The Wieters-Varitek connection
They went to the same college. They are both catchers and both are switch hitters.
O's catcher Matt Wieters has been compared to Boston's Jason Varitek since the day he walked on to the Georgia Tech campus, where Varitek once put up amazing numbers.
Varitek was a three-time All-American at Tech and was named Baseball America's college Player of the Year in 1993. Wieters put up his big numbers at Tech from 2005 to 2007.
"He would come back to Tech for baseball banquets and other events. He's definitely a guy you can learn from and just see his baseball knowledge and draw from it however you can," Wieters said.
"This is the first time I've seen him (Varitek) play in person. It's like watching film from the dugout, because you want to see how he's calling a game and how he is going about it and take from that."
Tonight, Wieters will enter the box and see, not only Varitek catching, but someone he admires a lot on the mound, in John Smoltz. Smoltz's first season in pro baseball was 1986, the year Wieters was born.
"Growing up the Braves were on TV every night," Wieters said. "Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz I watched those three throw for it seems like ten years. It will be exciting to stand in the box against him."
Tonight, Wieters will try to get that bat heated up again. He has just two hits over his last 16 at bats.
"Baseball prepares you for that. You won't go four for four every game. You will have good stretches and bad stretches. You just want to make the good ones last as long as possible. I hope to catch a hot streak here and go with it.
"It's constantly not trying to do too much. You are only going to get one or two pitches to hit hard an at bat, so you just try to keep your normal swing and try and stay simple with it."
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