Order your Los Angeles Dodgers Tickets today from Barrys Tickets Service. Garciaparra reborn in Dodger blue Once an All-Star shortstop, he's reinvented himself at new position, with new team
By THOMAS STINSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: May 30, 2006
It was 15 years ago that Nomar Garciaparra left his home in Whittier, Calif. Essentially, he never went back.
To Georgia Tech for three years, through the minor leagues in Sarasota, Trenton, Pawtucket and then finally to Boston in 1996. From potential to stardom to, eventually, despondency, Garciaparra, injured, finished his 10th big league season last summer with the dysfunctional Chicago Cubs.
"I've been away so long," Garciaparra said. "This would have been different early in my career."
This was to introduce his new station in life, playing a new position for a new team with new management, but doing it back home, for the Dodgers, who he grew up with, at Dodger Stadium, the first big-league park he ever saw.
Nearly 33 now, Garciaparra is nobody's kid anymore — save maybe for the one inside — but he has finally come home.
"I've enjoyed it," he said. "I didn't know what to expect, but at this point in my career, it's been nice because my family can see me play. Now going home, it's just great to see the support of my family and friends everyday."
The Garciaparras are witnessing a player who, after a .283 season in 2004, has rediscovered his skills. Hitting .362 with 34 RBIs in 33 games, he has helped rejuvenate a franchise that finished 20 games under .500 last year.
The Dodgers were 8-9 when Garciaparra rejoined the lineup April 22 after an early rib cage injury. After Monday's 12-5 romp over the Braves, the Dodgers have gone 21-13 (.618) and their new first baseman appears everywhere among their statistical leaders despite missing 17 games.
"It's been fun to watch," Dodgers right fielder J.D. Drew said. "I think everybody has really enjoyed the addition. He's picked up a lot of runs for us in key situations and given us a chance to win games. It's been fun to hit behind him and watch him do what he's been doing."
Of all the skullduggery performed by new L.A. general manager Ned Colletti — the man hired a manager and brought in 11 new players in his first 5 1/2 weeks on the job — no move has yielded better results than the Garciaparra signing.
Even having missed nearly a third of the first 52 games, Garciaparra leads L.A. in batting average (.362) as well as doubles (14), and is second in RBIs (34) and home runs (5). He has reached base in 22 straight games and has recorded at least two hits in 12 of his last 21 games.
Monday's game may not merit its own page in his scrapbook, but he drove in a pair of runs with two infield singles, pushing his average with runners in scoring position to .463, a stunning 19-for-41.
"Since he's been back, he's been as steady as you ever want to see a player," said Dodgers manager Grady Little, who managed Garciaparra in Boston in 2003 and half of 2004, before Garciaparra was shipped to the Cubs.
"The way he's been swinging the bat is probably the best I've ever seen him. His defense has been outstanding."
His defense has also been easy to overlook. For the first time in his career, he was asked to play first base because Colletti assembled a roster with two top-drawer shortstops in the injured Cesar Izturis and ex-Brave Rafael Furcal.
Garciaparra has manned the position like he was born there. With one error to date, he is one of three National League first basemen with one or fewer misplays in a minimum 300 chances.
"I know he's saved me a lot of throws from right field," Drew said.
"It's been great, getting back to L.A.," said Garciaparra's wife, Mia Hamm, general U.S. soccer legend, from her seat three rows behind the Dodgers' on-deck circle. "He feels grateful every chance he has to step out there and play. Playing in his hometown — and that was a big part of his [signing] decisions — it's been everything, from when he first walked into Dodger Stadium, that he could have hoped for."
But if Garciaparra was attractive enough last winter to draw interest from Houston, Cleveland and the New York Yankees, he was also not without risks. Achilles tendon and groin injuries caused him to miss 181 of 324 possible games (56 percent) over the previous two years.
If he had the opportunity to come home, he would do so at the Dodgers' rate. His $6-million salary reflects a 27 percent pay cut from 2005. Though he can earn up to an additional $4 million with some reachable incentives, the deal covers just one year with no options.
"His only limiting factor throughout his career has been being able to keep himself out on the field," Little said. "Once he's out there, he's one of the best players you'll see. His whole deal is to try to stay out on that field."
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