O Captain! My Captain!
By Joe Davis
Walt Whitman once wrote:
"O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead."
Theo Epstein and the Boston Red Sox introduced the same catcher that has been catching in Boston for the past 8 seasons. However, today they introduced Jason Varitek with a new contract and a new uniform.
This Christmas Eve morning, Jason Varitek was given the undisputable title of Captain.
For the past two seasons, Varitek was considered the captain of the Boston Red Sox even though he was never offically given the title.
"Everyone knew he was the captain before, it was actually acknowledged, but I think it's a great honor that the Red Sox were able to put the 'C' on his jersey and officially call him the captain of the team," said veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who made a guest appearance at Varitek's press conference. "It means a tremendous amount not only to me personally, but to the team, and most important, to the city of Boston and Red Sox Nation."
Today, he became the third player since 1918 to be named captain of the Boston Red Sox, and the first since 1989. The other two? Maybe you have heard of them: Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice.
Varitek was very honored when Epstein handed over the two new jerseys, both home and away with a stitched 'C' on the shoulder.
"I'm extremely honored right now. I don't really know what to say. You add all these things together with it being Christmas Eve, a special day, but to have that honor, to hold this honor in this city and this region, for this team, is something I'll wear proudly," said Varitek. "For me, I can't change. I lead by my position, by what I do, by what I believe in."
As mentioned before, I wrote the words to Walt Whitman's first verse of "O Captain! My Captain!"
These words are very similar to the situation of the Red Sox. Whitman's mention of "our fearful trip is done," refers to the Red Sox' trip to the World Series Championship. "The ship has weather’d every rack," refers to how tired all the Red Sox players are as they finally completed what they had wanted. "The prize we sought is won," speaks for itself.
"O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead," refers to the Red Sox Nation bleeding Red (Sox) throughout their entire lives. And with the situation with Jason Varitek's agent Scott Boras, it seemed as if the Red Sox' Captain was dead and was going to move from the Red Sox...
But not this day.
