Three Superstars Keeping Elite Company at Shortstop
Boston Globe, April 6, 2000
By Dan Shaughnessy
SEATTLE - There is no password or secret handshake, but theirs is the most exclusive of clubs. Three members. That's it.
Nomar Garciaparra, Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter are the holy trinity of shortstops. All in their mid-20s, already heaped with riches and awards, they are redefining baseball's most skilled position.
There aren't many Yalta sessions for the three shortstops. It's possible you'll see them together at an All-Star game (voting for a starting American League shortstop has become like selecting your favorite Springsteen song). Otherwise, they'll assemble only for a national ad campaign or a magazine cover. Check out the April GQ and there's Nomar, A-Rod, and Derek, left to right - like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Keith Richard without guitars.
''It's pretty hard to get us all together,'' Nomar said before last night's game, the second of the 2000 season. ''But that was fun doing that photo shoot.''
The Red Sox' opening series in Seattle gives us an opportunity to see Nomar and A-Rod head-to-head for three days. Fans get the same thrill whenever the Sox play the Yankees or the Mariners play New York.
Jeter and Rodriguez share the closest relationship. They stay at one another's homes when the Mariners play the Yankees. This caused some friction in the Yankee clubhouse last summer when the shortstop buddies chose to chat and laugh during an on-field brawl between the Yankees and Mariners.
''Derek and I are like brothers,'' said Rodriguez. ''We came up together. But Nomar and I have done some fun things in the offseason. We filmed a commercial [for Amtrak] and got a lot closer. Nomar and I are good buddies, man. He's my man.''
Garciaparra isn't staying at Rodriguez's house this week, but he's got a lot of admiration for his Seattle counterpart. ''I love watching him play,'' said Nomar. ''He's got all the tools. He's a great defensive guy; he's got a great arm. He can beat you so many ways on the bases, and at the plate he's unbelievable. He's got power, can hit for average, and do what needs to be done. He's a clutch hitter as well. He's got all the things you need.''
Naturally, A-Rod returns the compliment. These guys see the same things we see. ''He's incredible,'' said Rodriguez. ''He's a future Hall of Famer. I think the world of Nomar, both on and off the field. I watch him all the time.''
Rodriguez was hit in the right elbow by a wild and ineffective Ramon Martinez in the first inning last night, but stayed in the game and made a spectacular grab of a Garciaparra liner, turning it into a double play to end the top of the third. A-Rod homered of John ''Way Back'' Wasdin in the fourth.
You can start an argument in any barroom in America simply by asking which shortstop you'd take first in a dispersal draft.
Nomar doesn't like questions about who's best. Rodriguez is a little more forthcoming on the obvious rivalry.
''I think there's a healthy competition going on,'' said the Seattle franchise. ''We motivate each other. In a way we're probably subconsciously trying to out-do each other and, I don't know, it's fun. Those guys are great competitiors and great team players. I think the common denominator is that we care about the team concept.''
Garciaparra last year was voted starting shortstop for the AL All-Star team. America enjoyed a Kodak moment when Jeter ran out to replace Nomar at the start of the fourth inning at Fenway Park. They embraced. Rodriguez was home watching on TV. He missed 32 games early in '99 due to a knee injury. The ballot this year is wide open.
''It doesn't matter who's first, not to me,'' said Rodriguez. ''You can throw up a coin [a three-sided coin, perhaps?]. I've won two years. Nomar's won. Derek's gonna win. I don't even know if it's really a matter of who's doing better or not. I think it's just a matter of whose fans are dialing in.''
There you go, Sox fans. Get out there and stuff that ballot box for Nomar Garciaparra.
''I don't think there's a competition,'' said Nomar, sounding a little like Rick Pitino. ''People say you got to go up against so-and-so. I'm not competing against Derek or Alex. I'm competing about the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. It doesn't matter what each one of us does; what matters is who won and lost. So there really is no competition. It's team against team. I don't try to be the best anything. I just try to do the best job I can do. I don't look for titles like that. I just do my job.
Having delivered the required Dukespeak, he acknowledged, ''It's an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence with those guys. Watching those guys play is tremendous, so if they throw me in there I'm proud of it. It's an honor. I think it's great for baseball right now. I think fans enjoy watching guys who enjoy the game.''
Incredibly, Garciaparra, at 26, is the oldest of the three. Jeter is 25, and Rodriguez, who made his big-league debut at Fenway in 1994 when he was 18, is only 24 years old but has already hit 148 homers.
''I tease Derek because nobody really knows how old Derek is,'' said Rodriguez. ''In Kalamazoo, [Mich.,] they don't have birth certificates. The town is too damn small. You can't kid Nomar too much. He might be the smartest of all of us. You get to Georgia Tech, you got brains.''
It is a treat to watch any of them, any time. It's a double treat when their teams play one another. Sox-Mariner games, like Sox-Yankee games, and Yankee-Mariner games, are special. There's a potential Hall of Fame shortstop on the field every time you look up from your scorecard.