Jason Varitek and His Cape Cod League Host Family: An Enduring Friendship

Jason Varitek, on the Cape in 1993. (Courtesy of Corrie Mays)

 

Each summer, as the Cape Cod Baseball League season prepares to begin the season, a number of young players from around the country (and some from beyond) come to Cape Cod to play ball. They need a place to stay for up to eight weeks. An impressive number of area families welcome in players, serving as host families, and they house an ambitious young player – or two, or three. Sometimes the relationships between player and host family can be enduring. Such has been the case with Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Jason Varitek and his host family, led by Kelley and Chuck King of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts.

More than three decades later, the memories of his host family provided an ongoing relationship he still treasures.

He hadn’t known the Kings beforehand. “I drove up there. The team set you up with host families. I had a roommate – Doug Hecker – and then a third roommate later on. It is kind of out of your control.” But it all worked out nicely, then then some – “they became like family.”1

Chuck King was a commercial airline pilot, later retiring after a career that saw him fly for Piedmont and US Airways. Kelley King – who died early in 2025 – was a homemaker, who (one of her daughters, Corrie Mays, recounted) “liked to explain to people she had four kids under the age of 5, at one time.”2

The Kings indeed had four children – Chris, Chip, Corrie, and Samantha. “I was 11 years old the first time he stayed with us,” Corrie recalled. “The second time, I was 13.”3 Samantha was one year younger. Chip was 15 that year and Chris was 16.

“The kids were similar ages relative to my younger brothers,” said Jason. “I didn’t have any sisters,” he said in a much earlier interview. “That’s what made the whole difference for me.”4

Jason doesn’t recall all the economics involved, but Corrie knew the family had started hosting in the 1980s. One of the things that attracted her father to the idea of hosting was that “the players also needed to pick up a summertime job while they were here. I know that’s not always the case for all the players anymore, but my father inquired about whether they could come and help him with the family business during their off-times.”

The family business – quite separate from flying – was to paint lines in parking lots in the area. The firm, Parking Lines LLC, based in Sandwich, “provides pavement markings, line striping, and parking lot painting services to residential, commercial and industrial customers on Cape Cod, the South Shore, North Shore, MA, NH and RI since 1982.”5 With a bit of a laugh, Samantha said of the players he hoped would help, “They never did.” They did help around the house, of course.

Jason, however, did say he had done the work at least a couple of times. His primary work responsibility was to the team itself. “I went and painted parking lines with him. And then I had to do the team laundry at the laundromat. I had to do that for the team, wash the uniforms and undergarments, helping keep clean the small little clubhouse.” Corrie remembered that: “I can also recall tagging along with Jason many times – I would always call myself his little sister – I would help him with the team laundry down at the laundromat. There was a lot of it!”

With four children in the family, and two or three players bunking in as well, the household was full and bustling, Jason said, “It wasn’t a small house, but they made things work. They had people in and out. Sometimes one of the kids was gone, like on a summer trip.” Samantha said, “We all shared rooms and the baseball players shared rooms. We’d have a lot of people around the dinner table and that was really fun.” “They were family to us,” Corrie added. “They were. Especially with Jason staying with us two summers. Yeah, we became very close with him.” Samantha said, “They were like brothers to us. We had a pool in the backyard so we would go swimming a lot. I remember other players coming over and playing cards. Nomar [Garciaparra] was one of them. Pat Burrell. We had a pool table in our basement that was always a center of entertainment.” She also had fond memories of helping run the snack bar at the ballpark.

Jason Varitek, of course, went on to a distinguished major-league career that included parts of 15 years with the Boston Red Sox, earning World Series championship rings in both 2004 and 2007. As of 2025, he was the team’s game planning and run prevention coach.

SABR biographer Chad Hagan wrote, “Varitek is one of only three men to have played in a championship game of the Little League World Series, the College World Series, and the Major League World Series. (Ed Vosberg and Michael Conforto are the others.) Vosberg pitched for the 1997 Florida Marlins and Conforto was an outfielder with the 2015 New York Mets. Varitek (who was with the Red Sox in both the 2004 and 2007 World Series) and Vosberg were on the winning team in their respective World Series.”6

 

Back row, left to right: Christopher King, Doug Hecker, Jason Varitek. Front row: Chip King, Corrie (King) Mays. (Courtesy of Corrie Mays)

Mom Kelley King with Jason Varitek. (Courtesy of Corrie Mays)