Red Sox Spring Training

Hey All,

Today, down in the spring training camps for the Red Sox, there was a familiar face on the field. Former catch, and caption Jason Varitek was back in Red Sox red and blue helping out the catchers.

Varitek is in a new role since retiring in 2011 and taking 2012 off to be with his family. He is now in an assistant role with the Red Sox, and will be helping build a new foundation with the club.

Most reporters are use to seeing Varitek with ice bags on just about every part of his body, but today was a different story. He was in a white polo with multiple color strips, gray pants and gray Nike's. Not his usual look, but all in all probably a better look for a seasoned vet. He spent 13 minutes and 43 seconds with the media today, and I think the old timer found a new favorite word. He use the word "learning" about a dozen times in that 13 minute interview.

"I'm learning a lot of different areas, different avenues," said Varitek "Just learning. I'm going to be involved in a lot of different areas, and have been since September. Part of building that foundation, you learn what the coaches are doing, what baseball ops are doing, what the minor-league coordinators are doing. In my position, it's a lot of learning and understanding what everybody's doing."

Varitek will be helping out with the minor-league and scouting for the up and coming draft in June. Also, which the Red Sox organization like the most, he will be helping out the catchers. He's already on the field now with the catchers showing them his tricks of the trade.

Now I say the man is more then qualified to do this: with three All-Star Game appearances, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger award, and not to mention 2 World Series rings on his finger, I'd say he's more than qualified for that job. To go along with that, the man was just a tough player, and
left everything out on the field. That's why, when he was a player, in his post-game interviews he had ice bags on every part of his body; shoulder, knees, back, neck, hamstrings, and that's just what we could see.

I can't wait to see what he will do for the organization, since he's done so much on the field, I can't wait to see what happens with him off the field. Clearly it can't do anything but improve what the Red Sox were last season, and a playoff birth would be a good goal to shot for this year.