The whole thing collapsed a few days later because of complexities involving Rodriguez’s massive contract and MLB’s Players Association, but the baseball world knew the Sox had been ready to part with both stars.
It made for a big bowl of awkward at spring training in 2004, but Boston’s “slighted” superstars took separate paths. Manny walked around smiling, saying, “They put me on eBay,” while drum-tight Nomar sulked and said, “The priorities are obviously not for me . . . I was definitely hurt by a lot of it.”
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“My first day on the job in Boston was after all that had gone down,” former Red Sox manager Terry Francona remembered this past week. “It was unbelievable. Welcome to the Red Sox, right? Manny was yelling about being on eBay, but he sort of laughed about it and got over it. And he always hit. I remember John Henry telling me when I got there, ‘Keep him on the field. That’s your job.’ ”
Indeed. When the 2004 season commenced, after being “traded,” Manny hit .308 with 43 home runs and 130 RBIs, then was named World Series MVP. He knocked in 144 one year later (remember days when the Sox had real stars?) and won a second World Series in ’07, driving home 10 runs in the ALCS. He gave the Sox 4½ more great seasons before the Sox finally dealt him to the Dodgers in 2008.
Nomar never got over it. He suffered a mysterious Achilles injury in the spring of 2004, regressed defensively, and played only 38 more games for Boston, famously sitting out a critical loss in Yankee Stadium — a game the Yankees won in extras after future Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter got bloodied while catching a pop in the third base boxes.
“I knew he was put off by it and I understood that,” Francona said of Garciaparra. “I remember telling him one day, ‘You might be Bostoned-out.’ The circumstances were difficult. It was just time.”
General manager Theo Epstein traded Garciaparra at the deadline on July 31, 2004, and the Red Sox went on to win their first World Series in 86 years.
“We basically concluded there was no way we were going to have a happy Nomar Garciaparra for the last couple of months of the season,” Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said after Garciaparra was finally dealt.
Which brings us back to the talented, pensive, stubborn, and ever-persecuted Jaylen Brown — who knows the Celtics tried to trade him to Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo this past week.
“I don’t love the fact any time it’s a big, public thing,” a chagrined Brad Stevens said after the failed bid. “As you know, we try to keep things as close to the vest and quiet as possible . . . I can’t say enough good things about Jaylen. But I certainly am empathetic towards probably what that’s felt like.”
Since the Celtics came away empty, we have yet to hear from JB (or his superstar brother, Jayson Tatum, for that matter) on the matter, but all of New England, all of the NBA, is wondering how Brown is going to respond.
The last thing we heard from Brown came on his Twitch stream early Monday when he said, “It gives me more fuel to the fire. But all the people that are doubting me, or want me to do this, or want me gone or whatever, you’re turning me into a monster.”
My Globe teammate Gary Washburn wrote that this may wind up being Stevens’s “biggest blunder because of the risk of fracturing a relationship with a player whose number is going to be retired.”
Is the relationship fractured? Does Stevens now have to make a deal like the Sox made with Nomar because his star is incapable of recovering from the notion that the team thought it could improve by trading him?
Hope not. Brown is a very good player. It would be a shame if he can’t recover from this.
Hope he can be like Manny.
Not like Nomar.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Antetokounmpo-for-Brown would have been a trade involving NBA Finals MVPs (Antetokounmpo in 2021, Brown in 2024) in the same deal. Name a time this happened. 2. Name six Hall of Famers who began their careers with the Montreal Expos (answers below).
⋅ So once again, this Red Sox mess was all Alex Cora’s fault?
⋅ If you’re a big league hitter or pitcher and you don’t like an official scoring decision . . . there’s an app for that. A batter who thinks he should have been awarded a base hit for a routine grounder that clangs off a glove can go to his phone and make his case directly with Major League Baseball. The “I Deserve a Hit” app is provided by the Players Association.
“They can go to their phone and do it when they get home,” MLB senior manager of communications Jeff Lantz, the recipient of complaints, said. “Some guys are clearly doing it from their locker. We get all kinds of them. I think we’ve had 230 of them already this year. The message is also received by the player’s own team’s baseball operations department. Team staff and coaches can also file them.”
After reviewing video and speaking with anyone who needs to be heard, MLB generally issues a ruling on any disputed scoring decision within five days of getting a player or team complaint.
⋅ Best-selling author Harlan Coben, the scribe behind Netflix’s white-hot “I Will Find You,” grew up in New Jersey but summered in Revere and spent a couple of his late-’70s high school summers at Camp Milbrook in Marshfield, where Red Auerbach held Celtics free agent/rookie camp every August.
“It was the greatest,” Coben recalled this past week. “I remember Norm Cook being a first-round pick one year. And then Cedric Maxwell. Maxwell would have to referee these outdoor games for little kids who were 8 years old. I did all kinds of jobs there. For a while I was Red’s waiter and he’d have two grilled cheese sandwiches with peanut butter. I remember Jo Jo White coming down to play in the night sessions at Marshfield High School. Mike Gminski was a counselor. Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Marvin Barnes. They all came down. Bob Brannum [1950s Celtics strongman] had a lot to do with the camp and he taught me so much about basketball.”
