The Red Sox barely beat the 4 p.m. deadline to acquire left-hander Erik Bedard from Seattle. (AP)

CHICAGO — So, how close did it come?

The Red Sox have a history of pushing the boundaries of the trade deadline. In eight previous years under Theo Epstein, the Sox had consummated 10 different trades on July 31, including a couple of complex deals — a four-team swap to move Nomar Garciaparra and acquire Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz in 2004 and a three-team deal to send Manny Ramirez packing in favor of Jason Bay — that barely squeezed under the 4 p.m. deadline.

This year, the clock was once again winding down toward the deadline.

“It wasn’t clear we were going to be able to get anything done until the last minute again,” said Epstein. “I don’t know why that always happens to us. … It was a little stressful.”

The Sox and Mariners could not match up precisely based on the prospects in the Red Sox system — there were players whom the Sox didn’t want to sacrifice — and so Boston had to find another party to give the Mariners the return that they needed to move Bedard. Read the rest of this entry »

Former Red Sox star Nomar Garciaparra checked in with the Mut & Merloni show Friday afternoon to talk about the Red Sox and news around Major League Baseball. To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter skipped the All-Star Game and received some criticism when he was spotted with his fiancee in Miami. Jeter had recorded his 3,000th hit over the weekend, shortly after coming off the disabled list, and opted for the rest instead.

“I didn’t have a problem with it,” Garciaparra said. “I understood. It’s hard, because as a player, you’re caught in between. You’ve got to worry about the second half. He’s coming off an injury.”

Garciaparra said the All-Star Game is “a huge honor,” but the schedule is so tight that it can be a problem for a player with an injury. “There’s really no time for you to get treatment,” he said, adding: “I don’t think people really understand that the environment is not there for you to really get ready like you do normally during the season.”

Garciaparra said he’s one of those who does not like having the All-Star Game determine home-field advantage in the World Series. “I never liked it to begin with,” he said.

Touching on David Ortiz‘ future in Boston, Garciaparra was asked if he expected to see Ortiz eventually play elsewhere.

“I really don’t, but then again you’re asking the wrong guy. I thought the same thing about myself,” Garciaparra said with a laugh.

The numbers lined up for the Red Sox to welcome Nomar Garciaparra back to Fenway. After all, Cinco de Mayo – 5/5 – seemed the appropriate moment to have No. 5 come back to the ballpark in which he enjoyed his greatest successes.

Garciaparra, of course, retired in spring training after signing a one-day minor-league deal with the Sox. That was an acknowledgement of the idea that Boston will forever remain his baseball home.

On Wednesday night, Garciaparra had the opportunity to express his gratitude to the fans who treated him as an icon for his nine seasons as a Red Sox. It was an event that the 36-year-old savored even before the pre-game ceremony.

“I don’t know how I can really express, put into words, just how grateful I am,” said Garciaparra. “I never had a chance to just tell [the fans] thank you, tell them thank you and that I love them. I don’t know if the words are going to come out as eloquently that way or not today, but that’s really what it means to me.”

Garciaparra was selected as a first-round pick by the Red Sox in 1994, and reached the majors late in 1996. The next year, his first as a full-timer, he won the American League’s Rookie of the Year Award by hitting .306 with a .342 OBP, .534 slugging mark, 30 homers and 22 steals.

He went on to spend parts of nine seasons as a member of the Red Sox, hitting .323 with a .370 OBP, .553 slugging and .923 OPS. He was a five-time All-Star in Boston, and ranks fourth in franchise history in batting average, fifth in slugging and sixth in OPS. He won back-to-back batting titles in 1999 and 2000, hitting .357 and .372, thus becoming the first right-handed hitter to win consecutive batting titles since Joe DiMaggio in 1939-40.

He was received warmly at Fenway Park, where a number of former teammates (including Lou Merloni, Brian Daubach, Trot Nixon, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield and Kevin Youkilis) joined him on the field before the game. Garciaparra proved creative in his approach to the ceremonial first pitch, taking the ball and running a couple steps to his right before winging the ball across his body to Varitek.

It was a moment that defined the former shortstop’s palpable joy to be back at Fenway Park. The day was less about his retirement and his career than it was about a homecoming for which Garciaparra insisted that he longed after being traded by the Sox to the Cubs in a trade deadline blockbuster in 2004.

“I’m retiring as a Boston Red Sox. It never leaves you,” said Garciaparra. “It’s always been one of the biggest parts of my heart is always this organization and this uniform. So that gets to stay with me forever.”

