Wakefield walks away

Farewell to the flutterball.
Tim Wakefield retires after 19 seasons.

Are there any knuckleballers still in the bigs?

 

Tim Wakefield: Hall of Famer?

 

R.A. Dickey is the last man standing, unless Charlie Haeger finds a job.

 

There he goes off into the sunset ... at 63 miles per hour.

 

Dammit, I really wanted to see him pitch to age 50. He only made it to 45.

 

quitter

 

An honorable career, and an odd one. Even though all knuckleball pitchers are erratic and wind up at .500, nobody alternated unhittable with unwatchably horrid as often and as violently as Wakefield did.

 

Dickey's a remarkable story...and I'm surprised other head-case pitchers haven't followed his lead, in learning the knuckler late-in-life and resurrecting a career in the process.

 

That's a great quick look at his whole career.

I had the thought at the time, and always have, that once the Pirates took a 12-1 lead on the Braves in 1992 Game 6, they should have gotten him out of there to have him available for Game 7 instead of letting him throw the complete game.

 

Perils of the knuckleball, I suppose.... Baseball will miss Tim, though, so I hope he sticks around in some capacity. Guys have learned a lot about professionalism by watching the way he handles himself on and off the field. He's a guy who genuinely cares and has great perspective.

 

Somewhere, Steve Sparks stares at the ground, forlorn.

 

Tim Wakefield: The Hall of Very Durable.