Were not going to be pushed around anymore: Oral history of the ARod-Jason Varitek fight (2024)

If nothing else had happened that day, we would still remember the glove hitting the face.

It started as a rainy summer Saturday for the floundering Red Sox and ended with a rejuvenated confidence in facing their toughest opponent.

Within three months, the Red Sox had clawed their way to the top, ousting the Yankees in an all-time classic American League Championship Series. Two weeks after that, they broke an 86-year curse to send ripples of euphoria throughout New England. But on a dreary late-July Saturday 15 years ago, all of that Boston defiance started with a leather smack across a $252 million cheek. In the age before Twitter, a national television broadcast sent that image coast to coast.

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It was July 24, 2004, and the Red Sox beat the Yankees, 11-10, in one of the best regular-season games ever played at Fenway Park. The drama unfolded in a Shakespearean manner beginning with a bizarre rain delay laced with gamesmanship and unraveling with a wild third-inning brawl before a comeback capped by an inexplicable walk-off home run against a Hall of Fame closer.

The whole game, the whole day, was one for the ages, but its most indelible moment was that split second when Jason Varitek hit Alex Rodriguez and turned a heated rivalry into a legitimate inferno. There’s little doubt among those involved that something shifted inside the Red Sox that day.

It had been nine months since Aaron Boone’s Game 7 walk-off home run for the Yankees knocked the Red Sox out in the 2003 ALCS in stomach-turning fashion. Even less time had passed since Rodriguez nearly moved to Boston but instead wound up in the Bronx. It would be another seven days before Dave Roberts arrived and Nomar Garciaparra departed. The two teams had already faced off 11 times in 2004, and although the Red Sox had taken six of the first seven matchups, the most recent series in New York was a Yankees sweep in which Derek Jeter famously dove into the stands in the 12th inning while catching a pop-up. The Red Sox were 9 1/2 games back. They’d lost the night before when Rodriguez delivered the game-winning hit in the ninth inning. Anger and frustration had reached a boiling point. The whole world was about to see it, but only a select few truly lived it.

As we approach the 15th anniversary of that fight, that home run, and that game, The Athletic spoke to those who were at Fenway Park that day about how it all went down.

Prologue

The Red Sox agreed to a blockbuster trade in December 2003 that would have brought Rodriguez from the Rangers to Boston along with White Sox outfielder Magglio Ordonez. Manny Ramirez and then-prospect Jon Lester would have headed to Texas and shortstop Nomar Garciaparra would have gone to Chicago. But the deal was squashed when the MLB Players Association refused to sign off on a reduction in Rodriguez’s contract value. Two months later, the Rangers dealt Rodriguez to the Yankees for Alfonso Soriano.

Alex Rodriguez, Yankees DH: That game is kind of a microcosm of what my entire season was like. I almost ended up in Boston. Cynthia, my wife at the time, her entire family was in Boston, so they were dying for this (trade) to happen. It happened and then it got — you know. So (the season) started with an incredible amount of interest and fanfare.

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Joe Buck, Fox Sports broadcaster: There was a time (Rodriguez) was craving to be in Boston and that didn’t work out and he ends up in New York and is teammates with (Derek) Jeter and all the Evil Empire stuff. Then the 2003 ALCS — that was as a good a postseason series as I’ll ever see — ending on a home run in the Bronx hit by Aaron Boone, and there’s more Red Sox heartbreak.

Rodriguez: It felt like we played 30, 40, 50 times that year. Even from the first day of spring training in Fort Myers, that game we played was sold out.

The first spring training matchup between the Red Sox and Yankees not only sold out, but with a 7.2 television rating according to the Boston Globe, it was believed to be the highest-rated Sox exhibition game ever.

Buck: Obviously, a big part of our meal ticket at Fox was doing the Yankees-Red Sox game and it didn’t matter what time of year, it was going to get one of the bigger ratings we’d have all year.

Bill Mueller, Red Sox third baseman: It just seemed like every game mattered. Every game was 10 games, if you won or lost.

Bronson Arroyo, Red Sox starting pitcher: It’s like two monsters going against each other and it’s going to be emotionally charged. You’re usually talking about a playoff series, a World Series, and those series with the Yankees felt like that a lot.

