Projo Sox Blog

Yesterday was the last scheduled off-day of the year for the Sox and Sean McAdam took the opportunity to talk to Varitek about how he feels about what are, potentially, his last weeks in Boston. The captain's four-year contract expires at the end of the season and it's questionable -- to put it mildly -- whether the Sox a) want him back or b) will make an offer acceptable to Varitek and his money-money-money-first-last-and-always agent, Scott Boras.

Varitek, not surprisingly, wasn't very forthcoming on the topic, claiming the games on the field are all he's thinking about right now. But he did say he believes he has some fuel left in the tank and wants to keep playing "as long as I can." Since -- as I wrote earlier this year -- Boras will no doubt be presenting Varitek on the open market as a Yogi Berra / Roy Campanella / Johnny Bench hybrid, it may very well be that Varitek/Boras will be seeking a deal (far) in excess of what the Sox believe he's now worth.

So if this is it -- and it might be -- get a good look at what we've been taking for granted these last 11 years. It's hard to remember any Red Sox player who engendered as much public respect from his teammates as Jason Varitek, and, with the exception of Carlton Fisk, no Red Sox catcher in history ever produced as consistently and as well for as long a period of time.

Remember not the figure who struggled to put his bat on the ball for much of June and July this year. Remember instead a man who, as much as anybody, symbolized the return of the Red Sox as one of baseball's true powerhouses.

STRETCHING TO SUCCEED: Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz -- and Manny Ramirez -- are on Baseball Analysts' Getting It Done All-Star Team, which consists of men "playing for contenders doing everything that they can to push their clubs into the post-season."

SPRING AWAKENINGS: The Boston Globe's Amalie Benjamin reports the city of Sarasota, which is trying to woo the Red Sox away from their spring-training home in Fort Myers, sees the Sox as a trigger to economic development in the area.

GOLDEN GLOVE: His work with the bat has been up and down, but Benjamin and Adam Kilgore report Jacoby Ellsbury has been stellar in the field.

HIP TAKE: On his Hacks With Haggs blog, Joe Haggerty talks torn hip labrums -- which is what's bothering Mike Lowell -- with Dr. Marc Phillippon, "a renowned orthopedic hip surgeon who has done some revolutionary work in the worlds of hip surgery." Dr. Phillippon says if the tear is stable, athletes can usually play through the injury.

HOW FAR THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN: The Red Sox are sending Clay Buchholz to the Arizona Fall League. (Boston Herald)

NEW VILLAINS: Chad Finn has added some Rays to his Enemies List, which is comprised of "subpar, non-descript and just plain lousy ballplayers who have tormented the Sox in recent years." (Touching All The Bases)

FAMILIAR VOICES: Don Orsillo will do play-by-play for one of the divisional series and Dennis Eckersley will be a studio analyst on TBS' postseason coverage. (bizofbaseball.com)

JUST LIKE ME: Eckersley appeared on Dan Patrick's radio show and made a Francisco Rodriguez-for-MVP case, even though he thinks Cliff Lee deserves the American League Cy Young Award. Eckersley, of course, won the A.L. MVP award in the same role Rodriguez now holds. (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

LOOKING AHEAD: If the standings stay the way they are, the Sox will play the Angels in the opening round of the playoffs. The Herald's Michael Silverman says LA of A will be a major hurdle for Boston. But no matter who they play, Steve Buckley writes that Terry Francona is getting the rotation ready for October.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: After they won two out of three from the Red Sox twice in consecutive weeks, conventional wisdom said the A.L. East title is the Rays' to lose. They certainly hope they didn't start the process of losing it last night, as they suffered a ghastly defeat to the Twins: They blew an 8-6, ninth-inning lead and wound up on the wrong end of an 11-8 score (Tampa Tribune), only the second time this year the Rays lost when they were leading after eight innings. That drops their division lead over the Sox to 1 1/2 games overall, two in the loss column. It spoiled a three-homer night from Evan Longoria. (St. Petersburg Times)

WHEELER SCHOOLED: Warwick's Dan Wheeler (left, AP Photo) was the goat for the Rays, allowing four runs in the ninth inning. "That was just a difficult one to swallow," said Wheeler, who now has five blown saves in 16 opportunities. (St. Petersburg Times)

ODDS ARE IN THEIR FAVOR: At least according to the blog Rays Index, which says the chances of the Rays beating out the Red Sox for the division title, and of their clinching their first playoff berth this weekend against Minnesota, are both 100 percent.

AND TOWARD THAT END . . . The Rays are getting ready to sell postseason tickets. (Tampa Tribune)

SHOW YOUR COLORS: Bugs & Cranks' David Chalk was disgusted Wade Boggs wasn't decked out in Rays garb when he threw out the first pitch before a Rays-Red Sox game earlier this week.

HEY, BEER MAN! According to Rays Index, which was quoting ex-Yankee pitcher (and former Boggs teammate) Jeff Nelson on a Tampa radio show, Boggs would drink somewhere between 50 and 70 beers on a cross-country flight. Drunk Jays Fan considers Boggs "a king among men."

