Anthony Nomar Garciaparra was born on July 23, 1973, in Whittier, California. Nomar Garciaparra is an American baseball player of Mexican descent who currently plays first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Previously, he played shortstop and third base for the Chicago Cubs, after several years as the star shortstop of the Boston Red Sox.

Garciaparra was part of the so-called "Holy Trinity" of shortstops that debuted in the mid '90s, which also included Alex Rodriguez (now a third baseman) and Derek Jeter, who were considered the best shortstops in baseball. Of the three only Jeter remains a shortstop.

Garciaparra is married to Olympian and World Cup Champion soccer star Mia Hamm and the couple welcomed twin girls, Grace and Ava on March 27, 2007 in Los Angeles.

Garciaparra attended St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California and was a letterman in football, soccer, and baseball. He graduated in 1991. St. John Bosco High School retired Garciaparra's baseball jersey. St. John Bosco High School's Activities Office window is home to an area dedicated to Garciaparra's baseball career both at the school and with the Dodgers.

Boston Red Sox (1994-2004)

Garciaparra was a first round pick of the Red Sox in 1994 following a successful career at Georgia Tech. At the time, Boston's starting shortstop was John Valentin, who finished ninth in MVP voting in 1995. But by late 1996, Nomar won the job. Garciaparra's talent was enough to displace Valentin, who was moved to second base (then third base) to make room for young Garciaparra, who batted .241 with 4 home runs, 16 RBI, and 5 stolen bases in his initial stint with the club, near the end of 1996. As a rookie in 1997, he hit 30 home runs and drove in 98 runs, setting a new MLB record for RBIs by a leadoff hitter. He was named Rookie of the Year in a unanimous vote, competed in the Home Run Derby, and finished eighth in MVP voting. He also won the immediate admiration of Red Sox fans, who referred to him in Boston accents as "Nomahh". With his hard work and idiosyncratic quirks, his popularity easily stretched well beyond Red Sox Nation.

The End of Garciaparra in Boston

Before the 2002 season, a new ownership group purchased the Red Sox. The baseball operations staff, led by Theo Epstein, stressed on-base percentage on offense and strong defense, the two areas where Garciaparra was about to decline precipitously from his pre-2001 levels. Still, Garciaparra was able to recover from an injury-filled 2001 season and bat .310 with 24 home runs and 120 RBIs in 2002. The star shortstop was up for a contract extension following the 2004 season and hoped for a deal before that deadline. Garciaparra, still considered one of the best shortstops in baseball, hoped to receive salaries in the ballpark of peers Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. A four year deal worth $60 million was agreed in principle, but fell apart during the 2003 season.

In 2003, Garciaparra ended a solid but unspectacular season with a miserable September, closing with a career-low .301 batting average. He then followed that with a poor post-season, contributing zero home runs, one RBI and ten strikeouts in 12 games vs. the Oakland Athletics and rival Yankees, who eliminated the Red Sox in seven games.

Meanwhile, new stars and cult heroes, led by David Ortiz and Kevin Millar, began to emerge in Red Sox Nation. Millar coined the catch phrase "Cowboy Up" in 2003, and convinced nearly every player on the roster other than Johnny Damon and Garciaparra (whose wedding with Mia Hamm followed the season) to shave his head. For his part, Garciaparra became more reclusive and isolated as his star slowly faded in the new, more team-oriented era of Red Sox baseball. To a similar extent, the demise of Boston's star culture for a populist approach also alienated pitcher Pedro Martinez, another holdover from the late '90s Dan Duquette regime which encouraged a different set of standards for star players, particularly Martinez and Garciaparra.

After the 2003 season, Red Sox management explored trading Manny Ramirez to the Texas Rangers for shortstop Alex Rodriguez. Details of this trade and the subsequent agreement that would send Garciaparra to the Chicago White Sox for Magglio Ordonez quickly became public. The mega-deal fell apart when the MLBPA refused to approve a restructuring of Rodríguez's contract, and Garciaparra returned to Boston as a lame duck for 2004 in the final year of a contract he signed in 1997.

Garciaparra missed three months of the 2004 season with an injured Achilles' tendon when a foul ball hit him in spring training. Many critics felt Garciaparra exaggerated the injury since he was bitter that the Red Sox had tried to trade him and were now offering $12 million per year instead of $15 million per year. This was widely felt to be the final nail in Garciaparra's coffin in Boston. Garciaparra told manager Terry Francona that he would have to miss much of August and September, causing Theo Epstein to decide that the struggling team needed a new shortstop.

Short Career with Cubs

n July 31, 2004, at the MLB trading deadline, Garciaparra was traded from the Red Sox to the Chicago Cubs in a four-team deal, in which the Red Sox acquired Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz. He expressed his appreciation to Red Sox Nation in a speech to media and left for the Windy City. In spite of losing a player with a lifetime average above .320, the controversial trade is often credited as giving the Red Sox the spark they needed to win the World Series in 2004.

In the 2005 season, a torn left groin forced him onto the disabled list yet again for more than three months. Garciaparra resumed play on August 5, 2005. Because Cubs regular third baseman Aramis Ramírez was on the disabled list for the last few weeks of the 2005 season, he temporarily played third base. Aside from his first game in the majors, in which he played second base, he had played shortstop in all of his other major-league games up to that point in his career.

Los Angeles Dodgers (2006)

In 2006, Nomar returned to his home town signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Also on the team are former Red Sox players Bill Mueller, Derek Lowe, and manager Grady Little, however, early in May, Mueller suffered a serious knee injury preventing him from playing a majority of the season.

Though he was able to retain his original number 5 jersey, he moved to first base in order to minimize the risk of injury while the Dodgers signed Rafael Furcal from the Atlanta Braves to step in for the recovering Cesar Izturis at short. Healthy for the first extended period of time since 2003, he has regained his offensive stroke, evidenced by a one-point .370 batting average and by remaining constantly productive. By the 2006 MLB All-Star Break, Nomar was tied with Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez for the lead amongst all MLB infielders and all NL batters with a .358 batting average, to go along with 11 home runs and 53 RBIs, carrying a 21-game hitting streak into the break.

He also appears to be adjusting well to playing first base, having committed only 1 error through 588.2 innings played--a .998 fielding percentage. He also was elected to the final spot of the 2006 NL All-Star Team, receiving around six million votes. It was his sixth trip to the Midsummer Classic, and his first as a first baseman and a Dodger. Garciaparra also capped off the one of the most amazing games of the season, on September 18. That night the Dodgers hit four consecutive home runs in the ninth inning against the San Diego Padres to tie the game; after the Padres scored a run in the tenth inning, Nomar hit a walkoff two-run home run in the bottom of the tenth to win the game 11-10. Unfortunately, a combination of oblique strains, knee injuries, and simple struggles caused Nomar's play to drop off dramatically in the second half. His .358 batting average steadily declined to just a hair over three hundred by the end of the season.

On October 7, Garciaparra was named the National League's Comeback Player of the Year for 2006. He received 72,054 votes.

On November 20, 2006 the Dodgers resigned Garciaparra to a 2 year contract worth $18.5 million, keeping him with the team through the 2008 season.

Former Dodgers Players :