I think you all know how I feel about Tim Wakefield. He's been a part of the Red Sox since I was five years old. I literally cannot remember a Red Sox team without Wake tossing the knuckler.
But it was time. Tim had a terrible second half last year, going 2-5 post All Star break, and he only won 4 games in 2010, with 10 losses. However, Wakefield has been well worth the few stinkers over the last few years, as he's been instrumental for seventeen.
Wake has been a starter, a middle-reliever, a mop-up guy, and even a closer, stepping up whenever the team was in need, and even last year's excruciating climb to 200 career wins doesn't begin to negate that kind of dedication.
In 2003, we all cried with Timmy at the end of the ALCS in New York, and then we celebrated harder than ever before just a year later when the Sox won it all in 2004. In 2007, Wakey won a career high seventeen games and helped the Sox to their second title in just three years. In 2009, Wake won 11 games before the All Star break, and was named an MLB All Star for the first and only time in his long career.
Tim Wakefield will be announcing his retirement this evening at 5PM at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers. Wake probably could have caught on with a team in the National League, but he's retiring as a Red Sox, and for that I tip my cap to him.
Happy trails, Wake - nineteen years in the majors, and seventeen with the Sox, it's been a good run, and it's time to say goodbye. Kudos to you for recognizing that time.
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