Watching the games this weekend was very disappointing. It’s unacceptable to lose two of three to the lowly Mariners especially when both loses were tied going into the 9th inning. Listening to Don and The Mayor was a new experience though. Since Eck was busy doing TBS junk (by definition, if something is on TBS, it’s junk) and Dave Roberts was (I guess) busy, we go Sean Casey to fill in.

Casey had a number of great anecdotes. As a big fan of the team, I feel like Casey gave viewers couple of great, and most importantly honest, nuggets about what it was like being in the clubhouse on the 2008 team. In general though, if you turned on the game when Casey was speaking you had a 90% chance of hearing one of the following two things:

1) Casey laughing/giggling uncontrollably
2) “He didn’t try to do too much…”

Every time a Sox player got a hit, whether it be a home run, a clean single or a seeing-eye single Casey told us the reason was that “he didn’t try to do too much…” After losing the first two games, I kind of wish the Sox did try to do a bit more (I’m looking in your direction Ramirez and Saito). However, it does seem like the perfect motto for Tim Wakefield.

Wake made his 383rd start in a Red Sox uniform on Friday night, which makes him the all-time leader in starts for a Sox pitcher. Ignore the number for a moment and just think about the idea that in the 108 years of the franchise, Wakefield has now made more starts than every other pitcher to put on a Sox uniform. If you’re not impressed yet, then remember that for the first 60 or so years, most teams employed a four-man rotation, not a five-man. (With a 152 game season, a pitcher would still get an average of five more starts per season.) Wake never had that benefit. Still not inspired? Then how about the reserve clause? For the Sox’s first 75 years there was no such thing as free agency. So if you signed a young Nolan Ryan, it meant that he would make every start of his career for your team. But in this era of free agency, five-man rotations, and even a stint as a closer, Wakefield now stands alone as the Sox pitcher to throw the first pitch the most. It’s great to see somebody who loves the Sox as much as we all do to get that honor. No insult to Cy Young, but do you think he would have essentially signed a reserve-clause like contract if he had the opportunity? I kinda doubt it. If you need a face of the franchise, it’s not Papi or Youks or Beckett, without question (and now with the numbers to prove it), it’s Tim Wakefield. Congrats Tim, you never tried to do too much and look at where you are now.

Luckily, other people, including Joe Maddon, have apparently noticed what Wakefield has done for this franchise, and gave him the “lifetime achievement” all-star game roster spot. It only took 17 seasons, 383 starts and another 137 games coming out of the bullpen to get the honor of having to ask Pedey what to wear to the all star events. (I really hope that Pedey tells him to wear plaid pants with a hawaiian shirt.) I’d love to get to watch the game with Stud Who GIDPs, Bard and Kottaras as they get to watch Victor Martinez try to catch the knuckleball.