Noma"h" Night

I heard a joke on WEEI today in which a caller asked "So, is Nomar Night tonight, and Ortiz Night tomorrow night? Or is Ortiz Night tonight?"  I laughed. Then I realized that Ortiz and Nomar have a lot in common.

 See, Nomar was the face of the Sox franchise up until game 7 of the ALCS against the Yankees in 2003. Sure we had Manny on that team, and Pedro, but it was still Nomar's team. He was a born and bred Red Sox player, and probably the best short-stop of my life time. The point is, he was essentially the face of the Franchise. But, after his mysterious wrist injury (Nomar still insists that he never took steroids, and that the reason many players tested positive in 04 is because they were told that the results of that testing would be confidential. Because it was confidential, many players "lied" and "admitted to using performance enhancing dugs" just to promote standardized testing throughout the Major leagues. Yeah, Right.) After the wrist injury, Nomar just wasn't himself any more, and he buckled under increasing media scrutiny. Theo traded Nomar half way through the 04 season, and it was that jolt to the team that propelled the Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years.

 Fast forward now to 2010. Big Papi is now the face of the franchise, and, after enduring steroid allegations, and a mysterious wrist injury, Papi's performance has drastically fallen off from what fans have come to expect of the slugger's abilities. Indeed, Ortiz has even had minor clashes with the Media, much like Garciaparra experienced toward the end of his tenure with the Sox.

 Theo...you made the right move '04, its time to move again. We can't wait until the all-star break to remove Ortiz from the team. There's no trading Ortiz. It's time to just release him.

 I heard a stat on ESPN today that Ortiz has struck out 14 times after falling to just 0-1 in a count this season. I'd like to add to that stat that he's also looked miserable in each of those strike-outs, being either caught looking at a pitch that froze him in terror, or taking a late and ugly cut on a pitch that was likely out of the strike zone to begin with. Then, when he does hit, it's usually a soft ground ball into a double play.

Here's an idea: Release Big Papi, and re-sign Nomar. I think I'd rather see him as the D.H. at this point...