Sports Redux: O Captain, Our Captain

Photo by Keith Allison of Flickr. Sure, he may be the most expensive backup catcher in history. And maybe his stats aren’t what they used to be, and even those stats aren’t what they were a few years ago. But even if Jason Varitek the catcher is past his expiration date, Jason Varitek the heart of the Red Sox and the captain is still around. And still, we hope, worth the $3 million he decided to accept yesterday. Varitek exercised his $3 million player option after the Sox declined to use their $5m club option. "We’re happy to have Jason back and we look forward to a good year from him in 2010," says Theo Epstein, and if you hear any subtext in there that Theo already had other plans for those three million clams, that’s on you. After a string of three games that included a loss and two unsatisfying wins, the Celtics got back to form and rolled Utah last night, 105-86. KG’s 18 paced the C’s, who had seven guys in double figures, held

the Jazz to 0-for-10 from three-point range, and forced 21 turnovers. "We want to be one of the best defensive teams in history," said Rajon Rondo, and after the game, star Jazz PG Deron Williams (who managed to get out of town without Rondo questioning his manhood), agreed: "There’s no way around it. We have to toughen up." That’s exactly what we want to hear from teams as they schlep out of the Garden. While recuperating from his stupid thumb injury and watching Shelden Williams make a bid to steal all his minutes, Glen Davis did a little show and tell , bringing in some old newspaper clippings about his teammates when they were rookies and he was still a Big Baby. Looking at his old pics, Ray Allen remarked, "I still look good." There’s a storm brewing between Bill Simmons and WEEI, as the Herald reports . Simmons is using Twitter to take jabs at Glenn Ordway, apparently. Good for him.

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Sports Redux: O Captain, Our Captain