Being Nomar

Poor old Nomar Garciaparra - as soon as he turns his back, the rumours begin to fly. The Boston Globe has an article today on the possibility of Nomar moving to second base, thus leaving the shortstop position open for Pokey Reese, who is having a fine season as Nomar's replacement.

The Globe magazine ran an article on Nomar last week which profiles the Red Sox shortstop and examines his relationship with the ballclub. I like Nomar - he's a fine ballplayer and one of those guys on whom that white Red Sox home uniform looks perfect, but you always get the feeling that he seems to be out of sync with certain expectations of him. He's not the media recluse that Pedro is, neither is he the media manipulator (and I use the term in the kindest possible way) that Curt Schilling is - he's sort of stuck in the middle, always trying to say the right thing and convince the general public that he would like nothing more than to stay in Boston. As the article says:

So this is what we have in [Garciaparra]: a fierce, game-making competitor on the field who runs out every ground ball; a humble, reluctant star off the field who runs a respected foundation and steers clear of trouble.

"Isn't that enough?" he asks.

Not in Red Sox Nation, Nomar - you have to be willing to die for the cause...