LET US COUNT THE WAYS: The St. Petersburg Times' John Romano lists the various measuring sticks of this year's Tampa Bay miracle, including the fact that a team with a $43 million payroll beat out a team with a $209 million payroll for a playoff spot.

THOSE GUYS MAKE $209 MILLION? If you tuned into the late innings of last night's Yankees-White Sox game, it looked for all the world like March 18 at Legends Field. The field was littered with players wearing uniform numbers in the 60s and 70s, several of whom were making their big-league debuts. But it was all good for the $209 million boys, as they were finishing up a 9-2 rout of the White Sox that made a winner of Mike Mussina (right, AP Photo) in his final Yankee Stadium start. (New York Daily News) Now Andy Pettitte gets ready to make his last Stadium start, on Sunday night (New York Daily News). He'll start it, but Joe Girardi wants Mariano Rivera to finish it. (New York Post) "It's only right that Rivera closes the baseball cathedral," writes the Post's George King, but Derek Jeter doesn't want to hear any of that talk. When he looks at the standings he doesn't see where the Yankees have been mathematically eliminated, so "Why is everybody acting like this year is over"? (New York Post)

'JUST ANOTHER TEAM': The Post's Kevin Kernan can explain it, Derek.

JUST MADE IT: A 103-year-old Yankee fan visited Yankee Stadium for the first time last night, four days before it closed. (New York Post)

GOOD THING, 'CAUSE THE NEW ONE'S OUT OF YOUR PRICE RANGE: Bronx Banter's Cliff Corcoran has some harsh words for the new Yankee Stadium, calling it "not for Yankee fans; it is for corporations and the super-rich . . . a monument to corruption, greed, and the failures of our municipal and state governments to act in the best interests of the people they are supposed to represent, and a vile and disgusting insult to all but the wealthiest of Yankee fans."

SAY GOODBYE TO THE OLD PLACE . . . with ESPN, which plans all-day Yankee Stadium programming on Sunday. (Awful Announcing)

A.L. RACES: Both games were touched on earlier in different contexts, so to put it in context of the A.L. Central race: The White Sox' loss to the Yankees (Chicago Sun-Times) and the Twins' comeback win over the Rays (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) narrowed Chicago's lead to 1 1/2 games.

N.L. RACES: The Brewers suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Cubs yesterday, blowing a four-run, ninth-inning lead and losing 7-6 in 12 innings (mlb.com), dropping them 1 1/2 games behind the Mets in the wild-card race . . . .Chicago's magic number for clinching the Central is now two; if the Cubs beat the Cardinals this afternoon and the Brewers lose to the Reds tonight, it'll be over . . . As for the Mets, they beat the Nationals, 7-2 (New York Daily News), and remain a half-game behind the Phillies, 4-3 winners over the Braves (Philadelphia Daily News), in the East . . . The rest of the wild-card field has drifted so far back they're not worth mentioning anymore . . . In the West, the Dodgers beat the Pirates in 12 innings (Los Angeles Times) and remain 3 1/2 ahead of the Diamondbacks, who beat Tim Lincecum to complete a four-game sweep of the Giants. (Arizona Republic)

MASSIVE TIE SCENARIO: It's still out there in the National League, and Baseball Musings' David Pinto says a five-way tie is still a possibility.

NOT OVER YET: Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times warns the Dodgers that a lot can go wrong in the last nine days of the season.

KNOCKED OUT? The Angels aren't sure if the injured Howie Kendrick will return for the playoffs. (Los Angeles Times)

Q AND A WITH . . . . Bud Selig, as conducted by foxsports.com's Ken Rosenthal.

WHAT?? Joe Posnanski hopes Royals GM Dayton Moore wasn't serious when he said the declinining Jose Guillen 'has played to his level.' (joeposnanski.com)

HERE AND THERE: The New York Post reports the Yankees won't bring back Bobby Abreu or Jason Giambi next year . . . The Cardinals' Adam Kennedy wants to be traded (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . . The trade of Delmon Young from Tampa Bay to Minnesota was one of the keys to the Rays' surge -- the deal netted them Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett -- but Marc Lancaster of the Tampa Tribune says it worked out for both sides . . . Speaking of trades, Peter Gammons is reporting the Brewers and Giants are discussing an offseason blockbuster that would send Matt Cain to Milwaukee for a package that includes Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy (Sacramento Bee) . . . Joe Girardi is hoping to use Bernie Williams' visit to Yankee Stadium this weekend to convince him to come to spring training as an instructor next year (New York Daily News) . . . Rod Barajas has a Grade 2 hamstring tear and is out for the rest of the year (mlb.com) . . . Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez are officially divorced. (New York Daily News)

OLD FRIENDS: Nomar Garciaparra's knee injury apparently isn't as bad as first feared and he may return to the lineup soon (Los Angeles Times) . . . Justin Duchscherer's bad hip forced him to shut down his simulated game after 10 pitches and he's likely done for the season (rotoworld.com) . . . Johnny Damon and his wife, Michelle, had their second baby. (Newsday)

AND FINALLY . . . David Ortiz is auctioning off his bed -- autographed, no less -- to help the homeless. (Red Sox Monster)

-- ART MARTONE