Ace Chimes in on the Nomar Madness

"Theo had to decide if 30-40 games of Nomar at SS, with another 20-30 games of Pokey/Ricky at SS was better than 50-60 games of Orlando Cabrera at SS. Look, Orlando Cabrera is not a .250 hitter, he's a legitimate gold glove winner and in my opinion his career numbers are a lot closer to the real player than the numbers he had put up this year."

Boston Dirt Dogs:  Curt, an email came in from a lifelong Sox fan after yesterday's trade that started like this:

"I picked up my daughter at a birthday party yesterday around 5 pm and told one of the parents there that Nomar was traded to the Cubs. A little boy with a Red Sox hat overheard me and started crying and had to be taken away..."

What do you say to all the little Nomah-5 shirt wearing fans out there, and the people who thought Nomar was the next Ted Williams, and would spend his entire career here?

Curt Schilling: You tell them the truth I think. Listen, no one died here, I am certain though, being a new guy in these parts, that some people feel like someone did actually die. This is a sport, big business, not life and death. Trades happen, and this one was obviously larger and had much more impact given the team and the fans and the player and all the combined history.

It was no mystery that Nomar wasn't going to re-sign here, I continue to be amazed at the amount of dancing around this actual fact by everyone. Given that he wasn't going to be coming back, the GM of this team had a very significant decision to make on whether 30-40 games with him, and then the eventual compensation draft choice, were worth not trading him.

Theo had to decide if 30-40 games of Nomar at SS, with another 20-30 games of Pokey/Ricky at SS was better than 50-60 games of Orlando Cabrera at SS. Look, Orlando Cabrera is not a .250 hitter, he's a legitimate gold glove winner and in my opinion his career numbers are a lot closer to the real player than the numbers he had put up this year. From what I have read, he was also one of the potential replacements to be pursued this winter when Nomar left.

Regardless of all the "he said she said" going back and forth now, the facts have been pretty plain and very obvious since I got here. Nomar was not re-signing here, he was going to be a free agent, rather than let him walk for the pick our GM decided to try and improve the one area this team has a gaping weakness in, and did. As far as losing his offense I look at it this way. We spent the first 1/3 of the season without him, and we played well, we were also missing Trot, like now, they are both not in our lineup, we found a way to win then, and we can do so now, we have to.

Would our offense be better with BOTH of them in it? Sure would, but you can't have everything you want, you have to take what's given to you and make it work, and I think we will.

So I guess the short answer is to tell them to appreciate what they got a chance to see, and remember it. Tell them that Nomar is a ballplayer, not a fireman or a police officer or a doctor, those people are the ones she needs to look up to and respect, along with her parents. Ballplayers are there to perform and be cheered, booed and jeered, to entertain fans with their god given ability, and to perform at a level no one else can. Then, at the end of the day, we go home and do the same things you all do.