Receivers capable of powerful output

March 2, 2001 | Boston Globe | By Bob Ryan

 

Line 'em all up and say, ''Pick out the catcher.''

It's not hard.

''Thighs of a hockey player,'' points out Bret Saberhagen. ''Upper body of a football player.''

Only one Red Sox player fulfills that description. It's the one who's sorry there are only 162 games to play, and never mind the fact that catching a baseball game is like playing five games in, say, left field.

''I'll play as many games as they'll let me play,'' asserts Jason Varitek.

On a team of superstars and former stars and assorted would-be stars, he is an intriguing X-factor. He is the team's No. 1 catcher, after all, and, as Casey Stengel pointed out when the expansion Mets made Hobie Landrith their No. 1 pick, ''A catcher is important, otherwise the ball will roll all the way to the backstop.'' (OK, OK, but remember this is the first spring training game. The humor will get better. Promise.)

Now, where were we? Yes, catching. Jason Varitek is the catcher, which is important enough that a good team can carry a good receiver who hits .250 with no power. But in Varitek's case, we are talking about a switch-hitting catcher who does have a thump factor in his bat, assuming we think the real Varitek is the one we saw in the second half of the 1999 season and not the one we saw for a good portion of the 2000 campaign.

The 1999 Varitek had 20 home runs and 76 RBIs while slugging .482. The 2000 Varitek had 10 home runs (in only 35 fewer at-bats) and 65 RBIs while slugging .388. Any manager could live with the 2000 figures from his catcher, but the skipper would start off each day with a nice smile if he knew that in addition to a well-called and well-handled game from his catcher, he might also have a consistently dangerous bat in his lineup.

Now, let the record show that Varitek has a ready excuse for his offensive decline. He played a good portion of the season with a right wrist that required surgery a week after the season ended.

''I really can't say how much it affected me,'' Varitek says. ''I really don't know. It did bother me for a couple of months. It hampered my throwing initially, but it seemed to go away around August. After that there were episodes, and I reached the conclusion that something was wrong in there, and I had the surgery.''

That's as close as Jason Varitek will come to copping a plea. In fact, it took two tries in order to get him to address his own situation when asked to sum up his 2000 season. His first response was rather classic Jason Varitek.

''I think I got spoiled the first two years because we were in the playoffs,'' he had said. ''That was the most disappointing thing. When you spend part of your offseason watching other people play in the postseason, it makes you hungry to get back in it yourself.''

Varitek is well-known in the clubhouse for being Mr. Conscientious, but in this particular spring training, he is really going to be tested. As the catcher, he takes it upon himself to become as intimately familiar with his pitchers as he can. There may be as many as four new pitchers in the five-man starting rotation. Varitek has a whole lot of studying to do.

''I've got to get to know these guys as much as I can,'' he agrees. ''And there is no substitute for game experience.''

Varitek doesn't stop with the game experience. ''You can take that game experience, and then you can take it another step,'' he explains. ''You can talk about it. You can meet with the guy. You see what he likes to throw in what situation, on what count. You see what he's comfortable with. When he's in a jam, what's his go-to pitch?''

This is not let's-impress-the-guy-with-the-notebook rhetoric.

''Jason Varitek,'' says Saberhagen, ''is one of those guys who is a catcher first and a hitter second. He's got a good bat, but he is always very focused in on the pitcher and the opposing team. It's tough to be both a good catcher and a good hitter, and one thing about Jason is that he is very hard on himself.''

There is no doubt that Varitek can be a good hitter. He got so hot in the second half of 1999 that he even found himself batting third. He hit one of the great home runs of the season, a 13th-inning game-winner in Cleveland Sept. 15. That was part of a .299, 11 HR, 45 RBI post-All Star Game output.

He has been one of Jimy Williams's great pawns when it comes time to filling out his daily lineup. Last year he batted everywhere except first and fourth.

''I think I represent good flexibility for a manager being a switch hitter,'' he reasons. ''I think I help in matchup situations.''

Whether he's 4 for 4 or 0 for 4, his manager and his teammates know he will play hard and he will play hurt. He looks like a catcher - the flat-top is a perfect exclamation point - and acts like a prototype catcher. If there is anyone on your team who should lay claim to being the guy who loves the game enough to play it under any circumstances, it should be the catcher. You don't have to spend much time around the Red Sox to know that Jason Varitek oozes baseball from his every pore.

''That's the player I want to be,'' he declares. ''That's all I want to be. I just want to play, and I want to win. Those two things. I love this game. That's the reason I want to be out there as much as I can.''

Good thing, too. As the Ol' Perfessor noted, otherwise there'd be a lot of passed balls.