LAKELAND, Fla. � About a half-hour after Nomar Garciaparra announced his retirement from baseball on Wednesday morning, Johnny Damon heard the news about his former Red Sox teammate from a group of reporters. Garciaparra signed a one-day, minor-league contract with Boston so he could retire as a Red Sox.
"Wow," Damon said. "That's a class move by the Red Sox and by Nomar. He meant so much to that city."
Their careers overlapped in Boston for two and a half seasons, with Garciaparra dealt to the Chicago Cubs at the 2004 trade deadline. The Red Sox acquired Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera, who replaced Garciaparra at shortstop and helped lead them to a World Series sweep of St. Louis. Damon was one of those so-called idiots, and he said Wednesday that Garciaparra's advice lasted after he was gone.
"I mean, obviously, he was the man," Damon said. "He told me how to be prepared every single day because these people are looking at you when you hit a pop fly, when you hit a ground ball, the way you carry yourself. Everybody's watching in Boston. You never want to go out and embarrass yourself. My years there, I definitely took those to heart."
Although Garciaparra finished his career with stops in Los Angeles and Oakland, he is most closely identified with his time in the Boston organization, in which he spent parts of 11 seasons. Damon is tied mostly to Boston or the Yankees, even though he spent more time in the Kansas City system (nine years) than those two teams combined. Perhaps that is why, when asked (in jest) if he would retire as a Yankee or a Red Sox, Damon hedged.
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