I know Jayson Stark’s ESPN column is more “interesting trivia” than deep baseball analysis, but he’s got lots of stuff on the Sox this week that I thought was interesting, especially the stuff on Tim Wakefield:
Wakefield was believed to be the first pure knuckleballer to start any World Series game since World War II. The Niekro brothers, Charlie Hough, Tom Candiotti, Wilbur Wood and Hoyt Wilhelm combined for zero World Series starts. (Link)
That’s a lot of talent that didn’t start a World Series. Good to see Wakefield keeping the knuckleball flag flying. Stark also notes that Wake is the first pitcher who hadn’t started a game in either the DS or CS to start Game 1 of a World Series (thanks to his emergency relief role in Game 3 of the ALCS). I guess that’s a testament to the talent in the Sox rotation. Pity he lost the strike zone in the middle of the game.