During a July 24, 2004 game between the Red Sox and Yankees, Boston catcher (and captain with a “C”) Jason Varitek let it be known he wasn’t going to be intimidated by anyone from New York.
Varitek famously got into it with Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, shoving his catcher’s mitt into A-Rod’s face and cementing his way onto every New Englander’s desktop wallpaper in the process.
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“I told him, in choice words, to get to first base,” Varitek told reporters at the time. “And then it changed from him yelling at Bronson [Arroyo] to [us] yelling at each other, and then things got out of hand.”
Fourteen years later, Rodriguez hangs out with David Ortiz on Fox’s MLB broadcast, Varitek now works as a special assistant to Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, but things are apparently still a little awkward.
When Varitek crashed the Fox set following the Red Sox’ World Series-clinching victory Sunday night, he took a moment to look Rodriguez over, eventually biting on A-Rod’s offer of a handshake.
Varitek still HATES Arod pic.twitter.com/sJleAQpA4T
— Quigs (@BigSeanQ) October 29, 2018
The crew eventually made room for “Tek,” who sat down next to Ortiz as Rodriguez, to his right, referenced that fateful day in 2004.
A-Rod just told Varitek not to punch him! pic.twitter.com/VHbRZo0j9M
— JPS (@rsfpt) October 29, 2018
The Red Sox have cited that July 24 incident as a motivating factor in their eventual run to the franchise’s first World Series title in 86 years.
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