Then there's the old story about him preferring to ply his trade somewhere other than Boston. That one particularly irks Garciaparra because that's something he's never said.
He's tired of the expectations that he's supposed to roll off the disabled list and hit .360 right away.
Garciaparra, who went 3 for 5 in yesterday's 11-0 win over Colorado, doesn't want to be judged by his first 25 at-bats after spending more than 50 games on the disabled list. He doesn't want to be compared to the player who was hitting .328 with 10 home runs and 46 RBIs at this point last year.
As it is, he's up to .320 after legging out his first triple yesterday, and said afterward he felt great putting that stress on his Achilles'.
"I thought I hit it pretty well today. It felt like I did a couple of different times, but today the results were good," Garciaparra said. "That triple was the first time I've had to really stretch it out like that. It felt good to do that. The big thing is the way Derek [Lowe] pitched. He was phenomenal."
If Garciaparra doesn't do the job over the long haul either at the plate or in the field, then so be it -- rip away. Don't sign him to a long-term deal, let him go off merrily to Los Angeles or Seattle or Anaheim and just remember the eight years he spent at Fenway.
He wants to be judged on his career as a whole. Does consistency mean anything? Do we dismiss eight excellent seasons because of a small window when he's struggled?
These are the types of things he's tired of hearing.
While all Garciaparra wants to do is play, general manager Theo Epstein appears to want to let the contract stuff play out at the end of the season.
"I was surprised by a lot of the skepticism about Nomar's rehab," Epstein said yesterday. "I saw firsthand how hard he worked. It was a real cooperative effort. Nomar and the training staff and [manager Terry Francona] met regularly and I was involved, too, in helping to coordinate a lot of the resources with Nomar and everything he needed. If anything, I was proud of how quickly he came back regarding the nature of the injury, how hard he worked to get back, and how cooperative the effort was. We were all of one mind. That's what we did."
