The Knuckleballer: Tim Wakefield By Jerry Feitelberg July 20, 2010     The oldest player on the Red Sox roster is Tim Wakefield. Wakefield is almost 44 years old and has been in the big leagues since 1992 when he broke in with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After his rookie season, Wakefield was sent down to the minors. He returned to the Bigs in 1995 with the Red Sox and has been with the club ever since. What makes Wakefield unique is that he throws a knuckleball. There are very few pitchers that use the pitch in the big leagues today. Hoyt Wilhelm and Charlie Hough are just 2 players that had success with the pitch as well as Brothers Phil and Joe Niekro. The pitch is difficult to control as it is thrown using fingernails to grip the ball. The ball floats up to the plate and the pitcher just does not know where the ball is going. It can dive or sail. What is does is mess with a hitters timing. Big league hitters are able to hit balls coming at them at speeds from 80 to 98 miles an hour. Wakefield's pitches come in at speeds measured at 58 miles an hour up to 73 miles an hour. Catchers have problems with the pitch, too. Since they don’t know where the ball is going, they have a lot of passed balls when catching Wakefield. Sometimes the catchers use oversize gloves to catch the ball. Wakefield had his own personal catcher, Doug Mirabelli. Mirabelli went to San Diego and his replacement had so much trouble catching Wakefield that it caused the Red Sox to make a trade to get Mirabelli back. In his career with the Red Sox, Wakefield has won 178 games which places him 3rd for most wins by a Red sox hurler. Only Cy Young and Roger Clemens have more wins as they are tied with 192 games won. Wakefield has been a team player his entire career. He has done whatever was asked of him by the Red Sox. He would start or relieve and is totally professional in his approach to the game. How long will Wakefield play? At the moment, he seems to be ageless.

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