Tough out for injured Garciaparra

The July 31 trade last season to the Cubs changed nothing. He hurt his wrist again. And now this.

Hmmm.

Look, I'm hardly the first person to raise the question. When he was with the Red Sox, who was bold enough to link our fair shortstop, a noted workout guy, with the dreaded S-word? But he did go from, like, standard athlete issue normal to ultra-buffed in one winter, and he has been -- there is no other way to say it -- systematically breaking down for the past six years, so you can't help wondering just what he's been putting into his body other than Wheaties and sirloin steaks. If we're going to assume that Mark McGwire's physical breakdown was because of a reliance on steroids, then it would be quite logical to adopt the same line of thinking about Nomar. It's a legitimate question.

But let's say steroids have nothing to do with it, that Nomar's body is the product of more standard activity. Then perhaps he should rethink just exactly what he's been doing in that realm, because his body isn't responding very well to that. How many times are we told that someone's groin muscle has been torn away from the bone? Sounds to me like a body under a great deal of physical stress.

So what does the future hold for Nomar, who will be 32 July 23? We know one thing: The really big payday is never going to materialize.

Things have changed dramatically since the spring of 2003, when Nomar, according to numerous reports, spurned a Red Sox offer of four years and $60 million. It's easy to sit here now and say, "What was he thinking?" But what was he thinking? Apparently, he was thinking he could command Derek Jeter money. That was silly. Derek Jeter never even deserved Derek Jeter money.