It’s the end of summer, meaning the time for a sacred tradition has arrived: determining the order of fantasy football drafts.
The possibilities are practically endless. There’s the simple and straightforward — you could go based off last season’s standings or enlist a computer program to assign random numbers to each player’s name. For the ambitious, an in-person race or other form of physical competition can be a fun decider.
Or, if you and your friends happen to have three-time All-Star and 2005 Silver Slugger Jason Varitek hanging around, you could have him take batting practice. It worked for the Boston Red Sox, at least.
On Tuesday, Red Sox players determined the order of their draft in a simple yet distinctive manner: they wrote each player’s name on a baseball, then had Varitek, the team’s game-planning and run prevention coach, get in some swings.
The farther a designated player’s ball went, the better pick he got.
Jason Varitek took batting practice to help the Red Sox determine the draft order for their fantasy football league.
Greg Weissert’s ball got fouled straight up into the cage. Laughter ensued. pic.twitter.com/lxDKbRpqhy
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) August 19, 2025
Unfortunately for Greg Weissert, it was reported that the longtime Boston catcher was able to send most of his other balls out to the warning track or off the outfield wall, so the relief pitcher ended up with a late pick.
Previously, the Red Sox decided their fantasy football draft order by chipping golf balls off Fenway Park’s iconic Green Monster in left field. They’re not the only team to use their ballpark for fantasy purposes — last week, Toronto Blue Jays players determined their order by seeing who could drop parachutable army figurines closest to a bucket from the top of the Rogers Centre.