Anthony Nomar Garciaparra: 1973—: Baseball Shortstop Biography

Anthony Nomar Garciaparra: 1973—: Baseball shortstop.

Called "one of baseball's best ambassadors" by Baseball Digest, Anthony Nomar Garcia-parra has made quite a name for himself as a shortstop on the Boston Red Sox baseball team. During his 1997 rookie season, he set several major league, American league, and Red Sox rookie records. Baseball Weekly called it "the greatest rookie season in history." Garciaparra continued to impress with each season.

Garciaparra was born July 23, 1973, in Whittier, California. He was the oldest of the four children of Ramon and Sylvia Garciaparra. Garciaparra actually got his unique middle name from his father, who wanted to name his son something that incorporated all the letters of his own name but was not the same. When he was young Garciaparra played T-ball, and he was dubbed by one of the other parents "No Nonsense Nomar" because unlike the other children he was usually very serious about the game. Several people have asked him about his childhood heroes that inspired him to become a baseball player, but Garcia-parra told Baseball Digest, "I never modeled myself after anyone as a kid. I never had a hero…. I didn't like watching it; I liked playing it…. I learned to play every single position in baseball.… My inspiration was the game itself, not any individual player in it."

In high school at St. John Bosco, Garciaparra played baseball, soccer, and football, but it was baseball that was always his first love. His high school team was League Champ in 1990-1991, he was league MVP in 1991, and they were the Youth League World Series Champs in 1989. He had several offers after high school, including one from the Milwaukee Brewers, but in the end Garciaparra decided to go to college at Georgia Tech University, where he had been offered a spot on the baseball team. While there he majored in management. In 1992 Garcia-parra earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic baseball team. He spent a lot of time there watching other shortstops and learning from their examples. Back at Georgia Tech, Garciaparra helped lead his baseball team, the Yellow Jackets, to the College World Series for the first time in that school's history. He earned all-tournament honors that year. He ended his career at Georgia Tech with a .372 career batting average, 58 doubles, 14 triples, 23 home runs, and 166 RBIs.