Category: Jason Varitek

D-Day 2009

"Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint."

How often have you been told that, with respect to the baseball season, no single day nor no single event matters more than the collective performance over a 162 game season? When looking at individual performance, I follow that perspective to a fault. Until a slump reaches the proportions of David Ortiz in the first months of 2009 or Jason Bay in the most recent, I feel confident that a player will regress or progress as the case may be back to their mean. "Water seeks it's level".

With respect to the team at large, a season is made of peaks and valleys, winning streaks and lulls. As a fan, every multi-game streak in either direction can feel like a precursor to the fate of the season, but as Terry Francona and his players will tell you time and time again, they don't get caught up in such momentum as easily as we do. They head to the park day in and day out to play, and try to win, a game against the team lining up against them on the field that day.

BOS 4, BAL 0: Reverse, reverse

One day after being dominated by Tommy Hanson, Jon Lester and the Boston Red Sox turned the table on the Baltimore Orioles.

ATL 2, BOS 1: Squeamish

Tommy Hanson came into his start against the Red Sox not feeling 100 percent.

BOS 3, MIN 1: You’re outtah here!

Home plate umpire Todd Tichenor just skyrocketed up the ESPN umpire ejection fantasy league standings.

BOS 8, TOR 3: Homer happy

David Ortiz is finally smiling again. And so is Red Sox Nation.

BOS 4, LAA 3: Triple

The Red Sox didn't want to be the only Boston team to lose tonight.

Remember when Josh Beckett was great?

And I know that "game-calling" skills may be overrated. But in the case of Beckett, I prefer Varitek to be behind the plate, rather than Kottaras. No disrespect to Georgie boy, but I like when the calm, collective, intelligent mind of Tek is calling the shots while Beckett is on the hill. Could be just a personal preference I guess. But we will all agree, I'm sure, that nobody knows Beckett like Tek does.