Tim Wakefield

 

I am no Red Sox fan - may the baseball gods kindly grant them another 86 year championship drought - but I was a fan of Tim Wakefield. 

Originally an eighth round draft choice by Pittsburgh as a position player, he learned to throw a knuckleball when told he would never make the bigs with his bat. 

Despite a strong showing on the mound for the Pirates in their ill-fated 1992 playoff run, Wakefield began to struggle the next year. After being released by the Pirates, he was picked up by Boston, where he would retire 17 years later, the longest tenured player on the team and the oldest active player in the major leagues. 

During his career, he recorded 200 career victories, won two rings, threw more innings than any Red Sox pitcher in history, won the second-most games at Fenway in history, and notched the third-most career wins of anyone in a Red Sox uniform, trailing only Roger Clemens and the immortal Cy Young. 

And by all accounts, he did it while being a pretty darn good human being. 

Wakefield died today of cancer at the age of 57. 

RIP Tim, RIP.