Keen Eye

For much of last season, the left-handed hitting Varitek and the right-handed hitting Varitek were separate entities. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, but simply the all-too-typical world of a switch hitter.

“I was coming close, but mirror images aren’t necessarily realistic,” the Red Sox [team stats] captain said yesterday before taking the field for the team’s final spring training workout at the minor league facility. “I have to treat them like two different human beings. You can talk to one one way, and you can’t talk to the other the same way.”

The problem for Varitek is that for much of last year the two sides weren’t on speaking terms. From the right side he hit .264, compared to .252 from the left. For his career he is 24 points better from the right side.

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The realization that exact approaches from both sides might not be a possibility first came up early in his career under former Sox hitting coach Rick Down. It was reinforced through the talks and tutelage from ex-Sox third base coach Dale Sveum.

But last year, starting in spring training, the two sides had grown increasingly apart.

“(Carl Yastrzemski) said to me last spring, ‘What’s wrong with your swing, you look like a robot?’ ” Varitek said. “There’s not much more of a keener eye than Yaz, so there must have been something.

The Bargain of 1971

Yaz made in a year about what A-Rod makes in a week. Rip off!

Carl Yastrzemski became the highest-paid player in baseball history on this date in 1971. With AL-leading totals in runs, total bases, on-base and slugging in 1970, Yaz inked a three-year deal worth a total of $500,000.

The minimum MLB salary for the 2008 season, it should be noted, is $390,000.