No, your eyes were not deceiving you. That was former Boston Red Sox catcher and current coach Jason Varitek taking batting practice Tuesday at Fenway Park before the 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
And no, the former Red Sox captain is not planning a comeback at age 53. Varitek was taking hacks to help the club’s fantasy football draft.
“It appears the Red Sox are picking a fantasy draft order by having Jason Varitek take BP and seeing how far baseballs with certain names on them landed,” Masslive.com’s Chris Cotillo posted Tuesday on X.
“Most of Tek’s hits were to the warning track or off the wall,” MLB writer Tom Carroll noted.
“Greg Weissert’s ball got fouled straight up into the cage. Laughter ensued,” the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey observed.
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According to Masslive.com’s Christopher Smith, the foul ball meant Weissert “became the unlucky fantasy team owner with the final pick.”
Varitek, now the Red Sox’s game planning and run prevention coach, was no slouch at the plate during his 15-year career. The three-time All-Star hit 193 home runs and earned a Silver Slugger Award in 2005.
The switch-hitter slammed a career-high 25 home runs in 2003 and followed that up with a personal best .872 OPS in 2004 when the Red Sox snapped the “Curse of the Bambino” to win the World Series.
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The two-time World Series champion also excelled behind the plate, catching four no-hitters.
- Hideo Nomo: (April 4, 2001)
- Derek Lowe: (April 27, 2002)
- Clay Buchholz: (September 1, 2007)
- Jon Lester: (May 19, 2008)
Varitek, who was named Red Sox captain in 2004, retired after the 2011 season. He is considered a legitimate candidate to one day be a big-league manager.
The Red Sox were not the only team with fantasy football on the radar Tuesday. Smith reported “the Orioles also determined their drafted order before Tuesday’s game at Fenway by throwing nerf footballs off the Green Monster.”
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Featured image via Eric Canha/Imagn Images
