But of such moments are memories made? For mom and dad, of course. For young Trevor? "He was 5 months old at the time and didn't see anything," Tim Wakefield said with a smile. "He slept the whole time he was there."
Wakefield this spring begins his 11th season with the Sox, and it's well-covered territory that he easily has the longest tenure of anyone on the team, outlasting Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, Jimy Williams, Joe Kerrigan, John Harrington, Dan Duquette, and Pedro Martinez, among others.
He also is in the last year of the three-year, $13 million contract he signed with the club in November 2002, and turns 39 in August. Talks are quietly going on between team and player about a new extension, taking him through another two or three years. Maybe it will get done this spring. If not, the pitcher is content to wait until afterward. After all, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Sox management -- including the notably unsentimental Larry Lucchino -- who isn't on record as saying they'd like Wakefield to finish his career with the Sox.
To the Sox, Wakefield is just one of those gifts who keep on giving -- another dozen wins and 30 starts last season for the stat-minded, who should also know that with another 10 wins this season, Wakefield will vault to third place on the team's list, trailing only a guy named Cy Young and a guy (Clemens) who has won more of Cy Young's awards than any pitcher, living or dead.
But his value to the club is measured in so many other meaningful ways, on and off the field. We'll give you two. Game 3 of the ALCS, Wakefield pitches 3 1/3 innings of relief in a 19-8 blowout loss to the Bombers that costs him a scheduled start in Game 4 but saves the bullpen to live another day.
"We had to get through that night before we could play the next night," he said yesterday. "When you're in the heat of the moment, you try to do what you think is the right thing to do."
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