Jason Varitek got off to a strong start in his quest to achieve the near-impossible.

The catcher is coming back from the sort of season that typically signals an irreversible slide. Players in Varitek’s age bracket (he turns 37 on Saturday) have rarely come back from offensive seasons as bad as the one he had in 2008 to achieve the status of even an average player.

Last year, as a 36-year-old, Varitek hit .220 with a .313 OBP with a .672 on-base plus slugging percentage. His OPS+ was 73, meaning that his OPS was roughly 27 percent worse than the league average.

Teams typically don’t leave such offensive liabilities in the lineup to keep recording outs. In the past 50 years, there have been only 25 instances when a player age 36 or older has gotten as many as 400 plate appearances despite producing an OPS+ of 73 or worse. (For a complete list of those players, click here.)

Of the 24 who preceded Varitek, four retired following the season. Things weren’t pretty for the 20 players who stuck it out. Even though most (16 of 20) enjoyed some form of rebound, they were still by and large below average – and in some cases, well below average – players.

--Two were slightly better than average, with an OPS+ above 100.
--Three were slightly (1-10 percent) below average, with an OPS+ of 90-99.
--Four were 11-20 percent below average.
--Three were 21-30 percent below average.
--Five were 31-40 percent below average.
--Three were 41-55 percent below average.

In the Red Sox’ 5-3 Opening Day victory over the Rays, Varitek began his attempt to buck that trend. The Red Sox captain hit the ball hard in all four of his plate appearances on Tuesday.

He slammed a homer inside the Pesky Pole off of Rays starter James Shields, the same pitcher against whom he homered in Game 6 of last year’s ALCS. Though that was his only hit in a 1-for-4 afternoon, Varitek also lined out to left, right and center.

All four of his at-bats were left-handed, the side of the plate from which he endured acute struggles (.201 average/.293 OBP/.616 OPS, compared to .284/.378/.863 marks from the right side) in 2008. His ability to make contact, particularly on two-strike pitches, was noteworthy.

“I’m happy for him that he stung the ball and was able to drive the ball. He had, I think, four really good at-bats,” said third baseman Mike Lowell. “If he feels good at the plate, he can be a force for us.”

Varitek, clearly exasperated by the implications that his career as a productive hitter is in jeopardy, felt little cause to pronounce his satisfaction after the game. Instead, he declined to discuss his work as a hitter, as he has for much of the spring.

“I’ve said this over and over,” said Varitek. “I’m not going to really talk about my hitting. I’m going to stick with that.”

Nonetheless, it is apparent that he has done a great deal to simplify his mechanics, especially as a left-handed hitter. This spring, Varitek’s .216 average and .241 OBP were undistinguished, but those numbers failed to tell the complete story.

He hit five left-handed homers after hitting just eight in 372 left-handed plate appearances last year, and two in his final 252 trips to the plate as a left-hander. He made solid contact on a fairly consistent basis, striking out in roughly one of every seven at-bats, after having whiffed in almost exactly one of every four plate appearances last year.

His performance over the course of the spring and into the season opener gave his teammates cause for optimism.

“Tek had a tough year all around last year. There were a lot of things there that caused that,” said first baseman Kevin Youkilis. “He’s going to do a lot of great things…He’s a great hitter. He just had an off year. I think he’s going to bounce back.”

Of course, there is a danger in reading too much into Varitek’s early season performance, especially the impossibly small sample of one game. It was just a year ago, after all, that he appeared to be on his way to a monster year. Through May 21, he was hitting .295 with an .892 OPS and six homers. After that, his season was a bust.

Still, while there is a chance that early-season numbers can be a mirage, it is also worth noting that a quick start for a player coming off of a struggle can have added significance. For some players, immediate success can offer an important signal that the previous year’s struggles were the exception and not the rule.

It remains to be seen how all of this plays out for Varitek in 2009. But on Tuesday, he took a first step on the long road from last year’s disappointment to the point of offensive respectability.

Perhaps he will continue down that route in defiance of history. But Varitek insists that he will not obsess about the issue, instead offering a reminder that his value as a player is defined less by the home run he hit on Tuesday than by the efforts of a pitching staff that allowed just three runs in a win.

“My focus has to be the pitching staff of this team. I’m not hitting fourth or third,” said Varitek. “There’s a big difference. I still have the other three-quarters of my job to do. (Hitting) is only a quarter of it.”