Knuckleballer Wakefield retires at 45 Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, whose elusive knuckleball throws baffled batters for nearly two decades, announced his Major League Baseball retirement on Friday. Wakefield's 200th career triumph, achieved last September at Fenway Park, proved to be his last in a 19-season career that began with Pittsburgh in 1992 and 1993 and continued for the past 17 years with the Red Sox. Wakefield went 200-180 with a 4.41 career earned-run average, striking out 2,156 batters in 3,226 innings. His 186 victories with the Red Sox are six shy of the team record set by Cy Young and matched by Roger Clemens. After joining the Red Sox in 1995, Wakefield won 14 of his first 15 decisions and helped Boston capture the American League East division crown. Wakefield helped the Red Sox capture their first World Series title in 86 years in 2004, hurling three scoreless relief innings to collect a victory in a 14-inning fifth game of the American League Championship Series. Boston won games six and seven as well to became the first club in Major League Baseball history to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games. Wakefield won 17 games in 2007 when the Red Sox won another World Series crown, sweeping Colorado to claim the title. In recent years, Wakefield served as a reliever and started at times for the Red Sox, who had no specific plans for him in the 2012 campaign.