You remember the 12-1 Red Sox win over the California Angels on May 27, 1995, don't you?

Come on, who could forget? Luis Alicea had three hits, three RBI and three runs. Troy O'Leary (batting leadoff) also had three hits, and Mo Vaughn homered. 

(Big Mo hit third in the lineup that night in Anaheim. Fifty guesses as to who hit cleanup. All done? Mike Macfarlane. And what must be a totally unrelated note: Kevin Kennedy has only managed one season since.)

Nothing registering? OK, maybe at first glance it was just another game in what turned out to be just another season in the pre-2004 world of the Sox. 

But a closer look at the box score reveals this little factoid: Six pitchers (three for each team) pitched in the game. Five of those pitchers have not been active in the major leagues for a combined 65 years. 

Oh, the sixth guy? Tim Wakefield.

So while I'm sure things are swell in the lives of Derek Lilliquist (out of baseball since 1996), Ken Ryan (1999), Mike Bielecki (1997), Ken Edenfield (1996) and Mitch 'Wild Thing' Williams (1997), I can report with some level of certainty that none of these fellas will begin the 2010 season in the rotation of a team that should contend for a World Series.

But the marvel that is Tim Wakefield continues to chug along, just about at the pace of one of his 3-0 fastballs. 

Slow and steady.

Wakefield "absolutely" thinks he should be a part of the Red Sox rotation when the season opens, and why not? He has had a terrific spring training, capped with five scoreless innings on Saturday vs. the Orioles' split squaders. And with Daisuke Matsuzaka (back and neck) progressing slowly, there is little doubt that the 43-year-old knuckleballer will be occupying that fifth rotation spot. 

If the fact that Wakefield has made his way back into a speaking role surprises you at all, you simply haven't been paying attention for the last decade and a half. Since he made his debut with the Red Sox in that very game vs. the Angels in May of 1995 (7 IP, one run to pick up the first of what has been 175 wins with the club,) Wakefield has gone through every up and down possible in the life of a big league pitcher. 

The highest of highs? Sure, how about the 1995 season, when he came out of nowhere (signed as a free agent after being released by the Pirates) to go 16-8 with a 2.95 ERA and finish third in Cy Young voting (still the only Cy Young votes he has ever received.) The lowest of lows? Pick 'em. He's been left off of playoff rosters (the 1999 ALCS for one, and take a look at the 2007 World Series roster) and yanked from rotations. 

You could even argue that what would have been his highest high turned into his lowest low. Wakefield was brilliant in the 2003 ALCS vs. the Yankees, winning Games 1 and 4. If Grady Little doesn't pull a Grady Little, Wakefield likely is the MVP of that series. Instead, it's Wakefield who gives up the home run that allows Aaron Boone to have the first sentence of his obit taken care of.

When Wakefield walked off that mound at Yankee Stadium, he was 37 years old. It wasn't impossible to think, at the time, that he might be finished with the Red Sox. 

Seven years later, and he's the only pitcher from that roster still in Boston. A baseball survivor. He's the only player (either roster) still active from that game in Anaheim in 1995. What kind of odds would you have given me that night that he would be the last one standing?

And while Wakefield has battled injuries in each of the last two seasons, there is no question that Wakefield can still pitch. I suspect that if you asked every team in the majors if they would take an 11-5 record and a 4.58 ERA (Wakefield in 2009) from a fifth starter in 2010 all 30 teams would quickly nod in the affirmative. You think the Yankees wouldn't sign for that from Joba Chamberlain right now? And Wakefield is just a year removed from a season that saw him finish in the top six in both WHIP and hits per nine innings pitched. 

Wakefield is also the first knuckleball pitcher to pitch into his 40s during this era of increased fitness (among, uh, other stuff) and medical advancements. Guys today just look different as they enter the fifth decade. I mean, remember how old Carl Yastrzemski looked at 43, in his final season? How about Phil Niekro, who was a dead ringer for the dad on "The Waltons?" Which sort of leads to this: Could Wakefield pitch for another four or five years if he wanted to? What will really change? I'm sure he'll still know how to grip the knuckler, right? And will a 72 mph be a big difference from a 76 mph "heater"? 

There have, of course, been better pitchers in Red Sox history. The two men that Wakefield chases for the career franchise victory record -- Cy Young and Roger Clemens -- top that list. Figure at least six or eight more have to stand in front of Wakefield as well. But I can't think of a career that is more fascinating. Wakefield is in about Act 22 of his career in Boston, and the beauty of it is that I wouldn't be shocked if he was in the bullpen with a 6.42 ERA on June 1 and I wouldn't be shocked if he was 10-2 with a 2.26 ERA on June 1. And I could have written the same thing about Wakefield every year since 1996.

One of a kind.

And, for now at least, looking like one of five in the Red Sox rotation.