By all accounts Tim Wakefield is a more than decent person. He's kind. He's generous with both his time and his money. He's humble. He's thoughtful. He's unassuming, uncomplaining, and undemanding. If he had a boat, he'd probably take it out for the express purpose of searching out injured Floridian marine mammals so that he could rescue them and nurse them back to health in his backyard. We should all aspire to be Tim Wakefield when we grow up.
One person who does just that is Eri Yoshida. She's a tiny Japanese girl (5'0", 114 lbs.) who throws a knuckleball and was recently hired to pitch for a Japanese baseball team, the Kobe 9 Cruise. Whether they brought her on because of a genuine interest in her talent or as a publicity stunt to ignite interest in a fledgling baseball league remains to be seen. But perfectly gracious Wake had this to say in a text message he sent to, presumably, the Red Sox PR department.
"Hope I can see her pitch one day. I'm honored that someone wants to become me. I wish her the best of luck. Maybe I can learn something from her. It's funny that I've reached that point in my career that people want to emulate me. I'm glad I had people like the Niekros, Charlie Hough and Tom Candiotti that I could look up to. I am deeply humbled that it is me this time."
Sentiment aside, the image of Wake sitting on his back porch, hunched over a cellphone dwarfed by his massive hands, while laboriously typing his thoughtful message-because you know that he uses proper spelling, punctuation, and capitalization-instead of just calling amuses me. A lot.
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