Former Red Sox Tim Wakefield to receive RFK award
COCOA BEACH — Despite pitching 17 years for Boston and helping the Red Sox win a couple of World Series, Tim Wakefield has never met any of the Kennedy family. That's about to change in a big way.
"I'm looking forward to it," the Brevard County native said. "Their name is so big in Boston."
When it came time to pick a winner of an award named after Robert F. Kennedy, Wakefield made history. He was named the Roberto Clemente Award winner in 2010, which goes to one major league baseball player a year for their contributions off the field. He's the first Red Sox player to ever win both the Clemente and the Robert F. Kennedy Award and will be honored June 5.
During Wakefield's pro baseball career, he's helped raise millions of dollars. A two-time member of Red Sox clubs that won the World Series, he still found time to host charity events across the country, made too many trips to count to the Franciscan Hospital for Children and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to meet with patients, spent time with kids from the Jimmy Fund Clinic during their trips to spring training, and participated in telethons for the charity. He also helped raise funds for a synthetic baseball field (called "Wake Field") and the remodeling of family visitation rooms in the adolescent inpatient mental health unit at the Franciscan Hospital.
In 1998, he started the "Wakefield Warriors" program, through which patients from Dana-Farber and Franciscan Hospital spent time with him and watched batting practice before every single Tuesday night game played at Fenway Park. And as has been well documented in Brevard County, he played a major role in helping save the Space Coast Early Intervention Center, holding an annual golf tournament to raise money since 1992.
"Tim understands that every child should have an opportunity to reach their full potential," said Edward Kelley, CEO of Robert F. Kennedy's Children Action Corps. "He is the first to help any cause focused on improving the lives of children, the very premise by which Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps was established."
Wakefield works as a studio analyst for NESN, which televises Red Sox games and is an honorary chairman of the Red Sox Foundation. Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps annually presents its Embracing the Legacy Award to individuals whose work parallels the late senator's values and mission.
Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III will speak at the event about his late grandfather's legacy and the charity that is celebrating 46 years.
Past honorees include activists Marian Wright Edelman and Peter Edelman, Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson, former NFL running back Gayle Sayers, educator Jonathan Kozol, Teach for America's Wendy Kopp, and Casey Family Program's Dr. William Bell.
"It's really cool. You see some of the names that have gotten this award in the past. It's a pretty special thing for me, you know?" Wakefield said. "This isn't why I do the things that I do, obviously. It's a philosophy from back in the day, we have a responsibility as humans to include everybody or to try to help everybody out.
"I do it because I care and because I felt like, listen, I was lucky enough to play a sport for a living or to live out my dream that I had as a kid. I wanted to use that forum that I had in a positive way and that's making a difference in the lives of children that have dreams themselves, you know? And I think that's what Mr. Kennedy really emphasized. He kind of wanted us as a society to be responsible for each other."
