This entry was posted on 9/3/2008 6:30 AM and is filed under uncategorized.
Even amidst the most excruciating slump of his hardball career, Sox catcher Jason Varitek never wavered.
The Sox backstop is universally revered for the attention he lavishes on his pitching staff and the myriad duties he handles behind the plate, and those qualities weren’t altered a bit despite hitting a combined .157 with 44 strikeouts during the cruel months of June and July.
“I was missing pitches that I’m really not used to missing,” said Varitek. “I was in a real bad stretch, but I feel like I’ve started putting together good at bats in the second half and I’ve been able to help [the team.] You stick with it and you have a little success, and it really breeds confidence.
“I’ve tried to get on base when I can and continued to work and not quit on it.”
What was confounding to ‘Tek was his prolonged inability to make pitchers pay for their mistakes. The Captain was mired in the worst slump of his career, and his mind began playing tricks on him. He would pop up fat fastballs that normally had line drive written all over them, and simply flail at breaking pitches that were normally bleacher-bound.
When the swing feels so labored, for such a long period of time, it might be natural to wonder aloud if a 36-year-old catcher is in irreversible decline.
It would also be a mistake to discount the off-the-field issues that have tugged at ‘Tek this season – which became public record when he filed for divorce after 12 years of marriage on July 28 -- and potentially stripped away his comfort level. It wouldn’t be the first time that a professional athlete suffered through on-field struggles while his private life underwent a transition.
But Varitek has literally put everything – both on and off the field -- in the rearview mirror and gone straight back to his one at bat at a time mentality since the All-Star break.
After a progression of disastrous at bats in June and July nearly submerged his entire season, Varitek is hitting .282 with four home runs and 7 RBIs. This production comes after hitting a pathetic two home runs and 11 RBIs over the aforementioned two months of offensive misery.
“I’ve seen a guy that hasn’t let one at bat affect the next at bat and that’s something we really talked about,” said hitting coach Dave Magadan. “The combination of maybe a better mental approach in his at bats and some small mechanical adjustments has really given him a much better chance at the plate.
“You can’t help but get overwhelmed a little bit when you go from hitting .290 to hitting .206 or whatever it was during his bottoming out period,” added Magadan. “He was frustrated because with him it’s always about the team. He felt like he was letting down the team and he was putting weight of the world on his shoulders. It was almost like he was taking negative vibes up with him when he went up to the plate. He’s already a thinker and an analytical mind, so you don’t want to throw too much at him. He had so many things on his mind when he stepped into the box, and it seemed like he was always expecting something bad to happen.”
The bad vibes have thankfully ended for the Sox Captain, and his opportunistic offense is now again working in tandem with the ever-present intangibles that never left Varitek in the first place.
