April 20, 2005
A CLASSY DEAL FOR BOTH:
Durable Wakefield is here for duration (Dan Shaughnessy, April 20, 2005, Boston Globe)
He was a Red Sox player when Dwayne Hosey was a Red Sox player. He played under Kevin Kennedy, Jimy Williams, and Joe Kerrigan. While the torch was passed from Clemens to Martinez to Schilling, Tim Wakefield was the ever-ready wingman, always wearing his spikes, able to take the baseball and pitch a few innings.Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2005 6:55 AMIt's almost 10 years exactly since Dan Duquette signed Wakefield to a minor league contract after he'd been released by the Pirates, and now Wakefield has pitched in more Red Sox games than anyone other than Bob Stanley. In Sox history, he has pitched more innings than anyone other than Roger Clemens and Cy Young.
Yesterday Wakefield got his "reward" in the form of a one-year contract extension that includes club options from here to eternity. It's an odd little agreement in this day and age.
Agree - nice to see Wakefield kept in the fold after all he's done the past 10 yrs. And it appears the deal wasn't that extravagent as the local media types all claimed Wake took a home town discount.
Posted by: AWW at April 20, 2005 9:36 AMI still remember watching the first game he started for the Pirates in '92. The slower he through the ball, the harder it was to hit. It was like a magic trick. IIRC he was throwing in the low 60s and sometimes only the high 50s. He was one of my favorite baseball stories of the 90's and since his rise I've always wondered why more failed minor league outfielders don't develop a knuckleball.
Posted by: Pat H at April 20, 2005 9:47 AMCorrection - "threw", not "through". Will I never learn to preview a post?
Posted by: Pat H at April 20, 2005 9:49 AMThe guy kills the Yanks. Almost singlehandedly beat them in the 03 alcs. Wake me when he retires.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at April 20, 2005 10:42 AMKnucklebellers are the perennailly endangered species in Major League Baseball -- Charlie Hough was the last one holding the fort until Wakefield showed up -- so it's good to know at least one will be around for a while longer.
Posted by: John at April 20, 2005 11:24 AMOver the past decade, Wakefield has been the Red Sox MVP. He chews up the innings and wins more than he loses. That allows the prima donna starters to go every fifth day with a rested bullpen, get gaudy won-lost records, and you're in the playoffs. And as we saw last year, if you get in the playoffs enough, lightning will eventually strike.