FORT MYERS, Fla. — Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim
Wakefield feels healthy entering the 2010 season. And that is a big improvement
on how he ended last year.
He made his first All-Star team last year in his 17th
major league season. He became the oldest first-time All-Star at 42.
But he struggled with injuries and was limited to just
four starts after the break, finishing the season 11-5 with a 4.58 ERA. He was
not on the Red Sox ALDS roster and had surgery to repair a herniated disc in his
back after the season.
Wakefield will start the team's exhibition finale on
Saturday against the Nationals in Washington, D.C. He is scheduled to make his
season debut April 9 in Kansas City.
The Red Sox started the spring with six potential
starting pitchers for the five-man rotation.
Appearing to be the odd man out, Wakefield stressed
patience early on. His years of experience told him that not every pitcher makes
it through spring training healthy. He was right.
He will be followed on Saturday by Daisuke Matsuzaka,
whose spring has been slowed by back and neck ailments.
"You always want to end spring training healthy and go
into the season ready to go," Wakefield said. "We'll see what happens from
here."
Wakefield, who turns 44 in August, is not surprised by
how good he feels now.
"I knew I'd feel this good," he said. "Not immediately,
but I knew I'd feel this good maybe two to three weeks coming into spring
training."
Feeling good, though, isn't his only objective.
"That's not my motivation to do well," he said.
"Obviously, I want to try to win another World Series here. I know I'm older and
close to the end of my career. But I also have goals. I want to get to 200 wins.
And try to get 18 wins in the next two years, hopefully. That's kind of on the
back burner. My main goal is to win another World Series. Last year was a little
bitter after getting swept by Anaheim (in the ALDS). We'll see."
Wakefield is 11 wins from 200 for his career. He is 21
strikeouts away from 2,000 for his career. And those 18 wins represent a Boston
milestone. He has 175 wins for the Red Sox. Cy Young and Roger Clemens hold the
team record with 192 wins. Wakefield knows the importance of that mark.
"I'm not going to say it's the most important thing on
my plate right now, but it's important," he said. "Obviously, it's something you
strive for. If you play the game for a long time, you have goals. It would be
really awesome if I could accomplish that. But that's not going to dictate who I
am."
Still being mentioned in the same conversation as Cy
Young and Roger Clemens is pretty special for the Sox's longest-tenured player,
who joined the team as a free agent in 1995.
"It's pretty special," he said. "Those two guys names,
how many games did Babe Ruth win? I don't think it was very many because he was
only there for a couple of years, right?"
Wakefield is right. Ruth had 94 career wins, 89 in his
six years with the Red Sox. Wakefield would settle for a tie with Young and
Clemens.
"Either way, it doesn't matter," he said, laughing. "I'd
like to have it on my own, but if that's where I end up, that's where I end up."