The tale is part of Red Sox lore. Wakefield ran off a 14-1 record with a 1.65 ERA, a stunning span that had him among the Cy Young candidates. Picked up after being released by the Pirates, at a time when he figured his baseball career was over, Wakefield joined the Sox’ rotation May 27, and had one of the best stretches in baseball history with the most unpredictable of pitches.
So, why wasn’t he named to the All-Star team that season?
Buck Showalter, the former Yankees manager who skippered the American League squad in 1995, apologizes. He can’t quite remember. He asks, like Wakefield does, what the knuckleballer’s record was at the date of the selections. It was 5-1, with a 1.61 ERA in eight starts.
“OK,’’ Showalter said. “It wasn’t like some unbelievable slight. That makes me feel better.’’
And yet, no one has chosen him since. As Wakefield has piled up wins - he sits at 188 - he slowly and steadily has inserted his name with other, more glorified names. He never will be mentioned with the all-time greats, but his numbers suggest a career that has gone from respectable to excellent in many facets.
Among those who played their entire careers post-1933, when the first All-Star Game took place, Wakefield has the most wins without ever having been named an All-Star. And even among those who played the majority of their years in the All-Star era, only one player has more wins without an appearance in the game, Freddie Fitzsimmons, who had 217 from 1925 to 1943.
“It not only resurrected his career,’’ said Erik Hanson, the Sox pitcher that Showalter did select that year. “People know you can have a lot of longevity if you have a knuckleball going, but what Wake has done is indescribable, in my mind. To be with one organization for that long, and to pass Roger [Clemens] for the most starts in Red Sox history is quite a feat. He’ll probably go to the Red Sox Hall of Fame, and I don’t think anyone would have predicted that when we signed him from the scrap heap.
“If you saw that, you are two legs up on Nostradamus.’’
Fierce competition
