MOVE OVER DJ, YOU'VE GOT COMPANY

Looks like Derek Jeter isn't the only superstar shortstop with an axe to grind this spring. After recieving the first real dose of bad press from the Boston media late last season, Nomar Garciaparra arrived at training camp with a chip square on his shoulder. Dan Shaughnessy broke the story in yesterday's Boston Globe:

''I don't know how to act this year,'' Nomar said yesterday, while sitting in front of his locker after a workout. ''Somebody will write some [expletive] or whatever. Some [expletive] that I was unhappy or I'm this. I don't get it.

''I was unhappy last year when we weren't in the playoffs. I'm happy with my situation, but I can't win, and I don't know how I'm going to act. If I was happy all year and we were losing, then it would be, `Well, he's a little too happy. Obviously he doesn't care.' You know what I mean? If I'm walking around chipper all the time and we're not winning, then it will be like -- `what's Nomar so happy about? He has nothing to be happy about. We're not in the playoffs.'

''So I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. I'll just ask somebody every day how I'm supposed to be acting. You tell me. You ask my teammates and my coaches. Nobody says I'm unhappy.

''I wish you guys could tell me the best strategy, because I'm in a no-win situation. And then people make [expletive] up to try to make me look bad.''

Asked to specify what was made up, Garciaparra referred to a column by Steve Buckley in the Herald last summer that recommended he leave town if he's so unhappy. The column erroneously stated that he had called the press box to change a scoring decision. Garciaparra is still steamed about the allegation.

''One thing that came out on me was if I don't like it here, get the [expletive] out. Go home. That I'm calling up people [official scorer] and changing errors.
''I don't need to talk to the guy. He asked me if I wanted to talk about it, hey, the damage was done. What was he gonna do, go write that he lied and that he [made a mistake]? Go ahead. Do that. Show me some [expletive]. But I've got more class than that. I never talked to him and never said anything.''

Reached in Boston last night, Buckley said, ''There's a difference between making stuff up and messing up. I messed up, and I told Nomar.''

Buckley was a bit more pointed in his column this morning.

Garciaparra, like Derek Jeter before him, directed most of his anger toward the media:

``I definitely expect myself to be a certain way, but at the same time you're in an environment where you walk on eggshells and can ruin you,'' Garciaparra said yesterday at the Red Sox spring training complex. ``Let's face it, there are things that still get brought up about some guys from six, seven or eight years ago so you have to watch everything. You're constantly stressed. And so if you're not careful, everything gets destroyed that you've worked so hard for.''