The 6-foot-4-inch Coben starred at Livingston High School in New Jersey and played at Amherst, before graduating in 1984.
⋅ A former Red Sox All-Star weighed in after Driveline’s Kyle Boddy left the Sox to pursue other opportunities: “I don’t believe the Boddy [expletive] story that his influence lessened over the years. He is a former poker player that is trying to save face for the Driveline brand.”
⋅ Hall of Fame lefthander Steve Carlton went 27-10 for the 59-97, last-place Phillies in 1972. Sonny Gray this season is 9-1 for a last-place Red Sox team that has a chance to lose 100.
⋅ When did Jarren Duran become a strikeout machine? He was at 96 going into Thursday night’s game with the Yankees — a full third of his at-bats. He’s on pace for close to 200 strikeouts and turns 30 on Sept. 5. He looked like a man trying to pick up a live grenade when Jake McCarthy hit his walkoff triple to left in Colorado Monday night. The Sox waited too long to trade him.
Jarren Duran entered Thursday night’s game against the Yankees with 96 strikeouts on the season.Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
⋅ Giants baseball boss Buster Posey is probably going into the Hall of Fame next summer but continues to scuffle as a big league executive. His hiring of college coach Tony Vitello as manager hasn’t worked out, Rafael Devers is a disaster, and MLB is coming down on the Giants for mishandling their annual Pride Night. Posey’s handling of the Pride Night fallout looked a lot like Duran going after that triple to left Monday in Denver.
⋅ The Athletic reports that 65-year-old Cal Ripken has taken an active role with the Orioles in an effort to bring back “The Oriole Way” — the franchise’s trademark from the mid-1950s until the 1980s, when the O’s won their fourth World Series. Ripken’s father, Cal Sr., never made it to The Show, but was instrumental in spreading the Orioles gospel — first as a minor league manager and then as a big league coach under Earl Weaver in the 1970s. “The Oriole Way” was chisled by Paul Richards and maintained by the likes of GMs Frank Cashen, Harry Dalton, Hank Peters, and Weaver. It yielded at least 90 wins in most seasons and a raft of American League East crowns and Cy Young winners. At no time did the Baltimore playbook recommend ceaseless in-game celebrations by last-place teams. Ugh.
⋅ Alex Freeman, the US defender who scored a goal (a header) in our 2-0 win over Australia last Friday, is the son of former Packers wide receiver Antonio Freeman, who caught an 81-yard touchdown pass from Brett Favre when the Packers defeated the Bill Parcells Patriots, 35-21, in Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans in January 1997. The catch was the record at the time for longest TD reception in a Super Bowl.
Alex Freeman (right) of the US men’s national soccer team is the son of Packers Super Bowl hero Antonio Freeman.Ted S. Warren/AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
⋅ Victor Wembanyama, Tony Parker, and Rudy Gobert probably think they’re France’s top gifts to the NBA, but until Wemby grows up, I’m bestowing that title on Bob Cousy. According to Cooz, his mother was six weeks pregnant with him when his parents left France, bound for America on the Cunard Line’s “Mauretania” in December 1927. Cousy was born in Manhattan in the summer ’28 and grew up in a home where French was the primary language. He’ll be 98 on Aug. 9.
⋅ Anybody else think of the late Billy Martin when they review the work of hockey’s fiery John Tortorella?
Is John Tortorella hockey’s version of Billy Martin?Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
⋅ After a preposterous ruling by a local Texas judge ruled that gambling-addict Brendan Sorsby could return to college football, a big cheese in the NCAA told me, “This was just about the only time I can remember 99 percent of sports fans actually agreed with us!” Sorsby took college football off the hook when he announced his intention to apply for the NFL’s supplemental draft. The problem was in the lap of Roger Goodell, but the NFL declined to hold a supplemental draft, essentially shutting out Sorsby for a year.
⋅ Hitting for the cycle is fun but somewhat of an overrated quirky event. Pete Crow-Armstrong did it for the Cubs on June 15, which got stat master Bill Chuck looking into the last cycle for each big league team. Brock Holt was the last Red Sox player to do it — in 2018. With the exception of the Royals, every big league team has had at least one player hit for the cycle in the last 20 years. The Royals’ last cycle was achieved by George Brett way back in 1990.
The Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong singled to complete the cycle against the Rockies on June 15.Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
⋅ A.J. Beltre, son of Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre, is playing this summer for Orleans in the Cape Cod League.
⋅ Here’s a nifty idea for Fenway Sports Group. The Red Sox have not lost 100 since 1965. They finish the season with six home games, against the Guardians and Cubs. If 100 losses is still in play, maybe FSG could roll out 1965 concession prices as a good-will gesture to fans.
⋅ If you’re at Fenway Park for the Red Sox-Nationals game Wednesday, check out the Second Step table at Gate A. Second Step provides free, trauma-informed services for survivors of domestic violence throughout Greater Boston and beyond.
⋅ Congratulations to Herald baseball reporter Gabrielle Starr and Celtics social media senior manager Mike Sivo, who are getting married Sunday afternoon on Cape Cod.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Bill Walton (Trail Blazers, 1977) was traded for Cedric Maxwell (Celtics, 1981) in 1985; 2. Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Vladimir Guerrero, Randy Johnson, Tim Raines, Larry Walker.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
