Jason Varitek
Varitek Keeps Game In Perspective
April 11, 2010 | ESPN | By Gordon Edes
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- There are the public faces, and the private sorrows. Before his first start the other day, John Lackey had a sensitive personal issue, one that led manager Terry Francona to tell him that if he needed to stay home instead of pitch, the club would understand.
Lackey elected to pitch.
Jason Varitek was in spring training when he learned that his father, Joe, was very ill, and left the club for a week to be at his father's side with his mother, Donna, and his brothers. He returned to camp, and did his work, but his father's condition remained a constant worry. Joe Varitek is 68. "Thirty years older than me,'' said his son, who turns 38 on Sunday.
So while this baseball business has not been easy, adjusting to the role of backup catcher after having been the Sox anchor behind home plate for the last 11 years, Varitek's heart is occupied with greater concerns. You can lose your job and still soldier on in another role. But losing your dad? Where's the safety net for that?
Which is why it gave Varitek no small comfort to be able to say Saturday night, after a game in which he not only played for the first time in 2010 but hit two home runs, that Joe Varitek is improving.
"My dad is doing a little bit better,'' said Varitek, who asked to keep the particulars of his father's condition private out of consideration to his mother. "He's on the road to recovery right now. Exactly where he's at, I don't know, but he's already started the rehab process.''
His dad is well enough, Jason Varitek said, that back in a Florida hospital room, there should be smiles when Donna Varitek informs him that his son hit two home runs, including one off Zack Greinke, the American League Cy Young Award winner in 2009.
Varitek and Jeremy Hermida, who preceded him, hit home runs on consecutive hanging breaking balls from Greinke to lead off the fifth inning, giving the Sox and Josh Beckett a 2-1 lead. The Sox knocked out Greinke with two more runs in the seventh, the big hit an RBI double by Jacoby Ellsbury, one of his three hits, and Varitek homered again, hitting reliever Luis Mendoza's changeup into the seats in right, to lead off the ninth.
"That's impressive,'' said Beckett, who went seven innings for his first win in 2010. "He's got that 'C' on his chest for a reason. He's definitely one of our emotional leaders. To see him do well is important to all of us.''
The Sox would hit five home runs in all, Kevin Youkilis (his first) and Dustin Pedroia (his second) also taking the Royals bullpen deep.
Varitek had hit just one home run after July 11 last season, a period in which he hit just .153 (21 for 137) and lost his job to Victor Martinez after Martinez was acquired in a trading-deadline deal with the Indians.
Then, over the winter, the Sox elected not to exercise the $5 million option they held on Varitek's contract; he returned by exercising a player option for a lesser amount, $3 million.