FORT MYERS, Fla. — six years after he was traded away for the final pieces of Boston’s World Series puzzle, Nomar Garciaparra finally got a friendly farewell from the Red Sox.

The rookie of the year, batting champion and All-Star whose trade began a bitter back-and-forth in Boston and, for Garciaparra, an inglorious slide into irrelevance, signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the Red Sox on Wednesday for the purpose of retiring in the uniform of his original team.

“From the first day I had the thrill of putting on a Red Sox uniform and playing in front of all the great fans at Fenway Park, I have felt at home in Boston,” Garciaparra said in a statement that belied the ugliness that accompanied his departure. “While I had the privilege of playing with other legendary teams, I always saw myself retiring in a Red Sox uniform.”

Garciaparra announced he’s leaving baseball at 36 to become an ESPN analyst, ending a 14-year career in which he was a six-time All-Star and two-time batting champion.

Hunter says comments

taken out of context

The wide grin that seems perpetually attached to the face of Torii Hunter was gone Wednesday morning.

The Angels’ media-friendly center fielder fumed about how he was portrayed in a USA Today article examining the declining percentage of black players in baseball in which he was quoted as saying that dark-skinned players from the Dominican Republic are not black but “impostors.”

“People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they’re African American,” Hunter said, according to the article, published Wednesday. “They’re not us. They’re impostors. Even people I know come up and say, ‘Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? is he a black player?’ I say, ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ “

Blacks made up 10 percent of last year’s opening-day rosters, compared with 28 percent for foreign players.

The article also quoted Hunter as saying teams pursue Latin American talent “because you can get them cheaper. It’s like, ‘Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?”

Hunter, who directs a large share of his charitable efforts to the development baseball in disadvantaged neighborhoods and has won awards for his community service, said his comments “were distorted and taken out of context.”

Notes

• Alex Rodriguez may soon be talking to federal authorities, and he hopes it will happen close to spring training.

Lawyers for the Yankees slugger are setting up an interview as part of an investigation into a Canadian doctor who is the focus of a cross-border drug smuggling case involving human growth hormone.

Rodriguez said the site is under discussion but he would like it near the team’s spring complex in Tampa rather than in Buffalo, N.Y., where the U.S. investigation is being conducted. he expects to soon know the interview date.

• on his first day as Dodgers interim manager, hitting coach Don Mattingly said that the team has made overtures about him eventually becoming Joe Torre’s permanent replacement. In a meeting this winter with Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, owner Frank McCourt and team president Dennis Mannion, Mattingly said the word manager was brought up but “nothing definitive” was said or done. “We talked about it, for sure,” he said.

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