Sports Q: Who was the better Red Sox catcher, Jason Varitek or Carlton Fisk?
Debate the answer with Chad Finn and other Boston sports fans at The Sports Q.
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Who was the better Red Sox catcher: Carlton Fisk or Jason Varitek? – Erol
This one is an especially fitting debate for today in our ongoing, informal Who Was Better? series here at the Sports Q. It was 16 years ago today that Jason Varitek delivered his most memorable moment as Red Sox captain, making Alex Rodriguez eat his catcher’s mitt in what is remembered as the pivotal win in the 2004 regular season. (Hot take: The fight was a draw. Varitek never got A-Rod on the ground. But it’s the sentiment of finally standing up to that front-running wannabe bully that counts.)
Varitek and Fisk are the two most popular Red Sox catchers – and two of the most popular Red Sox players, for their talent, toughness, and non-nonsense attitudes – of my lifetime. I don’t even know who would be third. Tony Pena, maybe. But he’s a long way down from their stratosphere.
Here’s the Tek/Pudge tale of the tape:
Varitek (1997-2011): .256/.341/.435, .776 OPS, 193 home runs, 757 RBIs, 99 adjusted OPS, four no-hitters caught, three All-Star appearances, two World Series wins, one Gold Glove, one huge sacrifice fly in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, didn’t put up with A-Rod’s nonsense.
Fisk (1969, 1971-80): .284/.356/.481, .837 OPS, 162 home runs, 568 RBIs, 126 adjusted OPS, seven All-Star appearances, three top-10 MVP finishes, 1 Gold Glove, 1972 AL Rookie of the Year, punched a lot of Yankees in assorted home plate collisions and brawls, “if it stays fair! …”
The verdict: I suppose Varitek could get the nod on longevity with the franchise and the fact that he was the captain of a Red Sox team that won a pair of World Series. Also, as I may have mention, he punched A-Rod, which just about everyone in America appreciated.
But the better player? Clearly it’s Fisk, even before he bolstered his Hall of Fame resume with 13 seasons with the White Sox. I’m not holding it against him that their dunce of a general manager in 1980, Haywood Sullivan, failed to send him a contract on time over the winter of ’80-’81, allowing Fisk, a native son of New England, to become a free agent.
Fisk should have been a Red Sox lifer, and he’s the best catcher they’ve ever had.
But what does everyone else think? Who was the better Red Sox catcher, Carlton Fisk or Jason Varitek? I’ll hear you in the comments or in the poll below.
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