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Retiring Garciaparra knows what might’ve been
By Steve Henson
March 10, 2010
The Nomar Garciaparra I knew was post-Red Sox, post-Cubs, battle-scarred and creaky, yet still exuberant about putting on a major league uniform every day. It was 2006, he’d signed with his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers, and it was soon apparent Garciaparra deeply appreciated the opportunity to play in front of his parents and lifelong friends.
Garciaparra, who announced his retirement Wednesday at the Boston Red Sox spring training site in Fort Myers, Fla., loved the game as much as any player I’ve covered. He was humble and team-first while also fiercely proud. If it bothered him that he was no longer able to play at the same level as the two shortstops with whom he’d stood shoulder-to-shoulder – Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter – he didn’t let on.
He realized he was already on borrowed time, that any sprint out of the batter’s box, awkward swing or diving play at his new position – first base – could tear another muscle or tweak another tendon. At the relatively young age of 32, Garciaparra’s body had become prematurely brittle, oddly unpredictable. Whether that was a result of poor choices he made earlier in his career, he wouldn’t say.
Eight years with the Red Sox made Garciaparra a master at deflecting tough questions in a genial manner. Performance-enhancing drugs weren’t a topic he’d discuss, and if steroids had helped him bulk up in Boston and break down periodically thereafter, he’d take that secret to the Manhattan Beach, Calif., home he shares with wife Mia Hamm and their young twin daughters.
Garciaparra’s name didn’t come up in the Mitchell Report. He never testified before Congress. He wasn’t implicated in BALCO. Yet numerous people in baseball, from executives to reporters to other players, talk about his career as if performance-enhancing drug use was a given.
Maybe because he went from a reedy shortstop with gap power to a chiseled physical specimen in 1996, when he hit 16 home runs in 43 games at Triple-A before getting a September call-up to the Red Sox. The next year he blossomed, belting 30 home runs, 11 triples and 44 doubles among a league-leading 209 hits en route to the Rookie of the Year award. He put up phenomenal numbers the next three years as well and became the subject of a Sports Illustrated cover story on March 5, 2001.
It is the hulking figure on the SI cover, though, that everyone remembers. And in hindsight, with what we know about the era and Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds and A-Rod and Manny Ramirez … well, make sure to take a look at that cover.
Garciaparra’s 2001 season was aborted before it began when he reported to spring training with a wrist injury about the time the SI story hit the newsstands. He bounced back to put up outstanding numbers in 2002 and 2003, but after the Red Sox traded him to the Cubs in July 2004, physical ailments became commonplace. Garciaparra went on the disabled list 14 times in his career and never played a full season after age 29.
Last season Garciaparra told the San Francisco Chronicle that his connective tissue isn’t flexible enough to accommodate repeated muscular contractions, a condition that can be genetic. Garciaparra said his father and sister have the same ailment. But his injuries became so prevalent and were inflicted in such strange ways that he became the target of a lampoon in The Onion.
Whatever frustrations he felt – over ultimately losing out on $35 million when he rejected a contract extension from the Red Sox in 2003, over missing out on Boston’s first World Series title in 86 years in 2004, over being odd-man out while A-Rod and Jeter put up superior numbers – he mostly kept to himself. On a rare occasion, and only off the record, he’d say something to me that belied his seeming lack of regret. But he’d be buoyant again as soon as he tied the laces on his cleats and headed off for another ballgame.
And what a sight that was. Everybody who watched Garciaparra take an at-bat knows he is obsessive-compulsive. The repetitive strapping and unstrapping of the Velcro on his batting gloves, always the right hand first. The stepping in place while adjusting the tip of his helmet and twirling the bat counterclockwise. But the real treat was watching him walk up dugout steps to the field. He put both feet on each step, one beside the other, giving him the look of a man three times his age.
His parents attended every Dodgers home game and arrived early enough to watch their son take batting practice. After each round, Garciaparra – whose first name is his father’s name Ramon spelled backwards – would peek into the stands for validation. He and his dad often chatted before games began and afterward Garciaparra would graciously credit him for giving him expert hitting advice. Batting .358 in the first half of 2006 and making the All-Star team was Garciaparra’s last sustained hurrah.
