be a starting catcher. However, in early February, General Manager Kevin Towers decided to sign veteran catcher Mike Piazza and installed him as the starter instead. Mirabelli made just a handful of starts, hitting .182 with no runs batted in through April. Upset over Piazza's arrival and his subsequent lack of playing time, Mirabelli asked Towers to work out a deal that would send him back to Boston. Return to Boston: 2006–2007 Mirabelli was reacquired by the Red Sox on May 1, 2006, in exchange for catcher Josh Bard, setup man Cla Meredith, and $100,000 cash. This reacquisition occurred because Bard had trouble catching Tim Wakefield's knuckleball, committing 10 passed balls in 7 games. The day the trade occurred, the Red Sox were to play their first game of the year against their rivals, the New York Yankees, at Fenway Park, and Wakefield was scheduled to start. It took a private jet and a Massachusetts State Police escort to get Mirabelli to the field in time. His plane from San Diego touched down at Logan Airport at 6:48 pm, he arrived at Fenway Park at 7:00 pm, and took his place behind the plate just in time for Wakefield's opening pitch at 7:13 pm. In an effort to conserve every second possible, the Red Sox sent a uniform along with the police escort for Mirabelli to change into while en route to Fenway Park from the airport. A special glove (which is actually a woman's softball catcher's mitt) which Mirabelli had used in previous years to catch Wakefield had been left in Boston by Josh Bard for Mirabelli. Soon after, the Yankees admitted they had tried to acquire Mirabelli from the Padres in an attempt to keep him from the Red Sox . On April 25, 2007, while Boston was visiting the Baltimore Orioles in the teams' first match up of the season, a controversy arose when Orioles' play-by-play announcer Gary Thorne alleged during the fifth inning of his telecast that Mirabelli had told him years ago that Curt Schilling's bloody sock from the Red Sox's 2004 championship run was only a publicity stunt. "... That famous red stocking that he wore when they finally won, the blood on his stocking, nah. It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR," said Thorne. Thorne's comments were first reported on The Joy of Sox, a