This article is part of our Asking Under Pressure series, which looks at how duos performed together in a highly competitive situation.
I wanted to talk to catcher Jason Varitek and closer Keith Foulke for one very obvious reason: They closed out the final inning of the 2004 World Series to break The Curse of the Bambino.
It’s hard to overstate how big a deal that World Series seemed at the time. I was 15 years old and loved baseball. I was right in the sweet spot: Just old enough to really grasp the historical significance and just young enough to be starry-eyed about it. I can’t really remember who won the World Series most years. But mention 2004, and I know right away: the Boston Red Sox.
That team had great personalities: Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon, David Ortiz and Kevin Millar. The Red Sox had a great story: They came back from down three games to none to knock off their most hated rival, the New York Yankees, to even make the World Series. And they had the incredible burden of history. The 2004 Red Sox were trying to end an 86-year World Series drought.
In the final inning of the 2004 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, that responsibility rested with Foulke, Boston’s first-year closer, and Varitek, the team’s no-nonsense leader behind the plate.
To put into context the significance of that moment two decades later, one of them said it was the most exhausted they’ve ever felt in their life. The other said it was the happiest moment in their life.
Note: Conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
That was your guys’ first year together as a pitcher-catcher combo. How did you build that relationship, that trust?
Foulke: Neither one of us was young. We had been through the fires a lot over our careers. When I got to Boston, I already knew a lot about Jason being one of the hardest working guys in the game. I knew as a pitcher that there was never going to be a catcher more prepared mentally and physically. When he put down a sign, I knew it wasn’t a guess. It wasn’t a hope. I knew that he had done his homework.
It made my job easy. If I make this pitch, there’s a good chance we’re going to have success. That trust built throughout the season and peaked in the playoffs.
It’s funny you mention that because when Jason retired, I saw a quote from Clay Buchholz about him that said: “You shake him off and he sort of just stares at you, you know that, ‘OK I’ll throw that pitch. Don’t worry about it.’” Keith, did you ever have that feeling?
Foulke: I didn’t fear shaking him off, but if you did shake him off, you better make the pitch. You better not shake and make a mistake because all of a sudden that ball gets snapped back to you a lot harder. That’s how I think he showed his displeasure. When he would snap a ball back to you on the mound, it was always like: OK, I’ve got you. You don’t need to say anything. I know what you’re thinking.
Varitek: I have a little different perspective on that. Through the learning process, I wanted guys to shake me off. I wanted them to say: “My curveball feels really good and I can land this right now.” I wanted them to have the freedom to do that. On my end, you’re just trying to put them in the best spots.
That playoff run was so magical in many ways. I’m curious what moment sticks out from the playoffs when we’re talking about dealing with pressure.
Varitek: For me, it’s every pitch (laughing). It’s a constant.
Foulke: Exactly. We managed to play ourselves into such a hole in the Yankees series, so once I got in there in Games 4, 5 and 6, your neck was in the rope. You had zero room for mistakes. I just remember getting through Game 6, as worn out as I was, and I struck out Tony Clark. That may be one of the most excited and relieved moments of my career because every pitch was so important.
What did that require mentally?
Foulke: That was thousands and thousands of reps of practicing for that moment. A lot of what helped me get through 2004 was the failures I had in the playoffs in 2000 and then in 2003. I learned what it takes to pitch in the playoffs and to pitch deep in the playoffs. You don’t have that one pitch to take a break. You can’t afford to give up that one hit, that one run, so I just relied on my experience and the idea that every pitch I was going to make was literally the most important pitch of my career. That’s what I focused on.
You talked about failure. What did you learn from that?
Foulke: The one that sticks out was in 2003. I was in Oakland, and we were up two games to none against the Red Sox in the playoffs. We came into Boston, and I was hurting a little bit. Not going to say I was going through the motions, but I wasn’t 100 percent physically there. All of a sudden, I gave up a double to David Ortiz. You give a little bit of breathing room, and it’s crazy how fast things can happen in the playoffs. You think you’re on top of the world, you just have to win one more game. The next thing you know, we’re on a jet home.
It’s like: God dang, we screwed that up in a heartbeat. It happened so fast.
I saw a quote about Jason that said: “If there’s an emotional moment, you look over and he’s calm.” It was about the effect that had. Keith, I was curious if you experienced that with Jason.
Foulke: Oh, absolutely. I’ll go a little bit further and say not only with Jason but with that team. There wasn’t panic in the clubhouse, in the dugout. When it came to Jason, when he’d come out to the mound and we’d have those little talks, it wasn’t like he was going 100 miles per hour, trying to spew all this information. It was like: “Hey, hey, what are we doing here? Let’s calm this thing down. Let’s slow it down. Let’s make a pitch here.” It wasn’t in an excited or anxious voice.