Part 1: The rain

The game almost never happened. Heavy rain the previous night soaked the field, which, at the time, didn’t drain well. Management from the Red Sox and the Yankees and the umpiring crew determined the field conditions unplayable. Moreover, the Red Sox were playing poorly and there was some thought a postponement wouldn’t be the worst idea. But Red Sox players demanded to play. Confusion ensued. The postponement was undone and the game started roughly an hour behind schedule.

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Joe Castiglione, Red Sox radio broadcaster: (The Sox) were struggling. I was surprised they wanted to play that game. The Yankees thought it was over. I know they were all dressed and ready to leave.

Terry Francona, Red Sox manager: I think we had decided we were going to call it off. Because I went out to talk to (Yankees manager) Joe (Torre) and the umpires and we actually said, “We’re not going to play this game and I think we needed a few minutes.”

Kevin Millar, Red Sox first baseman: I believe the front office wanted to call the game because the field was wet and they would rather have Pedro (Martinez), (Curt) Schilling (and Derek Lowe) pitch against the Yankees.

Paul Quantrill, Yankees pitcher: It just didn’t seem like it was going to happen.

Curt Schilling, Red Sox pitcher: Larry Lucchino had been sent down and as players, we were pissed because we knew why. They didn’t want to play the game because they wanted a full gate, a full stadium, and they weren’t going to get one. So we were like, “That’s bullsh*t.”

Francona: Then I got back in the clubhouse and (GM) Theo (Epstein) is like, “Hey, these guys really want to play.” And I said, “Well, I just told Joe (Torre) so you’re coming out with me,” because Joe was pissed, rightfully so. So I think they had guys who were already starting to shower. And I get it. I’d have felt the same way.

Buck: We’re all up in the press box, in our broadcast booth specifically, trying to read their body language wondering if they’re going to postpone the game.

Millar: We talked to Francona a little bit and were like, “We want to play this game. The field seems to be fine. But we want to play this game because we believe Bronson can pitch well.” I can’t remember if it was me and (Jason) Varitek and (Doug) Mirabelli mentioned it to Francona like, “Let’s play. Let’s go. We got this.” So it was a little bit of friction from that.

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Arroyo: I wasn’t in the meeting, but I guess, supposedly, what was said was, “We’d rather face Tanyon Sturtze today than face Kevin Brown (who was on the injured list) when he’s healthy in September.”

Pete Macheska, Fox Sports producer: We look outside the truck. “OK game’s been called,” I told the guys in the booth. It’s over. And (Yankees players) were getting into the buses.

Bruce Froemming, home plate umpire: The phone rings. Francona called me five to 10 minutes after we got back to the dressing room and said, “Bruce, there’s been a change of plans. We want to play the game.” I said, “You don’t have to say another word.” I knew he was sitting in the dressing room probably with all the management of the Red Sox and they’ve got a full house with the Yankees there. So I said there’s no problem, you tell me when you want to go.

Dave Mellor, Fenway grounds crew chief: There was a lot of back and forth: The weather, the forecast, the amount of rain we’d received, what the options were. And then it was: Can we get the field ready?

Arroyo: There was not that much water on the field.

Macheska: And then they called back, “No, it’s not been called.” “What do you mean it’s not been called?” Guys were in street clothes in the buses and they dragged them out.

Arroyo: I was taking a nap in the weight room and I went full-on panic mode. I need one hour to get prepared for a baseball game and they wanted to get going in 30 minutes. I’m in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and flip flops. I didn’t get any of my pregame routine, I couldn’t get a stretch, I couldn’t get a cup of coffee. Whatever you were doing normally was out the window. It was put your uniform on as fast as you can like a bad dream and straight out to the bullpen.

Schilling: We were struggling to find ourselves. We couldn’t put a run together. And I don’t say this on a personal level, I say this on a professional level: We had an intense dislike for the team across the field. Again, it wasn’t personal. I’m sure a lot of us felt some animosity toward Alex because of some of the bullsh*t he’d done. That wasn’t why we wanted to beat the Yankees. We wanted to beat the Yankees because I think we believed we were better than everybody else. We wanted to play that game.

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Macheska: After you think about it later, it was surreal because this game shouldn’t have even been played, and now it’s like a historic game. You can’t write this stuff. You can’t make this up.

Part II: The Fight

The game started just after 4 p.m. and the first two innings were uneventful. In his first at-bat against Arroyo, Rodriguez grounded to second, but reached when Arroyo’s foot missed the first base bag as he ran over to cover it.

