Beckett felt teammate's pain

Red Sox righthander Josh Beckett, who played long toss in the outfield yesterday morning, said ex-teammate Keith Foulke "was so miserable last year." (JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF)

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Keith Foulke's announcement that he was retiring at age 34, on the eve of joining his new team, the Cleveland Indians, did not come as a complete surprise to the Red Sox pitcher who sat next to him in the clubhouse last season.

"He was so miserable last year," Josh Beckett said yesterday. "He doesn't like being hurt. So, in that aspect, no, not at all [surprised]. My locker was right next to his last year. I knew he was dying inside.

"I think his elbow, I think his back, and his knees [were hurting him]. I think his knees were just killing him. He couldn't walk, he couldn't run. And pitching was just a pain in his butt."

Foulke signed a $5 million contract with the Indians after he and the Sox both elected not to exercise options that would have allowed him to return for a minimum of $5.25 million this season. He never made it to Indians camp, calling Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro with the news Thursday afternoon. Beckett said he heard the news Thursday night.

"I can't tell people how to remember him," Sox manager Terry Francona said of Foulke, who was on the mound when the Sox won the 2004 World Series but in his final two seasons in Boston may never have recovered physically from the enormous workload he carried that postseason, one in which he allowed just one earned run in 11 appearances (14 innings).

"I know how I will. I tend to choose to look at the positive, maybe because that's my nature. We don't win without him in 2004," said Francona. "Foulkie pitched many more innings than you could realistically expect of him . . . I know he didn't make the most popular comments and didn't endear himself to everybody. I understand that. But for any manager or general manager or team standpoint, what he can do with that baseball we appreciate."

Watch new pitching coach John Farrell when he heads to the mound to talk to Daisuke Matsuzaka or Hideki Okajima this summer. He might be wearing a Tom Brady-style wristband -- with a Japanese cheat sheet.

Farrell, who has been working one-on-one with a tutor to learn the language, focusing on basic sentence structure and baseball terminology, acknowledged he might need to bring some materials to the mound with him. Yet even with his brief lessons, he seems to be getting the hang of Japanese. As a reporter asked him whether he would be out in the middle of the field trying to come up with the word for, say, arm, Farrell shot back: "It's ude."

More formal Japanese classes start for Farrell soon, along with English classes for the Japanese players, so perhaps the papers won't be needed by the All-Star break. He's been listening to audio tapes, combined with using a website that has conversational Japanese that can be downloaded onto an iPod.

"I think it can become a competitive advantage," he said, after the laughter had subsided from his impromptu Japanese lesson. "But at the same time, it's a must in terms of game functioning and the game management standpoint."

Beckett reflected on the highs and lows of his first season in Boston during his chat with the media.

"You always think about it," said Beckett, who won 16 games, made 33 starts, and pitched 204 2/3 innings, but also had a 5.01 earned run average and gave up 36 home runs. "You go home and take about a month and a half off and start thinking about things you want to change and things you want to improve on.

"I had some ups and downs last year. I just want to be a little more consistent this year. It's one of those deals. You always want to get better. You want to get better from start to start. You definitely want to get better from season to season."

Jason Varitek, Mike Timlin, Doug Mirabelli, Matt Clement, and Tim Wakefield were among the veteran arrivals in camp yesterday . . . Manny Delcarmen apparently is taking notes from Manny Ramírez, showing up to camp with his hair dyed orange. Though he meant to dye it, he didn't intend for it to come out that color. He was going for more of a blond tint. "It wasn't highlights," Delcarmen said. "I did it myself, like all over. I wanted it to be a little blond and my wife was like, 'It's going to be too blond, take it out!' I took it out and it stayed a little orange. It doesn't look that bad when it's wet. When it's wet you can't tell." . . . Alberto Castillo, the free agent catcher signed in the offseason, comes into spring training with a slight jump on Varitek and Mirabelli. Though Varitek also caught a Japanese pitcher in his time with the Mariners, Mac Suzuki, Castillo said his time catching Hideo Nomo and Masato Yoshii has left him with "un poquito" or "a little" of the language, mostly baseball terms, but enough to get a message across on the mound . . . Farrell said that, while no determination has been made on the order of the Sox starting pitchers, he anticipates Matsuzaka will be among the top three, putting him on line to start the season with a game in Kansas City.