Varitek's Halloween Surprise

With kids aged 2 and (almost) 4, Halloween is a special time at chez Shyster. My neighborhood was crazy this year too. One guy I know was handing out full-sized Baby Ruth bars, which created quite a commotion. One house had a cooler filled with Captain Morgan's and cider for the parents. Between all of that and chasing the little ones, I was beat by the time I went to bed Wednesday night.

But I wasn't the only one. It seems that Jason Varitek bit off more than he could chew too, as he sat in his driveway handing out autographs and goody bags to the neighbor kids:

This Halloween, Jason Varitek gave trick-or-treaters something infinitely more valuable than a king-sized Snickers bar. The Red Sox captain sat in a lawn chair at the top on his driveway and handed out autographs, signing baseballs, hats, shirts, pillow cases stuffed with candy, and a green alien glove from a youngster's costume . . .

. . .Two police cruisers came to direct traffic and control the crowd, which swelled to some 50 youngsters and parents on a leafy block in the tony village of Waban, in Newton. "Varitek looked really tired," said Chris O'Connell, 45, who brought his sons Joshua, (dressed as a Japanese ninja), 9, and Zeke, (Darth Vader), 7, to get autographs. "It was great - for him to be sitting out there after 9 o'clock on Halloween says a lot about the guy."

Sources report that Heathcliff Slocumb gave out slow-pokes and those nasty little candies in the orange and black wrappers, after which his house was teepeed repeatedly.