Backstops aren't in background

The plan was for him to spend the summer as Jason Varitek's backup. Instead, John Flaherty decided to retire, just a couple of weeks into spring training, which is why he was in Fenway Park yesterday wearing a banana-colored blazer for the YES Network.

He wasn't in Red Sox camp long enough, Flaherty said, to get the same appreciation for Varitek that he developed for Jorge Posada, the Yankee catcher whom he backed up the last three years, though there was one surprise.

``He joked around a little more and was a lot funnier than I ever thought he was," Flaherty said of Varitek. ``Playing against him, he always was so intense."

That intensity, he said, revealed itself even in the short time he was in Fort Myers.

``The impression I was left with, when we ran drills, was the respect everyone had for him," Flaherty said. ``He kind of took over and was in control. That was impressive to watch.

``It was something you'd usually see a coach or manager do: `This is what we're going to do this year, and this is how we're going to do it.' "

Jason Varitek, 34 on April 11, played his 1,000th game for the Sox Sunday, just 78 fewer than Carlton Fisk played for Boston. Jorge Posada, 35 on Aug. 17, last night played in his 1,182d game for the Yankees. Assuming he plays another season for the Yankees -- and there is no reason to believe otherwise, especially since he has a clause in his contract that triggers a $12 million option for 2007 if he plays 81 games this season -- Posada will have appeared in about as many games in pinstripes as Thurman Munson did (1,423).

And just as the Yankee-Sox rivalry was once defined by the shadows cast by Fisk and Munson, Varitek and Posada have framed the rivalry for another generation.

``Jason kind of gets a little more notoriety on this club than Jorgy does with the Yankees," Flaherty said, ``but they've been right in the heat of the battle of this rivalry over the years.

``Jorgy doesn't get a lot of the accolades because of the Alexes and Sheffields and Jeters and all that, but he's very instrumental with this pitching staff and very vocal behind the scenes. There's no doubt Derek is the captain of the team. Everybody knows what he does.

``But Jorge has kind of taken on a nice little role with the pitching staff, especially. He kind of goes out of his way to make sure guys are doing their work and they're in line. That gets overlooked because of a lot of the other stuff on this club."

Posada was back in the lineup last night after missing the previous two games because of stiffness in his upper back. Last week, he was leveled in a home-plate collision with Mark Teixeira of Texas. It was the hardest, Posada said, that he'd ever been hit in his life. Yet he stayed in the game, and delivered one of the more dramatic hits of his career, a walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth that completed the Yankees' comeback from a 9-0 deficit, matching the greatest comeback in franchise history.

Posada hit 30 home runs and drove in 101 runs in 2003, but his production has declined each succeeding year, to 19 homers and 71 RBIs last season. He has been thriving at the plate this year, coming into last night's game with a .304 average, 6 home runs, and 26 RBIs. He went hitless in three trips against Curt Schilling before homering in the ninth off Keith Foulke.

``He did a little different program this winter working-out-wise and came in leaner," Flaherty said. ``Guys like Jason and Jorge, they catch so much, you'd think they'd want put weight on and be strong. But Jason is leaner, and I think Jorge also took that approach, too. You'd think more mass would mean more power, but he's actually had better bat speed this season than he's had the last couple of years."

Varitek came into last night's game batting .235, nearly 100 points lower than he was batting through the same date last season (.333). But he also has been dealing with a strained gluteus maximus, an injury that may seem ripe for wisecracks but has required him to wear icepacks on his backside for nearly three months.

Every time he squats behind the plate, he uses that muscle, but Varitek said that hasn't been a problem.

``Not really squatting as much as running," he said. ``Making left turns, that's when I feel it the most. But it's slowly getting better. I've steadily made progress. It's had its moments, but it's getting better."

Has it affected him at the plate? Varitek downplays the notion.

``I honestly don't know," he said. ``I'll probably know after it's gone. I wouldn't say that [it's been a factor]. I've had good moments, I've had some real bad moments [at the plate]. I've had some things going on for the first time.

``I hit early in Baltimore the other day. I went by myself and hit for 45 minutes on the field. It's a matter of balance. I changed the path of my bat a little bit. I'm hitting the ball with a different part of the bat than I used to."

Another month, Varitek promises, and he expects his backside to feel ``way better" than it does now.

In the meantime, he, like Posada, will continue to give this rivalry its backbone.

``I've gotten to know him, just playing against him," Varitek said, ``but I've never once had an opportunity to sit down and talk with him."

Imagine the conversation they may have one day.