Arroyo: I just remember being out in the bullpen and trying to get loose and I was ice cold when the game started. I was just thankful to get through the first inning. So it was already a weird day.

Pedro Martinez, Red Sox pitcher: We knew that tempers were flaring a little bit and we were all on the top step.

Tony Clark, Yankees first baseman: Tensions were high the whole series, as they usually were when we played.

Varitek: They were pounding the ball around pretty well and Bronson was a good breaking ball pitcher and at the moment, good hitters, you have to pitch in.

The Red Sox were down 3-0 in the third when Rodriguez went to the plate. Arroyo got Rodriguez to swing and miss on a first-pitch fastball, then came inside with another for a ball. He went inside again with a pitch clocked at 87 mph. It hit Rodriguez just above his left elbow and Rodriguez spun out of the box, whipped his bat toward the dugout and started slowly walking down the first base line with seemingly little intention of getting to the base as he peeled off his elbow pad.

Arroyo: I was doubling up (inside) there because he’s the type of guy who had a hole on the inner half of the plate and he liked the ball out over. I doubled up in there, but I didn’t double up in on righties a whole lot. So when I hit him, I heard through the grapevine that he studied a lot of video, and so he assumed I hit him on purpose, since I went in there twice and I didn’t do that a whole lot back in those days.

Froemming: He threw a pitch inside to A-Rod, and as a matter of fact, it was really a nothing pitch, but it was inside and it hit him.

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Varitek: Still, even today, I don’t believe any bit of it was intentional and I think that’s why things are the way they are. He took discord to it and started yelling at Bronson.

Arroyo: I’m just kind of walking toward the umpire trying to ignore it, just get a baseball and continue playing because that’s my style.

Rodriguez: I know he’s a good guy, Arroyo. But the thing is when you look at video, what you can’t capture is what’s happened — and I can’t even remember what happened the last 10 or 15 at-bats before that — and whatever anger or whatever process was going on in my head, I can’t really remember. But I’m sure it’s something where either I felt they were pitching me in too much or whatever and I reacted in whatever I thought was appropriate at the time.

Arroyo: I just remember him mouthing at me, “Throw that sh*t over the f*cking plate.” That’s what he said to me twice.

Schilling: He hit him. I know exactly what Alex was doing. He was talking sh*t because he wanted to be a tough guy and Alex was working hard that year to try and be a part of that team. And him and ‘Tek are going face to face. He says, “Throw that sh*t over the plate.” And ‘Tek says, “Hey dude, we don’t hit .260 hitters.” And then that’s when you see Alex look at him and go, “f*ck you. f*ck you.”

Froemming: I moved around to the front of home plate and tried to get between them because I could see we were going to have a problem. And while I’m between them, one said to the other, “Screw you.” And the fight was on.

Castiglione: Varitek gave him the leather sandwich there.

Mueller: I don’t think he’d ever charge Roger Clemens or somebody significant on the mound. But I feel like he took advantage of Bronson. It was a breaking ball, an off-speed pitch, and I was like, “Oh, please.”

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Rodriguez: You look at some of those moments and you cringe like, “What the hell was I doing?”

Mueller: I was like, “Man, I want to see this because I want ‘Tek to take down A-Rod.”

Clark: When Alex was hit, it didn’t take much for the water to boil over.

Martinez: Seeing Alex with such natural abilities and so much talent doing things like that, it kind of disappointed me. So I was a little bit angry at Alex and everybody was at the time. But to see that one it was like, “That’s it.” And at that point, I was the ace. I was the grandpa on the team and I wanted to protect (Arroyo) and so did Jason Varitek, who was the captain.

Buck: I don’t think it’s wrong to highlight what Jason Varitek meant to that team. He was kind of that anchor back there in the best possible way. When big, tough Jason Varitek came out from behind home plate, you knew the Red Sox side was covered and I’m sure Alex didn’t want a lot of Jason Varitek at that point.

Quantrill: Alex is trying to establish himself and it’s a difficult place because Alex is one of the, if not the best player in the game at the time. But he was coming to a team that Derek was definitely the guy and leader of our group. But Alex got hit a lot, and I think Alex probably did want to show he had some push-back in him.

Martinez: I knew ‘Tek was going to be OK with all that gear, and as big as he is, I knew he would probably stand his ground.

Arroyo: I got hit in the back of the head by somebody and got dragged out of the pile by one of our batting practice coaches, Eno Guerrero. You’re just in this giant whirlwind from front to back and it didn’t feel like a baseball game, really.

Tim Wakefield, Red Sox pitcher: Everything got pushed to the on-deck circle and it was crazy. The original fight between ‘Tek and A-Rod was over with but then there were ensuing fights.

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Millar: The best part of that fight was over there on the first-base side on that on-deck circle. I think you forget there were some big boys over there. Trot Nixon, Tanyon Sturtze and Gabe Kapler. They can move some luggage. Out of nowhere, we look over like, “What’s going on?!” And then Tanyon was bleeding around his eye and Trot is trying to choke him out because he saw him grab Kapler around the neck and it gets weird for a second.

Wakefield: Those three guys were probably the strongest in the league at that point, and you’re like, “Holy crap, we need to break this up.”

Millar: There’s always a good little fight that goes on, on the side.

Gabe Kapler, Red Sox outfielder: I remember being pulled out from the middle of the pile by Tanyon Sturtze and not knowing who it was at the time, but kind of hearing him. I don’t know if it was, “Calm down, Gabe,” or “Relax, Gabe,” or something like that as we were all right in the middle of the field. But then feeling him become aggressive. It was a bit chaotic.

Millar: Trot Nixon ran over and got Tanyon Sturtze into like a figure-four wrestling hold, so things got a little weird. Sturtze was getting choked out by Trot. So it was kind of like, “It’s over, let’s go. We’re not going to kill anybody.”

Wakefield: When something like that happens and mayhem starts to erupt, my job is just to protect my teammates. Running out there and trying to make sure nobody’s getting hurt. And trying to calm the situation down as much as possible.

The melee swayed toward the Red Sox dugout. David Ortiz tried to rip Sturtze off of Kapler before Nixon dove into the mix. First base coach Lynn Jones held back Ortiz as much as he could as Schilling walked Ortiz to the side holding his jersey while Wakefield corralled Kapler.

Froemming: When they started to fight, we had 50 guys out on the field swinging at each other. So as umpires, I was the crew chief, you back off of that. You can’t get in the middle of that because somebody is going to take a swing at you.

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Millar: At that point you’re just going in hellbent, seeing what happens, no cheap shots. Alex and Jason are doing their thing but I just remember Giambi — because I love me some Jason Giambi — I remember at some point we’re just holding each other’s belt buckle, kind bouncing around this pile. And we were just out the night before, I think I saw him. So it gets a little silly, but yet serious, if that makes sense.

Buck: I’m sitting up there to call balls and strikes and home runs and tell you the score, and all of the sudden it’s like the WWE broke out.

The Fox broadcast typically has eight cameras on the field. Macheska tried to give viewers every angle possible, including a camera that panned to Epstein in the stands behind home plate smirking.

Macheska: I just remember looking, “Oh, my God! Cue it up there! Cue it up there! Holy God. OK, take it all back and let’s see where this all came from.”

Froemming: When the fight was all over, I sent both teams back to the dugout, so we’re standing out there, the four umpires, and the first guy I went to was Joe Torre. I said, “Joe, you’re not going to like what I have to say, but A-Rod is done.” And he said to me, “You’re right, I don’t like it.” That’s the way it’s going to be. So I went over to Terry and said, “Varitek is done,” and then gave him another name (Kapler) and he didn’t fuss much about it.

Varitek headed toward the Red Sox dugout as the Fenway crowd erupted in applause. The cheers grew even louder as Rodriguez headed toward the visitors dugout. Kenny Lofton was also ejected. Sturtze pitched one more inning with blood on the left shoulder of his jersey. He was then removed with a bruised pinky finger.

Quantrill: Any game where you get in a brawl and crazy sh*t happens, you remember them. But it was different when it was us, the Yankees, and the Red Sox just because it seemed like those games were heightened anyway.

Wakefield: I’m kind of glad it happened because I think that was the turning point in our season.

Kapler: I remember that time period being critical. We needed a spark. And it turned out to be Jason. It almost felt like he had a plan, like he knew exactly what he was doing and he recognized we needed something to happen and took it upon himself to make that a go.

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Arroyo: Not only did we have a fight, but it was a fight with Alex Rodriguez, who was a newcomer and was semi-unliked around the league, for whatever reason — maybe because he was such a good baseball player or maybe because he seemed a bit arrogant or maybe because of his body language on the field. For whatever reason, you wouldn’t have quite as much emotion if he was Derek Jeter in that same situation.

