Mirror, mirror: Varitek finds one look for two-sided swing

February 28, 2008 | Boston Herald | By Rob Bradford

 

FORT MYERS - Jason Varitek has become one.


For much of last season, the left-handed hitting Varitek and the right-handed hitting Varitek were separate entities. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, but simply the all-too-typical world of a switch hitter.


"I was coming close, but mirror images aren’t necessarily realistic," the Red Sox captain said yesterday before taking the field for the team’s final spring training workout at the minor league facility. "I have to treat them like two different human beings. You can talk to one one way, and you can’t talk to the other the same way."


The problem for Varitek is that for much of last year the two sides weren’t on speaking terms. From the right side he hit .264, compared to .252 from the left. For his career he is 24 points better from the right side.


But somewhere in between the World Series celebration and the catcher’s car ride from Georgia to spring training, the two sides became fast friends.


"’Tek has worked really hard on mirroring his right side because he feels so much more comfortable on that side," said Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan. "He’s done a really good job. He has looked as good as I’ve ever seen."


"It’s something we talked about last season, and he’s got the set-up at his house where he can work on it. He must have done it all winter because when he showed up at spring training it was very noticeable right away. His swing from both sides is almost identical. He has always been very different before."


Varitek, who said his offseason focus wasn’t intentionally different from years past, admits the quest to find common ground from both sides of the plate has been a constant challenge. It was a process when he tried to make Wiffleball games with his brothers a bit fairer by hitting left-handed, and then morphed into a full-time gig when the coaches at Georgia Tech saw his potential from both sides.


And now, years after the initial encouragement of his Little League coach Jay Williams, the catcher seems to have found swings from both sides which are more identical than ever.


"It wasn’t my intent," said Varitek of his offseason metamorphosis. "To me they feel different, like two totally different people. It’s almost like the difference between a right-handed pitcher and a left-handed pitcher."


The realization that exact approaches from both sides might not be a possibility first came up early in his career under former Sox hitting coach Rick Down. It was reinforced through the talks and tutelage from ex-Sox third base coach Dale Sveum.


But last year, starting in spring training, the two sides had grown increasingly apart.


"(Carl Yastrzemski) said to me last spring, ‘What’s wrong with your swing, you look like a robot?’ " Varitek said. "There’s not much more of a keener eye than Yaz, so there must have been something."


"Once I came to the realization that they weren’t going to be the same (from both sides) I stopped trying to make the perfect swing. There are all different parts and every year there’s something else to work on."


Evidently, Varitek’s recent construction was time well spent.