It’s tremendous to have someone like that when your tail is in the fire.
Jason, where does that mindset and calmness come from?
Varitek: Well, I physically have the world’s best resting b—- face.
(Laughs). I’ve got to tell you this real quick. When I was in college, I covered the Red Sox when you guys came to Kansas City. You scared the absolute s— out of me just by looking at you, I have to say.
Varitek: For some reason, my face isn’t liked by many. But I think that (mindset) is DNA that’s passed down from my parents and how my dad made me do whatever I did. I had to deal with my emotions and still move on. I’d get in more trouble for that than anything. I could go 0-for-4 and strike out four times, but if I threw my drink after the game because I was pissed off, I’d get in trouble.
I think those are learned things over time. Crazy s— goes on all the time inside. You’re not telling the truth if it’s not, especially in those moments. The s— goes fast. It moves. There are different emotions. It is different. But I do believe that if you’re prepared, you can handle those a lot better.
Jason Varitek and Keith Foulke developed a deep trust during the season that paid off in the 2004 World Series. (Jeff Gross / Getty Images)
So it’s the ninth inning and a chance to close out the World Series and end the Red Sox’s drought. Tell me what you remember about that final inning.
Varitek: We had Albert Pujols, someone else and then Edgar Renteria coming up, right?
Foulke: (Scott) Rolen, (Jim) Edmonds, Renteria. Albert led off with a single.
Varitek: Right. I was focused on what Keith does well. The finite focus in that moment was trust. I could trust Keith.
Foulke: I remember running in, and I looked at Mike Timlin, and he just gave me that calm little nod. There was no hoopla or anything. Then I went out there and gave up a base hit to Pujols. But it was like: OK, you know what? No big deal.
It was like Jason said: He’s putting down the right fingers, and as long as I put the pitches in the right areas, I felt like we were going to have a high chance of success.
Varitek: I will say in those moments — and I’m going to compliment Keith again: I could trust what he did and what he did well and to do it consistently over and over and over. He wasn’t hopeful to just get it in the strike zone; he was just executing his pitches. Not everybody has that ability. That’s how unique it was.
That’s what I was going to ask: You both talked about approaching and treating that situation the same as if it were a Thursday afternoon game in Kansas City in July. But did it feel any different?
Foulke: There was a lot of pressure on the line! (Laughing). You’re playing for your teammates and your organization, but in that situation, we were playing for an entire fan base worldwide that has suffered for so long. I was very aware of what the situation was.
But throughout my career, it didn’t matter if it was a Wednesday game in Kansas City or if it was a game in St. Louis in late October, I approached it the same way. I put that same focus and pressure on myself to be the exact same no matter the situation. That was one thing I took pride in: Make every pitch the most important pitch of your career.
Varitek: In that postseason, you couldn’t live in the past. You had to continue moving forward. And our forward was not taking anything for granted, executing one pitch at a time, focusing on one pitch at a game. That’s the only way I could survive any of those pressure moments: by that thought process of one at a time.
Describe the final pitch, the final play.
Foulke: In the back of my mind, I knew exactly what was at stake. But I tried to stay calm. The final pitch was a lazy, lazy fastball up and away to Renteria. I can’t believe he even swung at it.
When he put the ball in play, you can kind of tell from my reaction: He surprised me. As a pitcher, when you let go of the ball, you know real quick if it’s a good pitch or a bad pitch. I kind of gave up on it until I saw him swing and he hit it back to me.
I was like: Holy s—, that ball is coming to me. And then my thought process was: Don’t screw this up.
Really, it was a terrible pitch. But the pressure was on him.
Varitek: The ball was hit, Keith fielded it, made the flip to first — an underhand flip, right?
Foulke: Yep. Because I didn’t want to screw it up.
Varitek: Aaalll the attentiveness and focus came to an end. At that moment, I literally felt the most exhausted I’ve ever been. Until then, I couldn’t take a pitch off, take a second off. It was constantly on the gas. And after that play, it was just complete exhaustion. We did it.
And we got the great picture of you guys in each other’s arms.
Varitek: Poor guy still has back problems.
Foulke: I actually wanted to say one more thing about what Jason said. People always ask: “How was it?” I’m like: “Did you see my face after I flipped the ball and turned to Jason?” It was like the entire world fell off my shoulders.
That was really the happiest moment of my life. I’ve got kids, I got married, I’ve got love in my life. But that was the greatest moment of my life. That feeling, you just can’t duplicate it.
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