Two Legendary Red Sox Exit the Stage

A few thoughts on Tim Wakefield and Terry Francona.

Photo by Wei Zeng on Unsplash

Baseball’s 2023 regular season ended on Sunday, and for my team the Red Sox it was an embarrassing end to what initially seemed like a promising season. After seeming poised for playoff contention at the end of July, the team treaded water in August and imploded in September, leading to the firing of chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. While ownership bears the ultimate blame, the decision was unsurprising. In the five seasons since winning the 2018 World Series, the Red Sox have only appeared in the playoffs once.

The mediocre 2023 team makes one nostalgic for the great teams of yesteryear, like the 2004 Red Sox team that snapped the 86-year title drought. Unfortunately, the passage of time is taking its toll on that team of legends.

News came out over the weekend that knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield passed away on October 1st at the age of 57.¹ In their statement the Red Sox noted, “Wake embodied true goodness; a devoted husband, father, and teammate, beloved broadcaster, and the ultimate community leader. He gave so much to the game and all of Red Sox Nation.” From NESN’s writeup:

After breaking into Major League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992, Wakefield joined the Red Sox organization in 1995 as a free agent. The knuckleballer went on to play the rest of his career in Boston, where he won two World Series championships and earned an American League All-Star appearance in 2009. Wakefield in 2010 also won the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to the big league player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.”

His loss devastated his former teammates, and it’s not hard to comprehend why. Wake was by all accounts a class act.

For fans like me, there was always a thrill to watching Wakefield pitch. It seemed impossible that his knuckleball, which he threw at about 70 miles per hour, could flummox the best hitters in the world. And yet, despite throwing one of the most erratic pitches ever conceived, Wakefield’s time with the Red Sox was a model of consistency. Year in and year out he would throw 200 innings of quality starting pitching.

Red Sox fans will always remember two moments from Wakefield’s career. The first, unfortunate memory is that Wakefield threw the pitch that Aaron F**king Boone hit into the left field bleachers in extra innings of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.

That could have relegated Wakefield to be the Bob Stanley of the 21st century. Fortunately, the Red Sox and Yankees met in the ALCS again in the 2004 ALCS, and Wakefield was able to write another act. When the Yankees were blowing out the Red Sox in Game 3, already down 0-2, it was Wakefield who volunteered to pitch in mop-up duty to save the rest of the bullpen for Game 4 and beyond. For the rest of that ALCS Wakefield was a relief pitcher. Instead of serving up home runs, Wake kept Yankee hitters — and his own catcher — off balance with that floating knuckler:²

Of course, a big reason reason Wakefield was in a position to rewrite his Red Sox legacy was because his manager was able to guide the team back from down 0-3 to the Yankees. Which brings us to Terry Francona.

Because the Cleveland Guardians did not advance to the playoffs this year, last Wednesday was Francona’s last home game as a Major League Baseball manager. He announced his retirement after the season ended because he did not want the focus to be on him during the season. Francona acknowledged, however, that it was “the worst kept secret ever.”

In their last home game Guardian fans bid him a fond farewell to Francona:

Francona managed the Phillies and the Red Sox prior to the Guardians. In Boston, he led the Red Sox to World Series victories in 2004 and 2007. The 2004 win was particularly sweet:

As the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham reported, Francona’s bona fides to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame are pretty impeccable:

Francona will leave the Guardians with the most victories in franchise history and six playoff appearances in his 11 seasons.

Joe Cronin holds the Red Sox record with 1,071 victories, but Francona has to be considered the greatest manager in franchise history for his role in the historic 2004 championship and how adeptly he managed such outsized personalities as David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia, and Curt Schilling during his eight seasons….

It’s hard to imagine Francona not being elected right away. He’s 13th all time in victories, and every manager with more is already in the Hall outside of Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy, who are still active.

It goes beyond wins and losses. Francona was one of the first managers to incorporate analytics into his decision making and is at the root of a flourishing coaching tree that includes Cash, Cora, Dave Roberts, and five other current managers who either played or coached under him.

As a Red Sox fan, what impressed me the most about Francona was his ability to communicate with his players and with the media.³ His post-game press conferences were models of clarity; he would always take pains to be precise in his explanations. This helped him avoid an awful lot of land mines that have felled other Boston managers and coaches.

Francona was also a smart on-the-field tactician. For my money his finest year as a manager was when he shepherded Cleveland to Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. If talent was the only thing that mattered, the Chicago Cubs should have swept Cleveland. Francona maximized the use of his best assets, however, sending in his relief corps far earlier in the game than any manager had done before in the playoffs. In doing so, he put his team in the best position to win. One can argue that every MLB playoff manager since has copied Francona’s best practices. That's the sign of a true innovator.

Francona has suffered from poor health, and hopefully he will enjoy a long and healthy retirement. I hope he goes into the broadcast booth once he is on the mend; baseball will be poorer without his involvement.

1. There’s a minor controversy about Curt Schilling sharing information about Wakefield’s illness without the family’s consent. As with all things regarding Curt Schilling nowadays, that it a tactless act of stupidity best relegated to a footnote and then never discussed again.

2. Catching a knuckleball is so difficult that for most of Wakefield’s tenure that task was given to the Red Sox backup catcher Doug Mirabelli. One of the most stressful aspects of Wakefield’s appearances during the 2004 ALCS was watching Jason Varitek try to catch the knuckleball. I could be wrong, but I think the experience to traumatized Varitek that he never caught Wakefield again.

3. Francona also loved his players. The way he congratulated Jon Lester after his 2008 no-hitter says it all.