Slow, steady Wakefield is carving out his place in Red Sox history

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At age 42, Boston's Tim Wakefield is 10-3 with a 4.18 ERA. AP

It is fitting that Tim Wakefield throws the slowest pitch in baseball, because no major leaguer better represents the Tortoise. Slowly and surely, one knuckleball at a time, Wakefield has become, perhaps, the most unlikely legend in Red Sox history.

And, on Friday night, the Tortoise will pass the Rocket. Then on Sunday -- at age 42 -- he may finally reach the Stars.

"Not bad for a guy who didn't make it as a minor league infielder and was waived by the Pirates," says Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon, a former Red Sox teammate of Wakefield.

Not bad at all. In fact, it actually is pretty darn good. Wakefield will take his warmups against the Mariners and sometime around 7:10 p.m. ET Friday he will throw his first pitch. Those in attendance at Fenway Park will probably stand and cheer that simple act, a fluttering 70 mph pitch delivered to Ichiro Suzuki.

The cheers will not be for the pitch. But for all the pitches that Wakefield has thrown as a Red Sox and all the batters he has faced and all that he has meant as a key figure in the transition from cursed team to two-time champion.

Suzuki will represent the 11,525th hitter to step into the box against Wakefield since he joined the Red Sox on a minor league contract in April 1995, six days after the Pirates could tolerate his wildness no more and released him. That pitch will begin Wakefield's 383rd start for Boston, breaking a tie with Roger Clemens and moving Wakefield into sole possession of first place on the franchise's all-time list and a little bit more into the hearts of Red Sox Nation.

"It is really impressive," Boston GM Theo Epstein says. "Sometimes it takes these milestones for Wake to get his due, because people, including us, are quick to take his contributions for granted."

And this might just be the beginning of an unforgettable Independence Day weekend for Wakefield. On Sunday the All-Star teams will be announced, and Wakefield is a borderline candidate. He is tied for the AL lead in wins at 10-3, but his ERA is 4.18 and the AL is loaded with excellent rotation candidates, including Kansas City's Zack Greinke, Detroit's Edwin Jackson, Seattle's Felix Hernandez, Toronto's Roy Halladay, Cleveland's Cliff Lee, the Angels' Jered Weaver and Wakefield's Boston teammate Josh Beckett.

But Wakefield might be helped by having a great story attached, one that's naturally tied to his persistence. If named to the AL team, Wakefield -- a month shy of his 43rd birthday -- would become the second-oldest player ever selected to his first major league All-Star Game. He would fall only behind Satchel Paige, who was named to the 1952 AL team for an All-Star Game that would be played one day after Paige's 46th birthday.

"I am pulling for him bad," says Alex Cora, a Mets' infielder and former teammate of Wakefield's. "This would not be a gift. He would have earned this. Besides, if they are scared of ever having a tie again, they should have no worries with him, Wake can pitch all night."

Wakefield has endeared himself to his teammates and his fan base. He was a failed infielder in Pittsburgh who learned the knuckleball to survive in pro ball. He had meteoric success in the early 1990s with the Pirates, only to fall backward just as quickly.

He was a surprise blessing who helped the 1995 Red Sox win the AL East and was furious when the organization left him off the ALCS roster in 1999, a year in which without rancor he went from starter to closer (when Tom Gordon got hurt) and then back to the rotation. He was probably going to be named the 2003 ALCS MVP until his first pitch of the 11th inning of Game 7, which Aaron Boone hit out to win the pennant for the Yankees.

But Wakefield is the Tortoise. And slowly and surely he kept inching forward, moving deeper and deeper into the Red Sox history books and the goodwill of a fan base.