Old Time Family Baseball

568 times as a Red Sox has Tim Wakefield heeded the call, stepped to the rubber, and 180 times he’s landed on heads. With injuries ravaging the starting rotation, and a day after the 1918 version of the team threw the ball around the infield like it was a disease-filled orb, Wakefield came through once again for the Boston Nine.

The 44-year-old statesman for all things wonderful about baseball, held the Cubs to two hits through the first six innings before his knuckleball stopped dancing long enough for the Chicago boys to lace two singles and knock in one run. Daniel Bard came in and stopped the bleeding by throwing the ball a full 30 mph faster than Wakefield, absolutely smoking the opposition. Wakefield’s final line: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K. Not bad for a guy some think is going to call it a career after this season.

Which we all know is a lie. Wakefield will be pitching long after we’re all dead, his knuckleball floating through the air endlessly, breathing life and hope into pitchers with nothing but a memory of the smell of smoke and a presumption that their eyes once watered.

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