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''As quiet as I seem -- I can be -- that's just a concentration thing," Varitek said. ''But get away from it, I love to talk the game. I want to see when Mike Lowell is swinging the bat good. I want to know what he looks like, see what he looks like, and when he's not so good. I want to have the picture frame between the two. I want to know what he's thinking when he's going good, and when [he's not] all of a sudden, where's his mind-set now?

''That's when you get to know each other."

The other side of him
But Varitek doesn't seem ready to put his old teammates behind him. When he talks about getting to know the players around him, he lists names -- Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar, Doug Mirabelli -- then a second later seems to realize they are no longer in Boston, and he moves on to David Ortiz, to Trot Nixon.

It appears to be only a momentary lapse but, in this quieter clubhouse, it's understandable.

Much is different in this space, new faces, new emotions, new styles, new ideas. Without the bonds that connected the 2003 team or the 2004 World Series champs or even the 2005 club, this could easily become a wash of individuals, slipping into the old Red Sox mentality of every man for himself. [ More ]