Boston Red Sox Alumni Remember Late Teammate Tim Wakefield in New Documentary: 'He Was My Friend'

Mar. 15, 2025

Tim Wakefield on Aug. 19, 2017.Photo:Adam Glanzman/Getty

Adam Glanzman/Getty

Wakefield’s efforts in many ways bookend the story presented in the documentary series. He was the pitcher on the mound for the Red Sox in the final game of the 2003 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees when then Yankees third baseman Aaron Boone hit a home run that sent New York to the World Series once again and prolonged Boston’s World Series drought.

“Wakey, every single game, put on his spikes. Every game,” Doug Mirabelli, 54, a former catcher who largely worked as Wakefield’s personal catcher between 2000 and 2007, says in the documentary. “If somebody called his name, he wanted to make sure he was ready to go out there and pitch.”

Tim Wakefield on Oct. 27, 2004.Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty

Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty

Mirabelli believes Wakefield would have been named the most valuable player of that 2003 playoff series, had the Red Sox ultimately won and advanced to that year’s World Series. “I think the thought was he let the whole Red Sox Nation down,” he says of Wakefield’s emotional reaction to losing that game. “That last pitch: Are you going to be remembered for that for the rest of your career? It was tough on him.”

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Wakefield, who pitched for Boston for all but two seasons of his 19-year MLB career, returned to the postseason with the Red Sox in 2004 and won pivotal games for the team as they finally beat the Yankees in that year’s ALCS and prevailed against the Saint Louis Cardinals to win the World Series.

Tim Wakefield on April 11, 2005.Ezra Shaw/Getty

Ezra Shaw/Getty

The documentary shows footage of Wakefield embracing teammate and friend Jason Varitek, the other Red Sox catcher, after they advanced to the 2004 World Series. Interviews that Mirabelli, Varitek and former Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon completed for the series were conducted after Wakefield’s death. “When you have teammates that are as close as we all have been, it’s tough,” Nixon, 50, says of Wakefield’s death.

“Wake, for me, was my first major league start. Played in the big leagues and I caught Wake. He just [exemplified] what it meant to wear this uniform,” Varitek, 52, who still works with the Red Sox as a coach, states in the series' final episode.

“He was my friend,” he adds..

The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Soxis now streaming on Netflix.

source: people.com