Theo has that "you better retire like you promised" look about him as Nomar takes the microphone.

Nomar Garciaparra retired as a Red Sox player yesterday, which was kind of weird considering he wasn’t, you know, a Red Sox player anymore. But Nomar, who played for the Dodgers then A’s after getting traded to the Cubs from the Boston in 2004, said he’s always had a “recurring dream” to retire in a Red Sox uniform.

Lucky him. Our recurring dreams always involve showing up as the NBA's No. 1 draft pick and we can't choose between our dark blue pinstripe suit and matching fedora and the tan on tan, three-piece number that we love. But that’s neither here nor there. The point is Nomar signed a one-day minor league contract with the Sox so he could (technically) make that dream come true.

It makes sense that he’s want to retire as a Red Sox. After coming up with more hype than any Boston player since Roger Clemens, Nomar hit a home run in his first at bat, won the Rookie of the Year title in 1997, won back-to-back AL batting titles in 1999 and 2000, and superhero-style rescued two women who fell into Boston Harbor in 2005.

Needless to say, Boston fans loved him. Well, at least they did until they started hating him (see: Garciaparra, Nomar and "sitting on bench" and Jeter, Derek and "diving head first into stands"). In fact, even fake Boston fans like Jimmy Fallon loved him (P.S. we can’t find any video of this SNL skit, so this transcript will have to do).

So was this just Nomar’s way of thanking Boston fans for their undying support? Or has he just always wanted to sign one of those quirky sports contracts – like Magic Johnson and Bill Cosby’s $1/year lifetime contracts with the Harlem Globetrotters? OR was Nomar paying extra-close attention to Andre Dawson’s whole Hall of Fame hat saga and making extra sure that, when the time came for him, there was no chance of him going in without his Sox cap?

Whatever the reason, we wonder if this will inspire a whole new breed of retirement trends. Will baseball retirements be the new college football Singing Day announcements?

When it comes time for the next major leaguer to say goodbye to the game – Nomar’s former teammate Pedro Martinez, perhaps? – will he set himself up in a high school gymnasium wearing the caps of all the clubs he’s played on (Dodgers, Expos, Red Sox, Mets and Phillies) and take off each hat, one by one, until the only hat remaining is the team he wishes to retire with?

Or will Ken Griffey Jr. announce his retirement via fax from a local ESPN Zone to the applause of hundreds of adoring fans? Will Derek Jeter (who, along with Nomar and current teammate Alex Rodriguez used to made up the “Holy Trinity of Shortstops”) pull a Jimmy Clausen when he eventually retires and announce it live at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown while wearing his five World Series rings? Here’s hoping.