David Ortiz: To Pinch Hit or Not To Pinch Hit?

After Sunday's win - on a day after a thrilling come from behind opening night, a day on which Josh Beckett signed a contract which gives the Red Sox baseball's best rotation through 2014, and a day during which we were all recovering from Neil Diamond jumping the shark - all anyone on WEEI could talk about was David Ortiz. As I sit down to write this column, Ortiz has just popped out to center with Kevin Youkilis on second base, in the eighth inning of a 5-4, Yankee-led ballgame. It's the second game of the season, and the second time Ortiz has come up against a lefty in a key situation. With Mike Lowell on the bench, it's worth exploring the question of whether to pinch hit for Ortiz or to let him settle in and see what happens.

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Since agreeing to come back to Fire Brand recently, I've reading the site's archives -- in part to get a feel for the place after a few years and in part to try and brush off the writing cobwebs and remember how to do this again (and I'm already opening an article with a self-referential aside, so I guess it's like riding a bike). Anyway, it struck me while reading that these pages haven't yet addressed one of the most notable deals of the winter: Nomar Garciaparra's one day contract.

The Fireside Chat crew put together an excellent discussion of the move, but I feel like Nomar's Red Sox career -- and his career in general -- deserves an obituary in addition to a eulogy. After all, you can trace these current Red Sox -- and moreso this current Red Sox era and fanbase -- right back to 1997 and right back to the phenom shortstop that lit Fenway on fire that summer. Nomar Garciaparra created the modern Boston Red Sox, and gave us some of the greatest moments this side of October, 2004, and now he's Red Sox property again, this time for eternity.

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