Though, it should be noted, he did mention that the Sox have yet to resume negotiations on a contract extension, talks that blew up last month when the club came back with an offer markedly lower than the one rejected by Garciaparra last spring.
"My offseason has been great," Garciaparra said, smiling broadly. "How could it not be? I got married. It's been wonderful, to be honest with you."
It didn't sound quite so wonderful last month, when a miffed Garciaparra interrupted his Hawaii honeymoon to call radio station WEEI to express his shock to hear that the Sox were attempting to land Rodriguez, though the A-Rod campaign was hardly a secret at that point, the story having broken during the general managers' meetings in Arizona in November.
Garciaparra said the hurt he showed in that phone call was over the backhanded way he'd found out. Yesterday he waved off the notion that any of that hurt lingers, again citing his marriage last November to soccer star Mia Hamm.
"I'm married, I have a great life, there are 500 kids here to learn about playing baseball, I'm playing the sport I love -- what hurt?" he said.
Beyond saying that talks have not resumed -- "The ball's in their court, when they want to pick this up" -- Garciaparra said he will have nothing to say regarding negotiations. He's honoring an agreement, he said, he made even before talks turned serious last spring, to keep contract talk under the radar, although that blew up last month in a nasty public exchange between Garciaparra's agent, Arn Tellem, and Sox principal owner John W. Henry, who refused to let Tellem get away with calling the Sox "disingenuous" in their dealings with Garciaparra.
