Nomar Garciaparra

What is the importance of a number on a baseball jersey? How long have they been wearing numbers?

All teams began wearing numbers on their jerseys in 1937 though some wore them inconsistently prior to that.

In 1929 the Yankees started wearing numbers on their jerseys. Their numbers corresponded to their place in the batting order. In other words Babe Ruth batted third, therefore he was #3. Lou Gehrig batted fourth so he wore #4.

Today, it is quite fashionable for young guys to emulate their favorite player by wearing his number on their little league uniforms.

Baseball is a game of superstitions.

It is the only game where teams are damned with century-long curses—curse of the Bambino, Billy Goat Curse, etc.—and failures can be blamed on something that happened two generations ago.

Batters are some of the primary examples of superstitious acts.

We all know about Nomar Garciaparra's rituals when he comes to the plate, and I think it's safe to assume that Wade Boggs was the most habitual man on the planet. 

Upon seeing this photo of Nomar Garciaparra in 2009, is there any doubt in your mind that his frail figure is that of a deflated post steroid using individual?

I will freely admit, during Nomar's days as a member of the Boston Red Sox, I was ignorant. I defended Nomar, and strongly disagreed with anyone who even implied that Nomar may have dabbled with performance enhancement. Nomar was everyone's favorite Red Sox player for years, and his face was the icon for the team.

In hindsight, Nomar's juicing couldn't have been more obvious.