Friday, August 19, 2011

Gheorghe: the Jinx

We'd like to apologize. Exhaustive research by our team of sabremetricians has concluded that Gheorghe: the Blog has been contributing to Tim Wakefield's difficulty in securing his 200th career victory. See, we've had this post on ice since late July when Wake went 6 2/3 innings to beat the Mariners and record the 199th win of his 20-year big league adventure. (The fact that he gave up 10 hits and 7 earned runs in beating the M's is entirely fitting.) It appears that our premature postulation has stalled the knuckleballer's pursuit of the milestone, as he's failed to post a win in 4 starts since we drafted it, despite pitching into the the 7th inning or beyond in each of those outings.

Our bad.

Because accountability is one of the hallmarks of our editorial policy (it's the reason our ratings are outpacing those of the mainstream media by such a wide margin), we're here to rectify our error by posting in celebration of Tim Wakefield's 199th career win. Enjoy, then.

Even if I gave ten guesses, I'd wager than far fewer than 25% of sports fans would correctly identify the active major league leader in pitching wins. (Note: if you've read the information above this paragraph you'd have a reasonably good chance at being in that savvy minority.) Veteran Red Sox hurler and all around prince of a guy Tim Wakefield recorded his 199th career victory on July 24, pitching into the 7th inning as the Sox pounded the Seattle Mariners, 12-8. Since he broke in with the Pirates in 1992, only ten pitchers have recorded more wins*, and most of those guys are going to the Hall of Fame.

While I've said some things about Wake that I probably regret in the heat of the cover-your-eyes-afraid-to-watch moment, he's in my top 5 favorite athletes of all-time. When the stars aligned and his feel was on, watching Wakefield confound a lineup of professional hitters with his low-effort flutterballs was to be in the presence of a low-fi virtuoso. And even when things weren't going to plan, Wake's outings offered comic relief, none more so than Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, when Jason Varitek allowed three knucklers to elude him in the top of the 13th inning before Wakefield eventually stranded Yankees on 2nd and 3rd base.

That 2004 season was special for Sox fans for so many reasons, but Wakefield's redemption was one of the best storylines. After Grady Little's inexplicable brain fart enabled the Yankees to tie the game, Wake surrended Aaron Boone's walk-off series winner. It seemed at the time impossibly cruel. And when the Sox won the World Series just one year later, I wrote the following despite the fact that Wakefield didn't pitch very well at all in that Series against the Cardinals:
Now, though, I'm thinking about Tim Wakefield. Of all the Sox on this team, all the magnificent idiots who will go down as legends, Tim Wakefield is the one for whom I'm happiest. His grief after last year's ALCS loss, after he stood on his head for 2 games before finally failing against Aaron Boone, was the single worst part of that series. That this guy who has been so unselfishly team-oriented for so long had to spend the last year agonizing over 1 pitch is cosmically unfair. That he now has a World Series ring is spectacular payback.
Wakefield is 7 wins away from tying the Texas Con Man and Cy Young for first place on the Red Sox' all-time wins list (and he's well ahead of the second guy on the Sox' all-time losses list). He's played every role possible on a pitching staff, glamorous and dirty alike, and played them each without complaint or self-aggrandizement. After being nominated more than a half-dozen times, he won the 2010 Roberto Clemente Award, given to the player who both excels on the field and gives back to his community. In an era and a business full of me-first assholes, all Wake ever did was show up every day, do his job the best way he knew how, take responsibility when he failed, praise his teammates when he succeeded, and go home without fanfare.

If there's truly a Baseball God, he'll let Wake hang on long enough to record 8 more W's. But if we're looking at the standings for the best human beings to wear the Olde Towne Team's uniform, I don't think we need to go very far down the list to get to Tim Wakefield.
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*Here are the ten pitchers to record more wins than Wakefield since 1992:

Greg Maddux (280)
Mike Mussina (266)
Randy Johnson (259)
Tom Glavine (252)
Andy Pettitte (240)
Jamie Moyer (233)
Roger Clemens (220)
Pedro Martinez (219)
Curt Schilling (212)

40 comments:

zman said...

Boston sucks. Well done otherwise.

Dave said...

is cy young's win record unattainable?

Jerry said...

Wakefield is so old that...

...I remember putting in a free agent bid for him in a mail-based fantasy league that me and two HS friends of mine signed up for based on an ad in the back of the Sporting News.

I also remember taking a call during dinner from some guy in Michigan who wanted to discuss a trade for Rob Deer.

jerome said...

