Tim Wakefield, the knuckleballer for the Boston Red Sox, has died at the age of 57. The workhorse pitcher, who gave up a season-ending home run to the New York Yankees in 2003 only to help the team win the series the next year, succumbed to brain cancer.
The Red Sox announced his death in a statement Sunday. According to former teammate and friend Curt Schilling, Wakefield had brain cancer, though he hadn’t publicly revealed the illness, nor had the team confirmed the diagnosis.
In the team statement, Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said: “It’s one thing to be an outstanding athlete; it’s another to be an extraordinary human being. Tim was both. I know the world was made better because he was in it.”
The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Wakefield as a first baseman. He had set home run records in college but converted to pitcher in the minors. Wakefield learned the knuckleball from his father as a child and mastered the pitch leading to his conversion to pitcher.
The pitch, which is thrown using the fingernails, and pushed towards the plate using a pushing motion rather than a conventional throwing motion, is an exceedingly hard pitch to master, and Wakefield’s father spent countless hours teaching him as a child in Melbourne, Florida. Wakefield once said: “It was something to basically tire me out.”
Little did his father know it was the pitch that would propel his son to greatness. Since the pitch had been largely abandoned at the major league level since the 1970s, Wakefield was able to use the unpredictable offering to win 200 major league games. Wakefield finished his Red Sox career behind only the legendary Cy Young and Roger Clemens in wins.
Aside from being a master of the knuckler, Wakefield was also a pillar in the community and revered by his teammates. He won the Roberto Clemente Award for sportsmanship and community involvement in 2010 and was the Red Sox nominee seven other times. He was the team’s first Jimmy Fund captain, visiting with patients and raising funds for the childhood cancer charity, and the honorary chairman of the Red Sox Foundation.
Red Sox manager and former teammate Alex Cora said: “We lost a brother, a teammate, a family member. One of the best teammates I ever had. … Of all the guys I played with, nobody wore his jersey with more pride than Tim Wakefield.” The Pirates organization added: “He was a great man who will be dearly missed.”
Wakefield recalled his journey to the majors and his conversion to a pitcher in his memoir, “Knuckler: My Life with Baseball’s Most Confounding Pitch.” He said about the Pittsburgh Pirates: “But then, they basically told me, ‘You’re going to pitch or you’re going to go home.’ So I said, ‘OK, I’ll pitch.'”
It turned out to be a successful decision, and Tim Wakefield made a lasting impact on baseball as a player and person. Friend and former teammate David Ortiz said: “I can’t describe what you mean to me and my family,” Ortiz posted on social media. “My heart is broken right now because l will never be able to replace a brother and a friend like you….Rest and peace my brother.”
Perhaps the last of the knuckleballers, Tim Wakebe remembered as a great teammate, a good person, and a great pitcher. Best wishes to his family during this hard time.
Featured image screen grab from embedded YouTube video
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