Plenty on his plate

More to Varitek than his bat and defense

BY AMALIE BENJAMIN, GLOBE STAFF, 04/11/06

It was the summer of 1999 and, in between his catching duties for the Red Sox, Jason Varitek was watching. He watched as the United States women's soccer team won the World Cup. He watched as an exuberant Brandi Chastain stripped off her shirt after converting a penalty kick. But, of far more importance, at least as far as the Sox were concerned, he watched how the soccer players interacted. He listened to them. He noticed how they played together, how they related, how they understood one another.

Because he knew it worked for them. And, he assumed, it could work for him.

''They played together so long and communicated so well together that they knew each other," Varitek said. ''Not that they wake up in the morning and they talked to each other every second, but they communicated enough to where they knew what each other needed to do on the field, what their strengths were, what different things they could help each other with. And it was a very special thing to watch.

''That was a pretty big eye-opener for me."  [ More ]