He was baseball's grand old man, oldest current major league player, and one of the oldest ever to play the game. It is well known that Tim Wakefield would have gladly continued pitching year after year for the Sox, well into old age. But when the Red Sox finally decided to part ways with Old Man Wake, the crafty knuckleballer stepped down.
"Now it is time to move on to my next career," a tearful Wakefield told Red Sox Nation. "I don't know yet what that career will be, but I promise that I will not stay on that job until I reach an age where I have to put an organization through the agonizing process of having to force me out, creating a potential public relations nightmare that makes everyone involved excrusiatingly uncomfortable."
Wakefield said he feels so strongly about this decision, that he is setting a pre-determined retirement date for his next job. "By the time I reach 100, it will be time for me to sit back and enjoy life, play with my great, great, grandchildren, and smell the roses."
When John Henry was asked if Wakefield might be hired by the Red Sox front office, he smiled malevolently. "Sure, why not, might help us in the short term. When he's 100, I'll be dead, and it''l be up to someone else to try to convince the old goat to walk away.
Read an old COTGM post on Wakefield.
