Millar would head welcoming committee

"You look at Nomar, and he's won two batting titles, and you look at Manny, and he's a great hitter," Millar said by phone last night from Beaumont, Texas. "But if you're talking about the best player in baseball all-around, I'm taking Alex Rodriguez."

Millar, like his Sox teammates, knows little more about the prospect of the Sox trading Ramirez for Rodriguez and dealing away Garciaparra, most likely to the Dodgers, than what he has seen in the news. But like most everyone else in baseball, Millar believes the moves could be completed by the end of the week.

"It sounds like it," he said, " because it's so far on the go."

Despite joining Ramirez and Garciaparra in helping the Sox surge to within five outs of a World Series berth, Millar is OK with replacing them with Rodriguez. The Sox also would acquire a hitter to help replace Ramirez's production.

"You're talking about the greatest player in the game," Millar said of Rodriguez. "Who wouldn't want him on their team?"

The potential transaction has been driven in part by Boston owner John W. Henry's belief that he may not be able to sign Garciaparra to a multiyear extension of his contract, which expires after next season. Garciaparra spurned a four-year, $60 million offer in spring training that would have kept him in Boston until he was 35 in 2008.

When Millar was asked if he believed Garciaparra has been happy in Boston, he said, "He turned down a four-year, $60 million contract, so I don't. That should speak for itself. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that if he turned down a four-year, $60 million contract, he did it either because he thought he was worth more or he wasn't happy. And we're talking about more money than he could ever need."

Millar bears the distinction of genuinely appreciating every moment he can play in the major leagues. Unlike Garciaparra and Ramirez, who commanded large bonuses as first-round draft picks, Millar went undrafted out of high school and college before he battled his way out of the independent Northern League. His enthusiasm was infectious last season, helping to create the remarkable "Cowboy Up" spirit that personified the 2003 Sox. But he had little patience for players who fell out of step with the team's mission, as he showed when he confronted Ramirez after the $160 million slugger declined several requests to pinch hit in crucial situations against the Phillies on Labor Day while he was recovering from a sore throat.

Millar also takes issue with the notion that a team's job is to keep its players happy.

"It doesn't say in our contracts that we have to be happy," he said. "We're paid to play. The bottom line is, [Garciaparra] will be paid for next year regardless. And wherever he plays, he'll play his hardest."

Whether or not Garciaparra and Ramirez are traded for Rodriguez, Millar figures next year's team will be a tough contender, particularly after the acquisitions of Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke.

"If we came back tomorrow with the same team, I'll take my chances," he said. "Either way, it's a win-win situation."

Millar also said he would be happy to move to left field if that would help in Ramirez's absence. The Sox have been shopping for an outfielder to replace Ramirez, but Millar is comfortable in left field, especially at Fenway Park.

"If they want to put me in left field and [David] Ortiz at first base, and get an older hitter as the DH, I would do it in a heartbeat," he said. "I'll do whatever they want. Playing the outfield is one thing that gives me more value to a team."

He cited Rafael Palmeiro as an example of an older player who could DH, though he was aware of reports the Sox are leaning toward picking up an outfielder if Ramirez is moved for Rodriguez.

Bellhorn ready

While the Sox continued shopping for low-budget, high-yield second basemen, they bought some insurance by acquiring Mark Bellhorn from the Rockies for a player to be named. But Bellhorn wasted no time making clear he hopes to provide more than insurance by succeeding Todd Walker at the position.

"Hopefully, what I want to do is come in and win the second base job," he said from Mexico, where he is playing after a subpar season with the Cubs and Rockies. Bellhorn hit .221 with 2 homers and 26 RBIs and a .353 on-base percentage last season after batting .258 with 27 homers and 56 RBIs and a .374 on-base percentage for the Cubs in 2002.

"I struggled a little bit in spring training and I got off to a slow start [last season], and I think I was trying to do a little bit too much every day," he said. "It got to the point that I got so frustrated and couldn't figure things out and maybe my mental mind-set wasn't where it should have been, as it was the year before. I want to come in this year and have the same kind of mind-set I had in 2002, so I can believe in myself."

Bellhorn, 29, is a career .230 hitter with 36 home runs and 106 RBIs in 371 games with the A's, Cubs, and Rockies. He was born in Weymouth, where his father was doing an internship as a veterinarian, but the family moved to Florida when he was two weeks old.