Tim Wakefield, a right-handed knuckleball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox who played a crucial late-innings role in helping the team win its first World Series championship in 86 years in 2004, died Sunday. He was 57.
The Red Sox announced his death, saying the cause was brain cancer.
“He not only captivated us on the field, but was the rare athlete whose legacy extended beyond the record books to the countless lives he touched with his warmth and genuine spirit,” said John W. Henry, principal owner of the Red Sox, statement in an interview.
In 2010, near the end of his career, Wakefield won Major League Baseball’s Roberto Clemente Award, which recognizes a player’s community and charitable work.
Wakefield was one of a small tribe of pitchers – including Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough and RA Dickey – who had long careers playing the knuckleball, which, when thrown correctly, has a slow, darting, fluttering path to home plate takes.
“It’s better to try to hit Wakefield when you’re drunk,” Jason Giambi, the longtime first baseman for the Oakland A’s and Yankees, told the New Yorker in 2004.
Wakefield was deeply entrenched in the heated rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees. During the 2003 American League Championship Series, he gave up the game-winning home run in the 11th inning of Game 7 to Yankees third baseman Aaron Boone.
But a year later, when the two teams met again in the ALCS, Wakefield threw three innings of scoreless relief in extra innings in Game 5, setting up Boston for David Ortiz to score the game-winner in the bottom of the 14th.
“Last year was last year,” Wakefield told Boston Globe columnist Jackie MacMullan, adding, “I was just trying to keep us in the game as long as possible.”
The Red Sox won the Series (four straight wins) and then defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series, the team’s first since 1918.
Wakefield played 17 seasons with the Red Sox after two with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had a career record of 200-180 with a 4.41 earned run average. He ranks second with 186 career Red Sox wins, just behind Roger Clemens and Cy Young with 192.
Timothy Stephen Wakefield was born on August 2, 1966 in Melbourne, Florida.
He took a detour to become a knuckleballer. He was drafted by the Pirates as a first baseman in 1988, but didn’t show much hitting power. While playing with the Pirates’ Class A minor league team, coach Woody Huyke watched Wakefield throw knuckles that he thought were better than what ballplayers throw for fun.
Two days later, Huyke told the New Yorker: “We had an organizational meeting because, as you know, he was in the bubble as an infielder. I said, “Before you let him go, I’d like to see him on the mound because he’s got a good ankle.” So they kept him around. They told him, ‘Either you pitch or go home.'”
He was drafted by the Pirates in 1992, won eight of his nine decisions with a 2.15 ERA, and posted two complete victories in the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves (who won the series in seven games). But he began to struggle with the knuckleball, which led to a subpar 1993 season with Pittsburgh and poor results in the minors in 1994. The Pirates released him and the Red Sox signed him in early 1995.
In June of that season, Wakefield pitched a no-hitter in the eighth inning against the Oakland A’s, but a single by Stan Javier with one out negated the gem. Still, he won 4-1, using his knuckle on all but four of his 114 throws.
“Soon Tim Wakefield’s legions will be organized,” gushed Dan Shaughnessy, a Globe columnist. “They will sit together in the midfield stands and crack their knuckles between pitches. They will be the Loyal Order of the Knuckleheads.”
He had a 16-8 record with a 2.95 ERA that season, perhaps his best, and he remained with the Red Sox.
After retiring after the 2011 season, Wakefield and Dickey were featured in the documentary “Knuckleball!” (2012). Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, the film also focused on Niekro and Hough.
After the film’s release, Wakefield told The Newport Daily News that a young knuckleballer’s chances of being drafted by a major league team were nearly impossible because of the emphasis on a pitcher’s speed.
“They could sign him as a free agent,” he said. “There are always doubts because of the nature of the pitch and I felt like I had to prove myself year after year.”
He joined NESN in 2012 as an analyst for Red Sox games and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame four years later.
Last week, former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling revealed on his podcast that Wakefield and his wife Stacy had cancer. The Red Sox released a statement saying: “Unfortunately, this information was shared publicly without their permission.
“Their health is a deeply personal matter that they have had to keep private as they navigate treatment and work to combat this disease.”
In addition to his wife, Wakefield’s survivors include his children, Trevor and Brianna.
Wakefield said he learned to throw the knuckleball from his father.
“Dad comes home from work and I say, ‘Let’s play catch,'” he told the New Yorker. “He was tired and wanted to go inside. So the knuckleball was his way of tiring me out because I didn’t want to have to catch it – it went past me and I had to pick it up. It was a subtle way of Dad saying, ‘Time to go, let’s stop.'”