That is a head scratcher. You two are roughly the same age so I assume you both saw the same Nomar years. And until the off season of 2003 and the contract talks/injury, he was the Golden Boy. He's was Ted's disciple. Christ, Sox fans sang Happy Birthday to him on his birthday.
Outside of being ROY, he was top 11 in the MVP voting 6 of the 9 years he was with the Sox (11, 9, 8, 7, 7, 2) with 2 other years lost to injury. He was a 5 time All Star at SS during the same period Jeter and Arod were both SS too.
When he and the media finally fell out and guys like Buckley (he was the worst of them all) basically painted him black, that's when you started hearing fans badmouth him. And that was only 6 months before he was shipped out.
So if Thumper has been watching the Sox for 18 years, I don't understand his take on Nomar. :dunno: