Greetings from Taiwan!  I’ve been over here for almost a week now.  It’s a bit odd being in a foreign country during the 4th of July.  I am over here working on some R&D with our main factory, who, incidentally, celebrated their 30th anniversary on July 4th!  It’s a great family business that we’ve been working with for over 27 years.  They make our chest protectors and leg guards… including the special stars and stripes gear we made for Varitek.  In fact, during the 30th anniversary celebration/banquet, they had a duplicate set of the stars and stripes gear on display. 
    So we couldn’t watch the Sox and Yankees live on the 4thof July… it was 3am the next day here when the game started.  But it was re-broadcast at noon, complete with Chinese commentary.  So at noon a bunch of us from the factory watched the game.  My mandarin Chinese is non-existent, so I couldn’t understand anything they were saying.  But as the commentators were chatting back and forth in Chinese during a close up of Tek’s stars and stripes gear, I heard them say “Captain America.”  I guess there is no translation for that!  Pretty cool.  Later, I learned that the commentators back home were saying the same thing about the special gear.
   

I also heard that at his first at-bat, Jeter asked Teksomething like “does Evil Knievel know you stole his clothes?”  To which Jason responded with a laugh.  Excellent.
    As usual, check out some amazing photography and screen captures from the game at www.jason-varitek.com.  Here is a direct link to the gallery:

    I also heard that the stars and stripes catcher’s gear will be handed over to MLB tomorrow to be posted on their auction site.  As soon as we find the link, we’ll post it.  Jason is donating the proceeds of this auction to Children’s Hospital in Boston.

From somewhere in Taiwan,
stan (jr)