Jason Varitek
Urban Legend: ''We don't throw at .260 hitters''
September 16, 2004 |The New York Times | By Ira Berkow
Well, yes, when Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox was stuffing his catcher's mitt into the matinee-idol profile of Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez -- this being the baseball equivalent of a knuckle sandwich -- they indeed had words. But exactly what were those words, and did they contain a classic insult to Rodriguez?
The incident, already elevated to the status of legend, occurred on July 24 in Boston in what became another chapter in the teams' ferocious rivalry for dominance of the American League East. It will surely be on the minds, as well as the tongues, of Yankee fans as the teams meet for three games this weekend in the Bronx, in the middle of another heated race.
In the third inning of that game, with Boston trailing, 3-0, Bronson Arroyo hit Rodriguez with a pitch. Rodriguez jawed at Arroyo and was confronted by Varitek partway down the first-base line, and a scuffle ensued with both benches emptying. But the biggest blow came in the bottom of the ninth, when Bill Mueller hit a two-run homer off, of all people, closer Mariano Rivera, to give the Red Sox an 11-10 victory.
Varitek's altercation with Rodriguez is now viewed as one of those moments that turned Boston's season around, although it took the Red Sox awhile to get going. Three weeks after the incident, they trailed the Yankees by 10 1/2 games, and it was only then that they went on a tear that wiped away most of the Yankees' lead and confirmed their status as George Steinbrenner's biggest headache.
One question remains, however: Did Varitek, as rumor has it, spit out a Bartlett's-style insult at Rodriguez? Did he say, ''We don't throw at .260 hitters''?
''That's ridiculous,'' said Varitek, sitting at his locker before a recent game. ''I'm not that smart to come up with such a clever line in the heat of battle. I knew Arroyo didn't hit him on purpose, and I just told him to get along to first base.''
Perhaps he did not say exactly that -- Varitek and Rodriguez, who has since lifted his average to .290, were both suspended for four games for their activities -- but ''not that smart'' is a statement that will find argument among the Red Sox themselves.
For Varitek is considered ''the unquestioned team leader,'' as the pitching coach, Dave Wallace, termed it, and ''a big part of the heart and soul of the club,'' in the words of Theo Epstein, the team's general manager.
And pitcher Curt Schilling, who leads the majors with 19 victories in his first season with the Red Sox, said of Varitek: ''He studies the opposing hitters to such a degree, and fits this knowledge with the particular abilities of the pitchers, that his signal-calling is amazing. It seems that every time I shake him off, something bad happens.''
Boston Manager Terry Francona added, paraphrasing a line from an old television commercial, ''When Jason speaks, people listen.''
Varitek said he understood that he will be the primary target of invective in Yankee Stadium on Friday night, taking over a role previously assumed by Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martínez, who, in a bench-clearing tussle during a playoff game last season at Fenway, tossed Don Zimmer, then a 72-year-old Yankee coach, to the ground.
And Varitek, being as thick of body -- 6 feet 2 inches, 230 pounds -- as he is nimble of mind, will be a big target, too.
He is 32, in his seventh season with the Red Sox, the only major league team he has played for, and no stranger to Yankee Stadium and the Beantown-Gotham conflict.
''I've gotten booed there before,'' Varitek said. ''It's expected. We're the villains in their eyes. And because of that one incident, me especially. But Alex and I were about the same thing. We're on opposing teams, and we're trying to win.''
Varitek was an All-American at Georgia Tech, Baseball America's college player of the year in 1993, a first-round draft pick by the Seattle Mariners in 1994 and destined for big things in Boston after the Red Sox acquired him and Derek Lowe in 1997 for reliever Heathcliff Slocumb. He can hit from either side of the plate, rare for a catcher, and last season, his first as an All-Star, he batted .273 with 25 home runs and 85 runs batted in.