It doesn't matter if you're a Yankees fan, or a Red Sox fan, or neither. Every baseball fan, regardless of fan affiliation, remembers when Derek Jeter flew into the stands at the original Yankee Stadium on the first day of July in the 2004 season to make one of the game's all-time most memorable catches.
But what not every fan remembers is the contribution of longtime AL East rival shortstop Nomar Garciaparra in that same game, and that's because Garciaparra didn't appear in that contest at all. And at the time, with tensions mounting between the then-five-time All-Star and the Red Sox, rumors swirled regarding why, exactly, Garciaparra couldn't make even a single appearance in the 13-inning slugfest that unfolded in the Bronx that day. He had dealt with an Achilles injury earlier in the season, but with trade rumors buzzing over the past year — especially those involving A-Rod — and a divorce becoming more and more likely with every passing day, it didn't seem as though the Achilles issue was the reason Nomah was inactive.
Even today, Garciaparra laughs at that notion. He joined former teammate Mark Sweeney on the "Major League Beginnings" podcast to talk about why he sat that day and what his feelings are about all of the rumors.
"...Everybody always talks about the time, 'oh, you sat down, Jeter jumps in the stands, look at Nomar, this is why he got traded, he was sulking.' All that stuff. I laugh at that because nobody really knows the story or what really went on. Nobody wanted to ask because it made no sense," Garciaparra said. "I was injured... severely. I was dealing with Achilles tendonitis in both Achilles. Once you have it in one, it actually goes to two, so I'm dealing with that, come back, and it was actually a trainer's decision for me not to play. It wasn't my decision. I wanted to play...
"...I had worked three months, four months trying to just get back to reduce it (the swelling) enough so I could play, not where it's gone. It's painful. And I was supposed to actually sit every five days and I actually played 10 games in a row, even though there was a day off I was supposed to get and I didn't get that because you're supposed to get the swelling out."
Unfortunately for Garciaparra, as he explained, this was the day that he simply needed to get the swelling out, according to the training staff. It was an ultimatum — they could either rest him and bring him back the next game, or take the gamble of playing with increased swelling which very well could have landed him back on the DL. The training staff didn't see the latter as the better option of the two.
"So now I'm depressed, I'm really depressed. What people say is sulking is different [from] depression, which is a whole 'nother story we can get on that I do suffer from, but that's different," Garciaparra said. "That's what I felt. Not upset. Getting back [at] the Red Sox makes no sense at this time. I need to play, as a free agent I need to play, and we're playing the Yankees, I'm trying to win.
"And actually I never refused to go in. Actually, I always tell people, what people don't understand is Derek Jeter dives in the stands, there's a right hander up on the mound. Trot Nixon, a lefty, is up, and there's a lefty warming up in the bullpen. How come that lefty didn't come in to face Trot Nixon? The reason the lefty didn't come in to face Trot Nixon is because the guy who was going to hit when that lefty comes in was me! I'm getting ready for this whole game. I was actually in and out of the dugout trying to get my legs ready...
"...So I'm getting ready to go hit and I was supposed to hit at that moment if the lefty comes in, so I'm still in this moment and now everybody's like, 'oh, he's sulking... you're pouting,' because they see Jeter do all that stuff."
It's not like the Red Sox have told the story the other way around, claiming that Garciaparra did indeed refuse to hit. In fact, Terry Francona adamantly denied it when talking to the media prior to the Red Sox' next series. Nomar even provided the same reasoning as to why he remained seated on the bench in the 2021 podcast interview as he did back then (via ESPN).
"My teammates told me to go sit down in a specific spot so we can go score some runs," Garciaparra said in 2004, according to the Boston Globe. "Then I heard I'm unhappy there and I wanted out. I was like, 'Man, if I wanted out, why did my wife and I buy a new home [in Boston] in the offseason?' I don't know where it comes from."
Evidently, however, the tale still follows Garciaparra to this day.
"Nobody ever interviewed me and ever tried to understand," Garciaparra told Sweeney in the podcast. "They didn't want that, they wanted the other story. But that's the truth, that's what it is... It made no sense to sit especially when I actually had a lot of success at Yankee Stadium — which, thank goodness, I did. Why would I not want to go out there and perform? Also, even if I am possibly gonna be a free agent, you want to go at the places you have the most success and really show what you're made of.
"So it made no sense for me to sit that day, it really didn't. But it is what it is."
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