Service with a smile

October 31 , 2007 | RedSox.com | By Mike Petraglia


Varitek cleans out locker, proud of team's accomplishment


BOSTON - The captain of the Boston Red Sox was busy Wednesday at Fenway Park doing what every Major Leaguer does after his team's final game of the year - cleaning out his locker for the offseason.


Jason Varitek, however, was doing it with a smile on his face.


"It is different when you go out on a win," he said. "It's not as depressing. I'm very proud of everything this team accomplished, obviously."


When Varitek returns to the same locker in April, there may be many different nameplates above the lockers, including the one immediately to his left, the one Curt Schilling has called home for the last four seasons.


Schilling, who filed for free agency Tuesday, wrote good-bye notes for several teammates, a sign of appreciation for being part of two World Series championship teams, in the event he signs with another club for 2008.


"I'm not real surprised because of the communicator he is and has been," Varitek said. "I'm a little surprised I received a card. It's something that I'll keep. But I think I'll keep the friendship a lot longer than I'll keep the card."


World Series MVP Mike Lowell is another player who could file for free agency and change uniforms next season.


"Every 10 feet there was a 'Re-sign Lowell' sign," Varitek said. "We had fun with it. Yes, would I like to see Mikey back? Yes. Would I like to see 99 percent of this whole team back? Yes. Mikey's fit well here, along with a lot of the other people, but Mikey's fit well. It would just be a hard guy to replace."


Varitek credited Lowell with coming up with a motto that served as a rallying cry for the team in the postseason.


"One thing that not a whole lot was said about was there was a big motto that came a lot from Mike and became everybody's motto: 'Push and Grind' -- and we had fun with it," Varitek said. "We were serious about what we were doing, but we had fun with it."


In the end, Varitek said he can only sit back this offseason and watch as the 2008 team is assembled.


"Changes could be a lot with as many free agents as we have and changes could be a little," Varitek said. "We just have to see what happens. We're not so much in control of that."


Collector's item: Papelbon is racking up souvenir baseballs just about as quickly as saves these days. He has all three final outs from each of the postseason series-clinching wins, including Sunday's strikeout of Seth Smith to clinch the World Series.


"At the time, I don't know what I was thinking," said Varitek, who caught the final out. "I just didn't know what to do with it. Then it flashed in my mind, I better not drop it. So, I stuffed it in my pocket. I already gave it to Pap. He has the first two from the first two clinching series and he wanted the third one, and no question, I gave it right to him right away."


Varitek had no regrets about quickly letting go of it.


"It's out of my hands," said Varitek. "I held it for a little while."


Papelbon does not know where the ball is, his agent, Sam Levinson, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.


After Game 4 on Sunday, Varitek said he presented the ball to the team.


The club was not aware that Papelbon had the ball, spokesman John Blake said Wednesday.


"We will discuss it internally when everything dies down a little bit," Blake said.


Well-deserved R&R: Varitek told reporters Wednesday that he would be heading "out of the country" when asked about his Halloween plans. But one thing is for sure, Varitek and the players are about to begin a significant stage of decompressing and resting following their long World Series run.


"I can't say there was one [defining moment]," Varitek said of the season. "This wasn't easy. This wasn't easy at all. The whole season was a grind. We were just very fortunate, first, to have the opportunity to play in the postseason and then created our own destiny a little bit and then faced some adversity and worked through that."