The NFL season starts on Thursday with the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings facing the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints in a rematch of last year's NFC Championship Game.
While the Vikings went through most of the summer wondering if Favre would return for yet another season, was there really ever any doubt he was going to come back after yet another off-season of 'Will he or won't he?' speculation?
Yes, Favre has his consecutive-games streak going and he's the all-time leader in touchdown passes and other categories, but let's not forget his INT's that cost the Packers several playoff games (including a 6-pick classic in St. Louis and the OT-loss in his final game with Green Bay), cost the Jets a playoff spot after an 8-3 beginning, and last year's NFC title game against the Saints with the Vikings vying for a game-winning field goal in the dying moments of the fourth quarter.
I've talked about Favre so much that I'm not going to bother getting into his horrendous postseason performances. Instead, I'm going to focus on another old-timer whose longevity--not his greatness--is allowing him to continue picking up milestone numbers.
That's none other than Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield.
He was giving a rare start on Wednesday night, and he beat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-5 despite a shaky performance.
In the 44-year-old knuckleball pitcher's case, he became the oldest pitcher to be credited with a victory for the Red Sox, breaking Dennis Eckersley's record. (Eck was 43 when he got his final win for Boston in 1998.)
He now has 179 career wins for Boston, 13 behind the Red Sox club record of 192 shared by Roger Clemens and Cy Young.
Wakefield, in his 16th season with Boston, wants the Red Sox wins record. "Hopefully I get an opportunity to try and do that," he told reporters. "I know how important that is to me" (Source: 44-year-old Wakefield Oldest to Win for Red Sox, Yahoo! Sports).
Well, well, well. Here we have another athlete who is hanging around for the wrong reason. The Red Sox are in third place in the AL East, nine games behind first-place New York and 6.5 games back of the wild-card leading Rays. Boston isn't going to the playoffs this season.
Whose fault is it? Yes, you can blame injuries. You can blame Josh Beckett's ineffectiveness. You can blame Dice-K.
But look at Wakefield's numbers a bit closer:
4 wins, 10 losses, and an ugly ERA of 5.26. In his 18 starts, the Red Sox are 6-12, and his ERA is 5.56. When he has appeared in a game, they are 7-22. In the first two months of the season, he was 1-4 with a 6.02 ERA in 12 games (eight starts). In his 10 losses, his ERA is 8.34 in 10 games (nine starts). At Fenway, his record is 2-6 with a 5.91 ERA.
On August 13th, the Red Sox blew a huge 8-2 lead, and the game went into extra innings. He was brought into the game to start the 11th, threw one pitch, which Nelson Cruz hit over the fence in deep left, and the Red Sox lost.
If Wakefield even pitched decent at all this season, perhaps Boston wouldn't be 6.5 games back in the wild card race. And he's hanging around so he can get that record. Nice.
Wakefield's pitching line vs Tampa Bay:
5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO.
W, 4-10; season ERA: 5.26.
Boxscore:
T.B. 130 100 000 - 5 8 1
BOS 022 031 30x - 11 17 1
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