Tim played ball in Buffalo (for the minor league Bisons). So, he's been jinxed for years.

rob said...

cy young's total win tally of 514 is the most unassailable record in major professional sports. but he only won 193 of those with the sox.

TR said...

Cy Young only won 511 games.

rob said...

oh, in that case, he's a sitting duck

Squeaky said...

Mark, done.

Whitney said...

Mark, done.
Marmalard, done.
Niedermayer . . . done!

Whitney said...

Rob and I occasionally talk baseball over a couple of high-fallutin' beers, comparing our respective teams. (We even considered starting a blog to expand upon this juxtaposition.) The last decade or so of such talk has been one-sided and hugely annoying, frankly.

Similarly, comparing all-time records the two teams and their players possess has been a one-sided affair. That's what happens when one team is 110 years old and one is 49. As an example, the Straw is the Mets' all-time RBI leader with 733. This would place him tied for 13th in Boston.

Wins as a Red Sock vs. Wins as a Met, however, is one category where the Mets fare well. Tom Seaver's 198 wins as a Met are more than either Cy Young or the douche with 7 Cy Youngs for the Sox.

Here's to Timmy Wake making it a clean sweep and getting 200 wins as a member of the Sox. By all accounts, a great dude.

Not that any of this is all that significant, but hey, when you're drinking beers with Rob, you gotta talk about somethin'.

rob said...

chris drury retired from the nhl today. he played in the little league world series when i was in college. fuck.

Squeaky said...

This is why spotify can be cool.

Playlist of almost of the samples used by the Beastie Boys for Paul's Boutique.

http://goo.gl/a3I90

Go Nats.

rob said...

anyone seen the cover of the sports illy college football preview issue? trent richardson is jacked. gracious.

zman said...

Squeaky - Elegance has (yet another) mix. I'll try to figure out how to share on spotify.

I heard that it would cost over a million dollars to clear all the samples used in Paul's Boutique.

/Cliff Claven

rob said...

anyone want to go to the drew/goodman game tomorrow?

mayhugh said...

Charles Mann is a dreadful sideline reporter.

T.J. said...

rob, game is sold out.

T.J. said...

Mayhugh, Mann said earlier that a key to the game for Beck was "controlling his breathing".

mayhugh said...

The homer announcers have basically put the Redskins in the NFC championship. One of the awkward Mann questions to an almost-as-awkward Adam Carriker was "Are you going to have problems with your weight with all the rest the offense is giving you?"

zman said...

Breath control sty-lee, breath control alone!

zman said...

More entertaining are the mopes on the Bills message boards predicting 10-11 wins this year.

T.J. said...

Mann interviewing Tim Hightower right now...massive fail.

rob said...

teej, i have people efforting drew/goodman tix.

in an unrelated note, where's shlara?

rob said...

deecee will be insufferable this week

rob said...

'nobody's ever hurt themselves by hustling'

that's just stupid.

T.J. said...

rob, sorry, there are no villas in Tuscany.

Shlara said...

Hi guys! Just arrived in OBX for the family vacation. Looking forward to the report form the drew/good,an game. Hopefully less drama than that gtown game

mayhugh said...

It was pretty easy to see that Beck does go through his reads more quickly. He looked pretty decent, but I think the Colts are probably be a horrible football team right now.

T.J. said...

Rob, did you score Drew/Goodman tix?

rob said...

no, but i did get a haircut

rob said...

wake goes for #200 this evening. follow along at home.

Danimal said...

Anyone watching kids baseball? 1st 3 pitches = 1 ball to the head and 2 behind head. Mitch Williams' kid.

Squeaky said...

Just got sent a link to some knockout football pool from a neighbor. Total pool was 160K last year.$100 a pop. Don't know if I should wager the sons' college fund.

rob said...

i vote we do it as a team g:tb thing. we each give you $, then blog about our selections. wisdom of the crowds, and all that.

T.J. said...

Tuesday night I am doing a "Horrendous TV Show Draft" with some new twitter friends...I promised rob I will report on my picks and show reviews here at G:TB HQ.

rob said...

because i know you care, wake was just lifted after 5 1/3 with a 4-3 lead and a runner on second.

rob said...

and matt albers allows the tying run to score. g:tj remains in effect.

Squeaky said...

I'm up for a G:TB entry. Split the winnings.

We'll have to get the money to Zman. Delivery needs to be made in NYC.

rob said...

okay - zman, email your address to the assembled idiots. and jerry. i think it'll be important to have jerry in our syndicate.

zman said...

This smells like a set up. For what I'm not sure but I feel like I'm being set up.