The Red Sox captain has spent his entire big league career with Boston, finding himself behind the dish in nearly 1,500 games and providing a steady, reliable presence. Though he's now 39 years old, he's still caught nearly half of the Red Sox' games this season, and he's still the same leader in the clubhouse as he was when he was an All-Star.
"He's the guy we always look to," Dustin Pedroia told USA Today in a lengthy feature on Varitek. "He's our leader. He's the guy we lean on. If he's calm, we're calm."
Teammates weren't the only ones to praise Varitek, as rival catcher Jorge Posada was quick to show respect for his counterpart in Boston.
"You look at his work ethic, what he does for that team, and they've followed," Posada, whose tenure with the Yankees coincided almost exactly with Varitek's Red Sox career. "All he cares about is winning. They don't win those two championships without him."
Former Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez also discussed how impressed he was with Varitek during his brief stint in Boston.
"I learned so much from him, and I will always respect him and remember what he did for me," Martinez told USA Today. "I basically came there and took his job, and he showed me how to handle the pitching staff, how to call pitches."
The story says that Varitek hopes to play one more season in Boston.
