O Captain, My Captain

Today is Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek's 35th birthday. Varitek is old for a starting catcher but interestingly - he's younger than Yankee starter Jorge Posada (by almost a year). Red Sox fans pray that Varitek ages more like Posada than ex-Phillies starter Mike Lieberthal.

Over the past three years Varitek's batting average has gone from .296 to .281 to .245 and his OPS has gone from .872 to .856 to .747. You'd have to be blind not to see a trend and dumb not to be concerned. All of Red Sox Nation joins me in hoping that Varitek both has a happy birthday and is able to reverse this trend we've seen the past three years.

Today is also Trot Nixon's birthday - he's two years younger than Varitek but still two HR ahead of Varitek on the all-time list for HR by a Red Sox player. Varitek will always be two years older than Nixon but look for him to replace Nixon and be in 17th place on the all-time list pretty soon. The top 18 for the Red Sox is as follows:

1. Ted Williams 521
2. Carl Yastrzemski 452
3. Jim Rice 382
4. Dwight Evans 379
5. Manny Ramirez 234
6. Mo Vaughn 230
7. Bobby Doerr 223
8. Jimmy Foxx 222
9. Rico Petrocelli 210
10 Nomar Garciaparra 178
11 David Ortiz 175
12 Jackie Jensen 170
13 (tie) Tony Conigliaro 162
13 (tie) Carlton Fisk 162
15 George Scott 154
16 Reggie Smith 149
17 Trot Nixon 133
18 (tie) Frank Malzone 131
18 (tie) Jason Varitek 131