Nomar Garciaparra will be formally honored Wednesday for his service to the Red Sox from 1996-2004.

But Red Sox manager Terry Francona, speaking about 24 hours in advance of the ceremony, recalled his first encounter with the 1997 American League Rookie of the Year in the Arizona Fall League when he managed him in the fall of 1994.

“It’s funny because Nomar played here for so long,” Francona said. “But I probably knew him before most of you did. I was with him in the Fall League so I got to see him even though I wasn’t in the organization as a young kid. He asked the best questions ever. He was smart.”

[Click here to hear Francona rave about Nomar and relate a story about former Sox manager Kevin Kennedy.]

Francona was Garciaparra’s manager with the Scottsdale Scorpions in ’94, the year the Red Sox drafted the infielder out of Georgia Tech.

“He wasn’t pulling the ball yet but you could see him hitting the ball to right-center and you could see how could he had a chance to be,” Francona said.

Francona then recalled a very interesting visit from then-Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy and his bench coach.

“I was sitting one day in my office in Scottsdale Stadium and it was Kevin Kennedy and Tim Johnson and they had come out to see Nomar play and they were sitting around and saying, ‘Can this kid play second?’ I was like, ‘Who’s playing short? Move him.’ There was talk about his arm and the arm angle and everything. He was just too good-looking of a player,” Francona said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The rumor flickered on and off the radar for just a few moments. Last week, there was a buzz that the Red Sox had signed Michael Garciaparra, the younger brother of iconic Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra.

Michael Garciaparra has been a migratory player in the past few years. The former first-round pick of the Mariners has bounced between the Phillies, Orioles and Brewers organizations in recent years. But while he is amidst another transition, his new home is with the Astros, with whom he is in minor league camp, rather than the Red Sox.

In fact, Garciaparra was playing for the Astros in a big league exhibition game last week when word spread (based on an erroneous listing in MLB.com’s transactions listings) that the younger Garciaparra had joined the Sox. There was, naturally, curiosity.

“Some people called me and told me. They saw it online, and said, ‘We saw the line score, but we didn’t know if you were playing shortstop for the Red Sox or the Astros. Will you please help me out?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m with the Astros – I just came in for half an inning at the end of the game,’” said Michael Garciaparra, who is in Fort Myers today with the Astros for their game against the Sox. “It wasn’t too bad. I just got a few phone calls and text messages from buddies asking what was going on.”

Michael Garciaparra — a career .262/.352/.342/.694 hitting in his eight minor league seasons — seemed mostly amused by the brief confusion. But he was genuinely excited about the fact that his brother, just a bit earlier, had signed a one-day minor league contract with the Sox in order to retire with the team for whom he played his most memorable games.

“He was always a Red Sox,” said Michael Garciaparra. “In his heart, he never wanted to leave. People said he wanted to be traded, but he never did. He always loved the Red Sox, love the fans, loved the city and playing there. It was exciting. He was happy he was able to retire with them.”

Nomar Garciaparra capped his career by throwing out the first pitch Wednesday at City of Palms Park. (AP Photo)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Nothing fancy, just the facts.

What started as a fairly innocuous spring training day turned into a memorable one at about 8 a.m., when the Red Sox announced there would be a press conference in the press box. Almost immediately, thoughts that the event might revolve around Josh Beckett or Mike Lowell were debunked, and not too soon thereafter the real reason for the presser came to light:

Nomar Garciaparra was retiring as a member of the Red Sox.

Our own Lou Merloni swooped in with news that his former teammate would be signing a one-day minor league deal and then retire. Merloni also revealed that Garciaparra had attempted to return to the Sox as a player a few times over the course of the past few years.

Garciaparra went to the podium at 10:30 a.m., accompanied by his wife, Mia Hamm, his daughters, parents, and former teammate Paul Rappoli. (Click here for the transcript.) He then went on the Dale & Holley Show to talk retirement, as well. (Click here for the transcript.)

By the way, our man Alex Speier points out that Garciaparra has the second-best all-time OPS for shortstops (.882), only behind Alex Rodriguez (who likely will soon change classifications, going to third base, leaving Nomar at the top of the list).

A little later on a few of his former teammates checked in:

David Ortiz: “Rake. Straight rake. That’s all I remember about Nomie. Rake. Nothing else but rake. He was good, man.”" Asked if Garciaparra was right there with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez during the late 1990′s and early 2000′s, Ortiz responded “(Heck) yeah!”

