It's time for Bostonist Sports Where Are They Now? Tonight's subject is Jason Varitek, the captain, catcher, and heart and soul of the Red Sox' 2004 and 2007 championship teams! Where is he now? Admit it. You've wondered at some point over the last few weeks what happened to 'Tek. He was still doing his yeoman's work behind the plate, catching wonderfully and integrating the 435 new pitchers he's had to meet for the first......

Bullpen troubles? Late inning collapses? The Sox have been dealing with these issues lately, so the offense did the helpful thing and staked starter Bartolo Colon to a 5-run first-inning lead last night at Fenway. Jason Varitek, woozy and eventually replaced, capped the first off with a 3-run homer (his seventh) and JD Drew (now hitting 1.043 in June) doubled in a run as well. That gave Colon all he needed, as he cruised through......

With their backs against the wall, responsible for a sudden regionwide crisis of confidence, the Celtics responded with one of their best, most balanced games of the season to punch Atlanta 110-85 and regain control of the first-round series. The C's put on a virtual clinic of how to spread the ball around, rely on your stars, let the bench guys contribute, and never really let the other guys into the game. Garnett set the......

Time to bring in the big guns. We need what's left of the 2004 Red Sox to make a conference call from the Bronx. We need Terry Francona talking to Claude Julien, David Ortiz talking to Zdeno Chara, Curt Schilling talking to Tim Thomas. Call Dave Roberts and Kevin Millar and get them involved, too. Maybe even Curtis Leskanic is available. Because the '04 Sox are about the only team who knows what the Bruins......

On the way out of the TDB Garden last night, we weren't completely thrilled about the Celtics' victory over King James and the Cavaliers last night. It was a kind of sloppy game, Paul Pierce was way off-target all night, and the effects of jet lag were obvious. Then we stopped for a second and remembered where this team was a year ago. In one season, we've gone from plummeting towards ignominy, to beating the......

The following is a public service announcement: The next time you steal a Red Sox's castoffs, particularly their sweaty cups, eBay would rather you sell them elsewhere. The Track Girls are spreading the word that SportsWorld, in Saugus, tried to sell Jonathan Papelbon and Kevin Youkilis' used jocks on their eBay store. Judging from how many times the Track Girls have written about SportsWorld and its Red Sox underwear sale, SportsWorld has been trying......

"I hope we have this problem every year," said Theo Epstein when asked about the final-out ball from the 2007 World Series. You may remember the fiasco and hurt feelings involved when the Sox and Doug Mientkiewicz embarked on their power play over the ownership of the 2004 ball. Last we heard was that Jason Varitek had slipped it into his pocket at Coors Field, then gave it to Jonathan Papelbon. Well, today it broke......

Unofficial leaked lists started hitting the Internet late this morning. Fearful and optimistic at the same time, we started scanning them to see who was allegedly going to be on the MLB Steroid Commission's "Naughty" list. But then the 400-page PDF report arrived in our browser, and some of the worst rumors turned out to be just rumors. The most popular list circulating this morning named Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon and Julian Tavarez. None of......

Bostonist just wrote that Jason Varitek appeals to the angel side of our personalities, but Manny Ramirez appeals to the lil' devil within. Someone on YouTube captured Manny inviting everyone at the Rally over to his house for drinks. We first saw this on Barstool Sports, our source for the fun Red Sox news, and we were stunned: Is he insane? Did anyone take him up on it? He's lucky that those arrested for post-victory......

We're on the verge of Red Sox Burnout and looking forward to the Pats-Colts game (live blog Sunday!), but the Red Sox keep on impressing us with their victory laps. We are loving captain and catcher Jason Varitek right now. Varitek appeals to the angel side of Bostonist's personality. He wears Cosby sweaters and hands out Halloween candy. What's not to love about that? According to the Globe, Varitek gave the kiddies--and their parents--a treat......

Your 2007 World Champion Red Sox continued their celebratory tour with a visit to the State House yesterday. The event was hosted by Governor Patrick and numerous elected officials. Both (!) trophies were prominently displayed on the front lawn of the State House, the golden flags matching quite nicely with the gleam of the famous golden dome. Governor Patrick kicked off the event, and while his oddly-accented proclamations made some chuckle (JAAYYsun VARRRiTECCKK), his enthusiasm......

They rode before us on Duck Boats and flat-bed trucks, with microphones and punk bands, flags and signs. Some came with camcorders, others with disposable cameras. Your 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox lineup consisted of a group of men united under a team name and cause, but let's face it: we had one really eclectic bunch of characters. Tuesday's Rolling Rally celebration gave the fans quick opportunities to see just how different the guys......

8:00 PM - We're coming to you live! Not from Bostonist HQ, which is in the danger zone of potential postgame revelry, but from our outpost in Central MA (Worcesterist?) where we've been each week to watch the Pats game. The Pats, by the way, just beat Washington 845-7. Mike Vrabel caught eleven touchdown passes. FoxSports is showing Bill Buckner one last time, just in case there was one person left in town who didn't......

Game Seven was a perfect little microcosm for the 2007 Red Sox, wasn't it? It left you laughing, and crying, and reaching for the Mylanta, and reaching for the whiskey, and jubilant, and terrified, and when it was all over, you looked back and wondered how you could have possibly ever doubted the final results. The story coming into this was whether Daisuke Matsuzaka would be able to reach deep inside himself and find whatever......

We can second-guess or backseat coach all we want. Should Beckett have started Tuesday night's game instead of Tim Wakefield? Should Jacoby Ellsbury have started in the outfield for J.D. Drew or Coco Crisp? Should Doug Mirabelli have been replaced by Jason Varitek the moment Wakefield left the game? Should Julian Tavarez be on the pitching roster in these ALCS games? But that will only madden Red Sox fans and distract them from the reality......