Francona: I just think there was already things building before I got here, (things) I didn’t live through, that came to a head. That happens sometimes.

Buck: It seemed to inflame what was already and a red-hot rivalry and add another layer to it.

Part III: The walk-off

Fueled by the drama, the Red Sox surged ahead 4-3 with two runs in the third and two more in the fourth. In the fifth, Francona joined Kapler and Varitek in the clubhouse after he was ejected for arguing.

Wakefield: The adrenaline is flowing so high it’s hard to get it calmed down and say, “OK here, let’s get back to what we need to do.”

Millar: We had a group that just never really was out of anything. We knew double digits was going to win this game and let’s just keep putting together good at-bats.

The Yankees plated six more runs in the sixth to go ahead 9-4 and knock Arroyo from the game, but the Red Sox added four in the bottom of the inning to make it 9-8.

Buck: The game was unbelievable.

Arroyo: I just remember being up in the clubhouse and there being a lot of guys. There was normally only going to be two or three of us up there but it felt like seven or eight. And Theo was up there.

Kapler: It was kind of surreal to not be back in the dugout and a part of the rest of the game.

Francona: Me and Theo were going back and forth on our pitching because we were so worried about our bullpen, so we spent the majority of the time talking about our bullpen, how we can supplement it, because we were afraid we were going to hurt guys.

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Arroyo: We were all watching on the TV and everybody just might have been having a beer or a bite to eat. Normally, when you walk in a locker room, there might be one or two or three guys up there, but they’re kind of doing their own thing — maybe getting a massage or doing stuff at their locker. But you wouldn’t have people intently watching the game together as if we were almost watching an event. It was almost like we were watching the news and something had just happened on TV during the game.

Entering the ninth inning, the Red Sox trailed 10-8 with Garciaparra, Nixon and Millar due up. But Mariano Rivera was now on the mound.

Castiglione: We thought it was over. Rivera coming in.

Schilling: I think he’s the greatest reliever who ever lived. But the Boston Red Sox were not afraid of Mariano Rivera.

Mueller: I feel like he made more mistakes against our club than most clubs.

Millar: You’re just never out of it. We never had that in our group and it wasn’t because we were this arrogant team. We felt that we could fight against anybody at any time.

Garciaparra doubled to left to open the ninth and Nixon flied out to deep right to move Garciaparra to third. Millar, who was 3-for-4, singled to right to score Garciaparra, making it 10-9. Then Mueller stepped to the plate.

Mueller: You always have the same mindset because you want a routine, right? So you don’t want to get too emotional that this situation is bigger than some other situations.

Kapler: (Mueller) was just a good pure hitter and there wasn’t a whole lot of swing and miss in his game. He was such a grinder and so competitive in every at-bat. I think that played well for him against Mariano.

Castiglione: He didn’t get enough credit for what he did. He won a batting title. Switch grand slams in consecutive innings. He hurt his knee and that shortened his career.

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Mueller: His strength was bigger than my strength, so I had to make adjustments to be able to make contact or move the ball.

Mueller drew the count to 3-1 before Rivera fired a 93 mph fastball over the plate and Mueller turned on it.

Mueller: I hit it hard, but I didn’t “feel it” in a sense where I caught it. For me, that’s usually a fly out. In my mind, I’m like, “That’s good hard contact.” (At) least I drove the ball on him a little bit because just to make contact off that guy was, you were coming back to the dugout saying, “Hey I did something, whether you were out or not.”

Mueller soon watched the ball sail into the Red Sox bullpen as the crowd erupted yet again. His teammates were waiting to mob him at home plate. It marked Rivera’s seventh career blown save against the Red Sox and just the second walk-off homer he had allowed.

Mueller: I felt like it was again a mistake out over the plate that he normally never does and if you probably see me running down the first base line like I was thinking, “I’ve got to get to second base on a double or something.” I never was that type of player where I was like, “Yeah I caught that guy,” I would never do that.

Rodriguez: I couldn’t believe it.

Mueller: Whenever you’re my size, you never feel like you’ve got it.

Schilling: The reaction was — “Holy sh*t.”

Arroyo: We were celebrating in the clubhouse as if it was a playoff win. It didn’t feel like a normal game and you didn’t know it was going to be the beginning of something special.

