Jason Varitek Retires: The End of an Era for the Boston Red Sox

The news itself was not earth-shattering. 

Most Boston Red Sox fans knew that the best days of Jason Varitek were in the rear-view mirror. His durability and bat speed had slowed in recent seasons. 

Yet the actual news that Varitek, the Red Sox team captain, the starting catcher on the only two Red Sox championship teams since 1918 and the man who had caught four no-hitters is going to announce his retirement this Thursday.

The Jason Varitek era started on July 31st 1997 when former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette flat-out robbed the Seattle Mariners at the trade deadline. Varitek arrived in Boston along with starting pitcher Derek Lowe in exchange for maligned closer Heathcliff Slocumb. Slocumb would save a grand total of 13 games for Seattle between his arrival and his departure at the end of the 1998 season.

Lowe would throw a no-hitter and win the 2004 World Series with the Red Sox. Varitek would go on to become the heart of some of Boston's most memorable Red Sox teams.

Varitek took over as the Red Sox starting catcher in 1999. He remained in that role through the conclusion of the 2008 season—10 seasons of primarily solid workmanlike catching. Varitek may not have been the best hitter, or fielder, and he didn't have a rifle arm. What Varitek did have was a tough professional attitude that he brought to one of baseball's most grueling physical positions on a daily basis.

Lowe, Hideo Nomo, Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester all threw no-hitters with Varitek behind the plate. No other catcher in major league history has caught four no-hitters.

Varitek helped the Red Sox traverse one of the most contentious periods of time in the age-old New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry.

Varitek was on the 1999 team that lost to the Yanks in the ALCS. He was also on the team when they lost a heart-breaker to the Yankees in extra innings to lose Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.

The next year the Yanks added Alex Rodriguez and the Red Sox added Curt Schilling. That July Rodriguez was introduced to the rivalry when he took exception to an inside pitch thrown by Bronson Arroyo. Rodriguez jawed with Arroyo, then he jawed with Varitek—then Varitek took Rodriguez down in what would become a brawl marred Saturday afternoon game in late July.

The intensity only increased as the teams squared off in the ALCS again that fall. This time Varitek got to celebrate along with the rest of his teammates, as the Red Sox came back from an 0-3 hole to stun the Yankees at home in Game 7 and advance to the World Series.

The Red Sox would sweep the St. Louis Cardinals and win their first Series since 1918. Three seasons later a different cast of players would sweep the Colorado Rockies to win the 2007 World Series. It wasn't a totally different cast—Varitek was still the starting catcher.

As Varitek moved from his early 30s to his mid- and late 30s, his athletic abilities began to suffer. The normal progression of having caught nearly 1,000 games in a Red Sox uniform.

When the Red Sox lost future Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk to free agency following the 1980 season, Sox fans wondered when the Sox would have another great behind the plate.

With Varitek retiring, that search will begin anew.