We're going to the playoffs! Sure, it's been an awful September, for the most part. And sure, the Red Sox still very much have to somehow finish off New York, and ideally fend off the Angels and Indians to secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason. But the first step is officially taken, as the Sox rallied to beat the Devil Rays 8-6 and ensure they would, at the very least, beat out Detroit for the......

Let's ignore, if you will, the fact that the Sox seemed Friday night as if they wanted to reach a new club record for number of times they left the bases loaded stranded. Let's forget about the fact that Manny Ramirez is unlikely to return to the lineup during this series in Tampa Bay, which means he is officially (in our books, anyway) taking his annual September vacation. We can even push aside the feeling......

Update: Our Ist-a-Verse family called the individual in this story a "Boston Idiot." We would like to clarify; hence, the photo. Yet another hoser ran across the Fenway Park field yesterday during the Red Sox-Yankees game. In the seventh inning, the guy 20-year-old Charles Gendron, of Maine, ran across the field and grabbed the cap off the head of Robinson Cano, the Yankees' second baseman. NESN cut away from the action, but Bostonist saw......

Sure, he's not in the starting rotation any more - how do you follow up a no-hitter? But the Sox learned last night that they can lean on Clay Buchholz when they're not strong, putting him out for three solid relief innings that kept Baltimore scoreless and allowed Jason Varitek to drive in the winning run of a tense ballgame. The Sox had given Tim Wakefield a 5-4 lead, mostly on the 3-run homer by......

When Bostonist were kids, pitching the tennis ball against the chimney for five hours straight, we often dreamed of the day we'd get called up to the Red Sox, in the heat of a pennant race, tabbed for a sudden start, and then go out and throw a no-hitter in our big-league debut. Clay Buchholz is a slacker. It took him until his SECOND Major League start to have a piece of memorabilia suitable for......

Were we sore baseball losers, we might snicker about how Johnny Damon's version of a home run is about as wussy as his arm. We could hypothesize about what Yankee operative snuck into the Red Sox clubhouse to tamper with the Icy Hot Manny Ramirez and Bobby Kielty were using to prevent their backs from seizing up during play. We might even politely ask Cameron Diaz to quit jinxing our team and instead focus on......

Frankly, we'd like to know what Daisuke Matsuzaka did to alienate his teammates. Does he play "Gyroball" constantly in the clubhouse? Mix wasabi in with the Ben Gay as a lockerroom prank? There must be some reason why his lineup consistently fails to give him any run support, making him 1-3 against the Devil Rays to his 12-7 record against the rest of the league. Don Orsillo put it best late in the game last......

There are days when the Red Sox remind us of the Justice League of America - that inspired creation of D.C. Comics where a number of their best superheroes ally to use their unique talents, banding together to fight evil. Sunday was one of those days. Not that the Angels are evil, per se, but they clearly represented a menace to all that is good and just, or at least to the Red Sox' division-title......

Boy, this one had "thrilling comeback" written all over it, didn't it? After the Red Sox pulled Tuesday night's game out of the grave, they spotted Tampa Bay a 6-0 lead yesterday afternoon. (Oh, inconsistent, Daisuke...what's to be done with you?) The Sox then started chipping away as they've done so many times. Jason Varitek's 2-run homer in the seventh chased starter Andy Sonnanstine to the clubhouse, then Crisp walked and Lugo followed with an......

With rare exception, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is a different team when Scott Kazmir is on the mound. But on Tuesday night, the Red Sox was also a different sort of team - one that came back for only the second time in 43 games from a deficit heading into the eighth inning. Yeah, that's right. The Sox were down late in the game and they actually came back to win, 2-1. The game......

In a lot of ways, managing a baseball team is remarkably easy, compared to coaching other sports. The action is fairly linear: there aren't 11 defensemen or five matchups to keep an eye on at once, and a lot of the actual "coaching" is farmed out to the coaches. Plus, there's the 100-year-old unwritten "book" that tells you how to do your job, and if you stick to the book, you have a defense against......

For all the hype and adoration heaped on Daisuke Matsuzaka, the fact is he's still technically a rookie, if a seasoned one. And rookies do things like get themselves into trouble. His last few starts, Dice has been prone to having one bad inning here and there, which combined with a lack of run support, has caused some trouble. Last night, fortunately, the offense picked him up and pulled him out of the fire. The......

Were we really worried last season that Josh Beckett wouldn't be able to cut it as a member of the Red Sox rotation? Were we really concerned about his history of injuries, his adjusting to the American League, his anything? Well, we're not worried now, brother. Beckett's 11-1, sailing along, and making the Padres (admittedly not an AL lineup, but still an NL power) look as docile as the critter pictured here. With all of......

Jerry Remy summed it up perfectly last night: "Both are terrible." The Rem wasn't talking about the play on display Saturday night at Petco Park in San Diego (although at times, he wouldn't have been far off), but was discussing the throwback uniforms worn by the Sox and Padres last night. Memo to both teams: burn those uniforms now. It looked as if "The Wizard of Oz" had thrown up all over Petco Park. Boston......

All right, it wasn't exactly "Our hallowed snake-skull-cracking day", but there aren't too many opportunities to play the Diamondbacks and break out all the old snake jokes. What it was, was a tough game against a young pitcher pitching way above his head, and the Red Sox were fortunate to get out of it with a 10-inning, 4-3 win. Julian Tavarez pitched well, with a couple of mistakes, including giving Arizona's Stephen Drew a chance......