Nomar Garciaparra made his prediction for the ‘Nomar World Series’
"I can never say Red Sox fans are bad, are you kidding me? They're unbelievable."
For a generation of Red Sox fans, Nomar Garciaparra helped to define baseball in Boston. Yet the retired shortstop is now an analyst for SportsNet LA, and his prediction in the Dodgers-Red Sox World Series might not thrill his old fans.
“This is a good dream,” Garciaparra said in a recent interview on AM 570 LA Sports. “You’ve got two great teams going at it. I think you want to see the two best teams throughout the season playing in the World Series.”
Garciaparra, now 45, played in Boston from 1996-2004, and Los Angeles from 2006-2008. The “Nomar World Series,” as his radio interviewers called it (a label which Garciaparra refuted), has put the six-time All-Star in a tough spot.
“I can never say Red Sox fans are bad, are you kidding me?” Garciaparra noted. “They’re unbelievable. My experience with them has been nothing but unbelievable and positive. They embraced me, and it’s an unbelievable environment. It’s one of the greatest baseball environments around.”
Still, Garciaparra believes in the team he’s been covering all season.
“I think it’s going to be going to Game 6, and I think the Dodgers can pull it out.”
One of the reasons for his confidence in the 92-win Dodgers against the 108-win Red Sox is Los Angeles’ bullpen.
“When you look at what the Dodgers of have done just to get here, I look at it just over the NLCS especially, the bullpen – as much praise as there was on the Brewers’ bullpen – I really think the Dodgers’ bullpen stepped it up,” Garciaparra explained. “That was really the story for the Dodgers. I know [Cody] Bellinger won series MVP, and not saying he didn’t deserve it, but they just couldn’t give it to the entire Dodger bullpen. They really were the MVP of that NLCS.”
“So I look at that as a big part of this series and don’t get me wrong, the Red Sox have a bullpen, but I think the way the Dodgers bullpen has been, it’s a slight edge.”
Looking at the impending clash of a American League and National League, one of the major talking points has been how the designated hitter rule – which the American League uses and its counterpart does not – will play a role.
For Garciaparra, the Dodgers might not encounter the same difficulty as a more traditional National League team.
“The Dodgers are basically like an American League team where you have guys that can swing the bat,” said Garciaparra. “I mean they are trying to find positions to put [hitters] in. We’ve seen Dave Roberts take out a guy who just drives in the postseason, one of the best postseason players of all time, David Freese, after one at-bat. Got him out and gets a guy in off the bench to replace him. I mean they have guys that can be starters on any other team throughout the Major Leagues sitting on the bench. So from that aspect, they are not your traditional National League team. The [designated hitter] won’t be a factor, because you’ll be able to add another bat.”
Garciaparra offered some interesting insight into how he played at Fenway Park, especially in his view of the Green Monster:
I remember over the years I actually loved playing at Fenway. I loved hitting there, not because [the Green Monster] was so close, but because I looked at it as a horse did with blinders: That wall acted like a blinder to my left eye, and kept my focused up the middle and to right center, which is exactly where I want to be as a right-handed hitter. I want to stay through the ball, and even though right-center is huge and massive, you don’t want to hit it in that Bermuda triangle over there. But that’s how I treated the Green wall. It was a blinder that kept me focused on where my sights should be, and I used it as something to help me rather than as something that was going to get me to pull off the ball.
As for a challenge the Dodgers will encounter in Games 1 and 2, Garciaparra noted that the odd design of Fenway – and not the cold weather – will prove the greatest challenge.
“The little intricacies of this ballpark are going to be a bigger factor than the weather,” said the former Boston shortstop. “And that’s something you really, really need to understand. It is not easy.”
The first two games of the series, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, will take place in Boston. Games 3-5 will be played in Los Angeles on Oct. 26-28. If necessary, the two teams will then return to Boston for Games 6 and 7 at Fenway on Oct. 30-31.