Nomar Garciaparra cherished every day at the ballpark, every cheer from fans. He revealed at the news conference Wednesday of his recurring dream of playing one more time for the Red Sox. Sadly, I don’t think those dreams will end just because his career is over. He is retiring for one reason – an ailing body. Only he knows all the reasons it got that way.
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A-Rod: Lawyers are setting up interview with feds
By Howie Rumberg
March 10, 2010
Tampa, FL — Alex Rodriguez may soon be talking to federal authorities, and he hopes it will happen close to spring training.
Lawyers for the Yankee slugger are setting up an interview as part of an investigation into a Canadian doctor who is the focus of a cross-border drug smuggling case involving human growth hormone.
Rodriguez said the site is under discussion but he would like it near the team’s spring complex in Tampa rather than in Buffalo, N.Y., where the U.S. investigation is being conducted. He expects to soon know the interview date.
“The idea is to schedule something that allows me to cooperate and also get my work in,” Rodriguez said Wednesday. “Obviously doing it here would be fantastic.”
Rodriguez would not indicate if he pressed his lawyers to lock in a date, but he said they have been working on it for “maybe a few days. I don’t know.”
Kathleen Mehltretter, acting U.S. attorney for western New York, said it is not unusual for investigators to go to those they want to interview but declined to comment on the investigation. Maureen Dempsey, an FBI spokeswoman in Buffalo, would not comment on Rodriguez’s statements, citing the investigation.
Rodriguez lawyer James Sharp did not respond to several messages left by The Associated Press.
On March 1, Rodriguez said he was aware federal agents wanted to talk to him about his relationship with Dr. Anthony Galea. Galea told the AP on Monday that he helped the three-time MVP recover from a hip injury last year but prescribed only anti-inflammatories, not HGH.
Rodriguez said he is not frustrated by the wait or questions from the media because the investigation is “not about me.”
Other baseball players, including Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran of the Mets, have been contacted by federal investigators regarding Galea. Colorado Rockies closer Huston Street said federal investigators might want to talk to him about the case. Reyes and Beltran said they did not receive HGH from Galea.
Rodriguez has appeared more at ease this year than last spring, when he acknowledged using steroids from 2001-03. Dressed in workout gear Wednesday, he said his surgically repaired hip from a year ago was much better.
“It just feels good to be back at work and have the freedom and flexibility to have a regular camp,” he said. “There’s no question I want to ramp things up a little bit and obviously work diligently more than anything down here not overdo things.”
At some point this season, he will see his surgeon, Marc Philippon, and have X-Rays, perhaps during the All-Star break or on a western road trip.
During his rehabilitation, Rodriguez met Galea, who has close ties to chiropractor Mark Lindsay. Lindsay helped Phillippon monitor A-Rod’s recovery.
Galea, who recently resigned as team doctor for the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, became the focus of authorities’ attention last September when his assistant, Mary Anne Catalano, was stopped at the U.S. border in Buffalo.
Galea was arrested in Canada last October on four charges relating to an unapproved substance used in healing therapy called Actovegin. He is known for using a technique, called platelet-rich plasma therapy, designed to speed recovery. He has used that to treat several high-profile athletes.
U.S. federal court documents say “20 vials and 76 ampoules of unknown misbranded drugs including Nutropin (Human Growth Hormone—HGH) and foreign homeopathic drugs” were found in a car Catalano was driving.
But Galea said Catalano could have had only a tiny, half-empty bottle—or one ampoule of HGH—because she was bringing the drug across the border for his use.
The 51-year-old Galea says he’s taken HGH, which is banned by the major sports, for a decade because it can improve the quality of life for people over 40.
Even if he’s cleared in the investigation, Rodriguez could be in violation of his record $275 million, 10-year contract because a team has the right to approve doctors not on its medical staff.
If Rodriguez was treated without club consent, any attempt to determine whether he violated his contract or baseball’s collective bargaining agreement likely would hinge on whether treatment was elective or necessary.
General manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees “no comment still stands” while the federal investigation is proceeding.
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