Jason Varitek: “Sitting behind him, all the way back in college and playing intrasquad games, he was really a pain in the rear. He accelerated that from college into putting together some of the best offensive years people have seen in a while in that uniform. He was a pretty, pretty, pretty special player. Catching him and trying to get him out in an intrasquad game wasn’t fun.”

Tim Wakefield: “The best. He was a great teammate, and to have him behind you defensively and in the box hitting for you was truly amazing.”

Dustin Pedroia, who never played with Garciaparra, also chimed in. When told that Nomar didn’t cry at his press conference, and asked if he would be crying at his own retirement press conference, Pedroia said, “Legends don’t cry.”

For a retrospective of Nomar’s greatest moments click here.

- After talking about his former Georgia Tech teammate, Varitek explained the reason for recent absence from the team was due to his father’s illness. For more click here.

- Jon Lester was encouraged by his 2 2/3-inning outing — giving up an unearned run on two hits — having worked on fastball away, his changeup, and getting strike one. But what he really wanted to talk about after the game was the problem the game has with maple bats.

“Any time you step on the field, you’re in danger of something hitting you, whether it’s a ball or a bat or whatever. It’s just kind of part of the game. It kind of sucks that baseball hasn’t done a very good job with the maple bats,” said Lester, who said he has sat on one meeting regarding the subject. ” It seems like they tried to do something last year, but they just aren’t getting the results. They’re a danger to the game. They’re a danger to all the players and the fans. Hopefully they can do something about those bats.”

For more of Lester’s comments click here.

- Red Sox manager Terry Francona said the hope was to have Mike Lowell play in Monday’s game.

- The Big Three of the Red Sox’ rotation — John Lackey, Josh Beckett, and Lester — continued the get-to-know process by playing golf together Tuesday.

- Speaking of Beckett, Jon Heyman of SI.com reported that sources suggest the pitcher will agree to a new contract with the Red Sox in the coming weeks: Contract talks between the Red Sox and star right-hander Josh Beckett are said to be progressing, with growing optimism about a new deal emerging. Beckett and the Red Sox have an excellent relationship, and people familiar with the talks say both sides expect a deal to be reached in the coming weeks that will keep Beckett in Boston for years to come.

For Heyman’s story click here.

- Daniel Bard, who impressed with two strikeouts in one inning of work, was encouraged by the fact he struck out Tampa Bay outfielder Matt Joyce with back-to-back changeups. The reliever’s fastball had considerable volume on it, with the sound of it hitting the mitt being heard all the way up to the press box. “That,” Bard explained, “was the loudest glove I’ve ever thrown to.” The backstop was Bard’s former catcher at Single A Greenville, Luis Exposito.

Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra announced his retirement as a member of the Red Sox after signing a one-day minor league contract to return to the organization with whom he began his professional career in 1994. Garciaparra was selected as a first-round draft pick that summer, and spent parts of nine years in the major leagues starting in 1996, including a 1997 Rookie of the Year campaign, a 1998 season when he was the runner up in the American League MVP race and a pair of years in 1999 and 2000 when he won batting titles.

“I’ve always had a recurring dream, to be able to retire in a Red Sox uniform,” said Garciaparra. “Today I get to fulfill that dream and retire as a Red Sox. Earlier today, I signed a minor league contract to be a part of the organization once again. I was getting choked up then, and I’m getting choked up now. I’ve got the chills, but to be able to have that dream come true, I really just can’t put into words because of what this organization has always meant to me, meant to my family, the fans, I always tell people Red Sox Nation is bigger than any nation out there, and to be able to tell people that I came back home to be a part of Red Sox Nation is truly a thrill.”

“The way the city, the fans embraced me, I always just felt that connection,” he continued. “For me, I always said, ‘You know what? I really, truly always wanted that to be the last uniform I ever put on.’ Today I get to do that.”

A transcript of the press conference, in which Garciaparra was joined by Sox GM Theo Epstein and CEO Larry Lucchino, follows. Garciaparra also appeared on the Dale & Holley Show to discuss his decision. To listen to that interview, click here.

Theo Epstein: My part is pretty simple. I am here to announce that we’ve signed Nomar Garciaparra to a contract to return home to the Boston Red Sox, and we’re thrilled about that. We welcome him back. And I’ll turn it over to Nomar for the rest of the announcement.

Nomar Garciaparra: I’m about to take off to the minor league facility right now. Read the rest of this entry »