Castiglione: I asked him what he did. I thought maybe he stepped back so he didn’t get jammed. He said he went to a lighter bat.

Mueller: I think normal was a 33-inch, 31-ounce (bat) and in that case maybe I dropped down a size, maybe I went 33-inch, 30-ounces, or 32-inch, 31-ounces. I tried to give myself a fighting chance to make contact.

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Schilling: You had to count on Mo making a little bit of a mistake and Billy being perfect, and that’s exactly what happened.

Clark: Considering my personal lack of success versus Mo, I was amazed any time someone made their way to me or past me at first base while Mo was on the mound.

Mueller: It wasn’t just me, it was all these guys just continuing to never give up and work so hard in their at-bats that (Rivera) started to do some things differently instead of pounding that cutter inside. He left some more balls out over the plate. Fortunately for some of us, when he did that, we were very fortunate to put balls in play hard.

Francona: I wasn’t out there so I stood at the door and waited for everybody to come in and it was just a fun day. It ended up being a fun day. It was a trying day up to that point.

Buck: It was kind of a foreshadowing of what was to come later in that same ballpark in Game 4 of the ALCS.

Part IV: The carryover effect

It would be weeks before the Red Sox turned that spark of July 24 into something more meaningful. One week later, they traded Garciaparra (who had transformed from face of the franchise into someone who wasn’t happy in Boston) and acquired Roberts, a speedy outfielder who would eventually have the most famous stolen base in franchise history, shortstop Orlando Cabrera and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz. They fell 10 1/2 games out of first place in August. But something about that fight with the Yankees stuck with them.

Francona: It didn’t really catapult us to get hot. That happened later. But I thought it showed a lot about our guys.

Rodriguez: I think that was the first time we felt like, “Oh sh*t, Boston, they have a real shot here.” Not saying we didn’t respect them to the utmost, but that was such a special kind of event so much more for them than for us.

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Wakefield: For me, personally, I think that was a turning point for us of not being the younger brother or stepbrother or whatever, the guy that always got picked on. It was a moment that ‘Tek and us as a team stood up and said, “We’re not going to be pushed around anymore.”

Schilling: To me, that was the day the 2004 team found its identity.

Millar: We were at a point where we needed to figure out how to win. I always joked around and said we went 2-0. We won the baseball game and won the fight.

By mid-August, the reconfigured Red Sox started to jell. On Aug. 16, they began a stretch of 20 wins in 22 games.

Schilling: When I look back on winning it all, that game didn’t mean we won it all, but that game when you look at that August and September swagger and confidence, that game was primarily a motivator for that to happen.

Quantrill: If they caught the wave right there or if they got the momentum, they were a team that was very difficult to stop.

Buck: To not only have that melee and Varitek show his strength, but to beat Rivera, I just think they took some measure of new confidence with them forward.

Mueller would get the best of Rivera again in Game 4 of the ALCS with the tying hit that scored Roberts in the ninth inning. It set the stage for an unprecedented comeback and a curse-breaking World Series. But the foundation was set on that rainy Saturday in July when the Red Sox went toe-to-toe with the Yankees and won the fight in more ways than one.

Mueller: It wasn’t so much pressure but that build-up or excitement or enthusiasm with the Yankees helped to navigate yourself a little bit easier in playoff times.

Kapler: You show that you are willing to fight for your teammates. Fight for your organization. Fight for your club. And I think that demonstration was a real coming together moment for us.

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Millar: It got us on the right track to, “Let’s roll.”

Arroyo: When we got into those playoff series against these guys again, you knew who your competition was and you weren’t going to be fearful.

Francona: Games like that, they give your team its own unique personality for sure.

Arroyo: We got the last laugh that day.

Epilogue

Arroyo: I remember (in) the very first World Baseball Classic (in 2006), Jason Varitek was on that team with Alex. When he got back I said, “Jason, how was it being on the same fricking team with Alex?” And he said, “Man, there was one game we were about to play and both of us ended up in the training room and no one else around, both taping up our wrists right next to each other. And neither one of us spoke a word. We never spoke a word about it. We never acknowledged it. We never acted like we didn’t like each other, but we weren’t going to act friendly, either.” So he said it was the most awkward dead silence ever, taping up those wrists.

(Top photo: Barry Chin / Getty Images)

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