remember the good times and he’ll always have a home in Boston. There was another yelp, albeit a mental one, this morning when I saw headlines speculating on his retirement. How could Nomar be retiring? He’s just a kid, Ted’s kid, was 1999 really 11 years ago? Whoa. I am not old by any stretch of the imagination, but Nomar is so inextricably tied to my teenage years that it made me feel just a bit on the elderly side.

I hope he finds a place to play this year.  In a perfect world, the Red Sox have a little heart and sign him for a farewell tour. He’s got the skills to serve as backup utility infielder and I like the idea of him finishing where he started. After living in North Carolina for the past 8 years I’m starting to think about heading home too. It would be perfect for both of us to head home together. So come on number 5, find a way to get back on the field, give us one more summer to feel completely young. I’m not ready to be that grown up yet.