Column Stuff You Might Have Heard
Tim Wakefield shakes off slider sign

Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield decided to throw a knuckleball last night in the first inning, even though catcher Victor Martinez gave him the sign for a slider. "Yeah, I don't know how to throw a slider," said Wakefield. "So I shook it off and went with my knuckleball." Martinez said Wakefield didn't seem to get the joke. "I just wanted to remind him that he's not a real pitcher," said the catcher. "But, you know, in a light-hearted way. I'm a real baseball player. He's just a normal guy with a gimmick pitch." Wakefield said he actually did get the joke. "That's why I threw that knuckleball in the dirt and made him look like an idiot trying to stop it."