Many Red Sox fans remember the old days. Before the hiring of Theo Epstein, Boston’s general manager was a man named Dan Duquette. Duquette was notorious among Boston’s fans for seemingly never making the transaction that would push the Sox to their first championship of our lifetime, despite his best efforts. Another trend Duquette set was ostracizing and running out some of Boston’s biggest names: Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco and Mo Vaughn just to name a few. However, one move Duquette made at the 1997 trade deadline could be remembered as the cornerstone of the 2004 World Champion Red Sox.
On July 31, 1997, Duquette traded Red Sox closer Heathcliff Slocumb to the Seattle Mariners for a fringe major league pitcher named Derek Lowe and minor
league catching prospect Jason Varitek. Varitek had attended Georgia Tech with former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and graduated in 1993. He was selected 21st overall in the 1993 draft by the Minnesota Twins. At Georgia Tech, his number 33 is the only retired number in the school’s history following a career in which he rewrote their record books, setting batting records that still stand today. At the time of the trade many Sox fans questioned Duquette trading Slocumb, a strong closer, for two unproven young players. This is one trade Sox fans will never question again, hindsight being 20/20.
This past off-season, many important pieces of the world champs were facing free agency and current GM Theo Epstein had important decisions to make. Despite
having two starting pitchers, Lowe and All-Star Pedro Martinez to resign, Epstein made it clear that signing Varitek would be the team’s first priority. The team, and “unofficial” captain came to a four-year-$40 million agreement on Christmas Eve, giving Sox fans an early Christmas present. Epstein also honored the catcher by giving Varitek the title of team captain, making him the first Red Sox captain since Jim Rice in 1989. Varitek joins Rice and Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski on the short list of Red Sox captains since 1966.
The reason Epstein was able