"As I walk away from this game, I can look at the man in the mirror and be proud that I gave everything I could to this game, this organization, my teammates," -Jason VaritekIn 1997 Varitek made his entrance into the Majors signing with the Boston Red Sox, and has played for the Red Sox ever since. Tonight Varitek announced that he will be retiring from the game of baseball after 15 seasons with his Boston family.
2012 would have made his 9th year as captain of this beloved team, and with his career coming to it's end- Varitek finished his run as Boston's all-time leader in games caught with 1,488. Among some of Varitek's other achievements, the three-time All-Star caught a MLB-record four no-hitters. Varitek helped lead his team towards ending its 86-year World Series title drought in 2004 overcoming the St. Louis Cardinals, and saw victory again winning the World Series in 2007 defeating the Colorado Rockies.
This switch hitter won the Gold Glove Award at catcher and the Silver Slugger Award. Varitek is one of only two players in the history of baseball to play in the World Championship game of the Little League World Series, the College World Series, and the Major League World Series. Adding to that he is the only player to also have experience playing on the Olympic Baseball team and the World Baseball Clinic.
Varitek has always been my absolute favorite Red Sock and I will greatly miss watching him rally his team together through the season. He is a fiercely loyal teammate, and the organization will be hard pressed to find a player to fill his shoes. No player could ever replicate what Jason Varitek meant not only to his team, but his fans.
Varitek couldn't have expressed his retirement in any better way,
"The hardest thing to do is to walk away from your teammates and what they've meant to you over the years."
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