Luis Exposito's mitt made Daniel Bard's fastballs seem even faster Wednesday afternoon.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Besides the retirement of Nomar Garciaparra, there was another memorable moment to come out of the Red Sox’ game with Tampa Bay Wednesday afternoon at City of Palms Park.

“That,” Red Sox reliever Daniel Bard said, “was the best I’ve ever had.”

No, the subject of Bard’s observation wasn’t a fastball that once again registered near the century mark. No, this had everything to do with sound, not sight. What the relief pitcher was talking about was the popping everybody throughout the ballpark could here once Bard’s fastballs hit catcher Luis Exposito’s mitt.

At one point, one reporter in the press box bellowed out after a particularly loud pitch, “That sounds like 100.2 (mph) to me.”

“I love it when it’s like that,” Bard said. “I threw that first pitch and thought, ‘This is going to be good.’ I love throwing to Expo.”

Bard went on to say that a lot of the veteran catchers have “pillow mitts” which don’t supply the the kind acoustics found with Exposito’s All-Star model, which just started breaking in at the beginning of spring training.

Asked about the sound made when Bard’s pitches hit his mitt, Exposito — who caught the pitcher two years ago in Single A Greenville — had a little different take.

“I think it’s the pitcher, not the mitt,” Exposito said. “When you throw that hard it’s going to make some sort of sound.”

According to Bard, however, this was unlike any other tone he had heard before.

“That,” Bard said, “was awesome.”

7 Comments for “Daniel Bard’s secret weapon”

1. Del Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 10:12 am

   And how do you use “spellcheck” ” here” Even I who flunked 10th grade English,thinks it should be hear

2. JG Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 12:29 pm

   what Del says, where are the editors? lmao

3. Aitken Drum Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 4:21 pm

   Spell checkers don’t check spelling. They only say: “there’s no such word.” (And sometimes they’re wrong about that.)

   I’m all in favor of mitts that sound like a volley from the Constitution. Anything that messes with a batter’s mind is good.

4. emains Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 11:18 pm

   Yeah spellchecker would pass right over that since here is a word. Grammar check on the other hand would have caught it.

5. Noe Says:
   March 15th, 2010 at 12:36 pm

   So…does pointing out a simple grammatical error make any of you less angry that you don’t have Bradford’s job? Get a life people. You really took the time to comment, not on the ARTICLE, but on one simple mistake I’m sure all you have made in the past. So, what’s more pathetic…missing ‘here’ when it should have been ‘hear’ – or taking the time out of your pointless life to comment on it? I choose the latter (no, not ladder).

   At any rate, interesting article, anything to get the juices flowing. Bring on them dam Yanks.

6. voice of confusion Says:
   March 16th, 2010 at 9:46 am

   Bard is really a great prospect too bad he can’t pitch againest the yankees, didn’t they bomb him last year?

7. Pesky Poler Says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 7:47 am

   I think someone is a little “confused” about spelling himself… Isn’t it “damn Yankees?” I saw Bard pitch from 2nd row behind home plate on Monday 15th, and his real secret weapon (that which will allow him to thrive against anyone) is the cutter or a mean low breaker. He used it three times and it really broke. The last time on successive pitches after one was a bit wild and low, and he still got the hitter out on strikes. Finesse and trickery are every bit as relevant as power in pitching. Fact. Pap needs the off speed improvement/implementation big time as well. I did not see it. He certainly is a man’s man. But a pitcher’s pitcher? Not close.

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