When members of the 2004 Red Sox gather at Fenway Park on Tuesday to honor the 20th anniversary of their historic win, one player’s absence will be keenly, painfully felt.
The sudden, heartbreaking loss of Tim Wakefield to brain cancer on October 1, the final day of the '23 Red Sox season, is still raw and unfathomable for his loved ones and fans. And it will be noticeable at the home opener, when the beloved knuckleballer-turned-broadcaster isn’t part of the festivities for the first time in nearly three decades.
In recent days, the first World Series champions this city had in 86 years have poured into the city, eager to make the most of the time together and honor their beloved teammate and his wife, Stacy, who passed away after battling a different kind of cancer at the end of February.
Being together when they’ll never truly be together again is the kind of emotional wound that never truly heals, the reunion has been joyful, too. 'It was supposed to be a quiet night last night, around four o’clock I think we tucked it in,' revealed Derek Lowe at the Foundation To Be Named Later’s '04 roundtable event benefitting its Gammons Scholars Program and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s Strike 3 Foundation. 'A lot of these guys I haven’t seen in 10 years.'
For Theo Epstein, who was the youngest general manager in MLB history and is now back in Boston as a part-owner with Fenway Sports Group, the best part of this week is what goes on behind the scenes. 'The informal moments,' he said with a smile, 'the late-night suite and when the good stories come out, the unfiltered stories, seeing the chemistry between guys that’s still in effect 20 years later, the affection the guys have for each other… those moments when no one’s looking and you can see those friendships are still alive.'
'Story time, man. You sit around and tell stories, it seems like a long time ago,' Lowe said. 'A lot of talk about Wake. Obviously, we all miss him and how much he would love this.'
'The Wake thing is probably the thing that is front and center in all our minds right now, as it should be,' agreed longtime Sox manager Terry Francona. 'We’ll certainly spend time, as we should, toasting them.'
'Good memories and sad memories,' Manny Ramirez said. 'The good memory is we won two championships, I met my wife in Boston, and (the sad is) we lost Tim.'
'It’s a very difficult, heavy time for everyone at the Red Sox,' said Theo Epstein, who was the club’s general manager in 2004 and returned earlier this year as a part-owner with Fenway Sports Group. 'And those losses, people who helped define what it means to be a Red Sock on the field and off the field.'
Fenway won’t be the same without Wakefield. The '04 team, those lovable, confounding, heroic 'Idiots' are not the same without their teammate, who was so much more than that: a friend, role model, their brother.
'He was extremely tough when I was a rookie, hard on us,' Lowe recalled. 'But the biggest thing for me is what he did off the field. He did so much for charity, didn’t ask for the cameras to show up, did it for the right reasons.'
Orlando Cabrera put on a baseball cap with the number 49 at the event on Monday. Like several of his teammates have said in the past six months, he agreed that it's difficult to believe Wakefield is no longer here.
“It’s just so devastating,” said the former infielder, who joined the 2004 Red Sox in the middle of the season. “For that to happen to such an amazing guy, it’s just, I don’t know. I don’t want to say the wrong thing about the beliefs of anybody but he’s just not the right person to die, you know, to get (cancer).”
Wakefield was the heart and soul of the Sox, a dedicated humanitarian who worked hard to enhance the lives of everyone around him and motivated David Ortiz and many others to follow in his footsteps.
“He was a Red Sock,” said Lowe. “He played his whole career here, which I think a lot of us wish we could.”
“The way he was every day,” Cabrera said. “The way he was on the field, off the field, the things that he taught you how to become, such an impact.”
That’s why in many ways, Wakefield will be everywhere at Fenway on Tuesday. He lives on in the hearts of his family, friends, and fans. This year’s team will carry him with them in the heart-shaped ’49’ patches on their jersey sleeves.
