Garcialiar Hurt Heel on His Own Time

Sources Tell Boston Globe Nomore Did Not Injure Himself with Batted Ball in March as Was Reported

CBS4's Bob Lobel reported last night today's Boston Globe story by Bob Hohler that Nomar Garciaparra injured his Achilles' heel prior to reporting to spring training for the Boston Red Sox according to sources.

The Red Sox did not make that report public, initially stating on March 6, 2004 that Nomar Garciaparra was "day to day" regarding his return from the Achilles problem the shortstop suffered.

This revelation is not surprising in this space as no one ever confirmed if Garciaparra's heel was injured before, during, or after the Northeastern or Boston College games on Friday, March 5 or before or during batting practice sometime prior to the game against the Yankees in Ft. Myers on Sunday, March 7, a game Garciaparra was forced to sit out due to the injury.

It never made any sense that Garciaparra could have been hit in the back of the foot with a batted ball causing the injury as he would have had to have his back to a batter while standing in the infield during live batting practice, which is obviously forbidden, foolish, and extremely dangerous.

8.5.04: CAPTAIN QUEEG? Gammons jumps in on Nomar Pile on 'EEI revealing that Garciaparra resentment reached new levels when Nomar accused Fenway grounds crew them of leave clumps of dirt and pebbles in the shortstop position area just to cause him to make errors and make him look bad. (Just another day in the life of Pain Man... what time is Judge Wapner on in Chicago Nomie?)

March 27, 2004: AP Report on Nomar to Miss Season Opener "We're probably talking about another week before Nomar will be back playing," Morgan said. "We're being very careful. If it were September, quite frankly, he would be playing."

March 31, 2004: Red Sox Press Release Announcing Nomar Going on the DL "Garciaparra, who has right Achilles tendinitis, was examined this morning in Fort Myers by foot and ankle specialist Dr. Mark Slovenkai from Baptist Medical Center in Boston. He will immediately begin a three-week program of rest and rehabilitation."

April 24, 2004: Boston Dirt Dogs reports "Celtics fanatic Nomar Garciaparra has been rehabbing his Achilles' heel with the folks at Train Boston in Wellesley for a few weeks. The other undisclosed location where Nomar has been lifting weights and working on his lateral movement is the Boston Sports Clubs at HealthPoint in Waltham, Celtics section."

May 13, 2004: Boston Dirt Dogs Report on Nomar's Torn Sheath "Boston Dirt Dogs has learned through sources with direct, daily contact with Nomar Garciaparra and Victor Garciaparra, Nomar's uncle and private business manager, that the shortstop actually tore the sheath surrounding his achilles tendon. The tear is much worse than the "strained achilles tendon" or "tendonitis" or "inflamed right achilles tendon" or "bruise" as has been reported by the Red Sox and all other major media outlets."

The Boston Red Sox and Nomar "agreed to call the injury a bruise" due to the many obvious factors involved after the tear was diagnosed. According to sources, Nomar "will be back with the team the first week of June and will start rehabbing with the PawSox at the end of next week."

May 13, 2004: Theo Epstein Refutes BDD Report on Torn Sheath: "As far as we know, the report is untrue," Epstein said. "According to Dr. [Bill] Morgan, Nomar had some fluid build-up in the sheath due to the tendonitis, but it was not torn."

May 13, 2004: SoSH's "Harry Hooper" post "There's potentially an interesting dynamic going on here, where both Nomar and the Sox have an interest in downplaying the extent of his injury. Obviously, Nomar as a free agent doesn't want potential suitors worried about his condition. Meanwhile, if Theo is forced to consider replacing Nomar for this season, he doesn't want other clubs to know how desperate he is to acquire someone.

"Was he play in the field barefoot? Keep in mind a ballplayer wearing spikes would have the hard plastic sole and cushioned leather protecting the heel area from blunt trauma (unless he got hit right at/above the top of the shoe). (The Courant's Dave) Heuschkel alluded to the mysteriousness of Nomar's injury - no one saw it happen and no one can name the player or coach who hit the ball that injured Nomar. Things don't seem to add up with this whole thing."- SoSH's Harry Hooper)

May 16, 2004: ESPN's Peter Gammons on WEEI's Red Sox Baseball This Week "I read that (Boston Dirt Dogs) report, and there might be something to that... Nomar is very concerned (about the injury), and the way the denials came in, it might not be completely wrong."

May 16, 2004: CBS4 Sports Final rebroadcast of Dr. Bill Morgan interview from a March spring training in Ft. Myers: "The structural integrity of his achilles tendon is perfect. He has some inflammation of the sheath surrounding the tendon... back to baseball in hopefully 3-4 weeks."

May 16, 2004: "The area that's injured, the question is, was it a traumatic injury or was it an overuse type problem that Nomar was having. It seems like it started from one specific incident. The tendon-type tissue, if it's damaged from overuse, is microscopically torn, where as if it's traumatic, you hear about guys rupturing their achilles, it would be one time, pop, falls down, can't step on it anymore. Well, it's somewhere in between those two things." - Craig Parsons, Sports and Physical Therapy Associates, CBS4 Sports Final

August 4, 2004: Boston Dirt Dogs reader John Mahoney "I've never seen someone so badly hurt run the bases SO well. Did you catch that double of his at the top of the 8th? He looks like a track star out there." ("Injured" Nomar steals a base for the Cubs as well tonight as the lies keep piling up. The latest Mother of all Lies on his injury may cause him to finally have a complete nervous breakdown in Chicago.)

August 5, 2004: Boston Dirt Dogs source: "He's lying about everything" including the latest denials on hurting his heel prior to camp this winter. Take it to the bank.

Delusional Dale Arnold Warrior Princess
Done Done It This Time

Lucchino Lashes Out at Dale Arnold's Erroneous Radio Report

"If I may, I would like to do one thing, and that's take issue with the guy who follows you in the morning, the Mr. Dale Arnold who suggested that somehow I was the person who had a conversation with Bob Lobel and said certain things to him. I just want to say to Dale, so that he doesn't mislead the public, I haven't talked to Bob Lobel in weeks. And I certainly didn't talk to him... the comments I made about my call to Nomar were made directly on Saturday in response to a question, in fact a series of questions about when I talked to him, and what I talked to him about... We try to be accessible and we try to respond to questions and that's what happened there. So Dale, I guess we should cut him a little slack, he was in California for the whole weekend, and a little bit out of the course of events here. So I don't know where he picked up his erroneous information, but if you get a chance, you might want to straighten him out." -- 8.5.04 Red Sox President adn CEO Larry Lucchino with WEEI's Dennis & Callahan.

Nomar's "I love Boston" Honeymoon Call into Dale Garciaparra and Nomar Neumeier (Lucky Bob gets out of Dodge while Dale Gets Run Over By a Freight Train of Truth on Thursday)