He's a knuckleball pitcher.

By nature, that means you don't try to figure out why things are. Instead, if you're Tim Wakefield, you enjoy the moment.

So will we.

You see, at the moment, Wakefield's Boston Red Sox are set to tangle with the New York Yankees, renewing a rivalry that goes back more than a century. Their seven-game series to see who advances to the World Series begins tonight.

"Some people think this is the World Series," said Wakefield, our own Eau Gallie High and Florida Tech product. "It's the biggest rivalry in sports. And it's exciting to be a part of."

Exciting for us, too. For sure.

Wakefield was in the middle of this riveting roller coaster ride a year ago, when these two teams enthralled us with one of baseball's best postseason scrums ever -- World Series or otherwise.

In that ALCS for the ages, Wakefield had already won two of Boston's three games. Then he found himself pitching again in relief during that decisive extra-inning Game 7. Given the way things were going for him -- a 2-0 ALCS record while striking out 10 Yankees in 14 innings and yielding just three earned runs -- Wakefield's name was penciled in for the series MVP.

But then Aaron Boone erased it in the bottom of the 11th inning, sending a fateful fluttering knuckleball into the left-field seats. It was a home run that rocked the Red Sox and Yankee Stadium. Just like that, in a New York second, it was over.

How do you figure out why such things happen?

If you're Tim Wakefield, you don't even try. You just get back into the moment. Unable to undo the past, Wakefield instead pitched well against the Yankees in his regular-season starts this season, showing no signs of hangover, much less fear. "All three of my starts against them were quality starts," he said, referring to his 1-0 record with a 1.83 ERA in 192/3 innings versus the Yanks.

Yet, can you believe that against the lowly Detroit Tigers, Wakefield gave up six home runs in one game this season? He was also a combined 0-4 against Seattle and Toronto.

So why, save for one lousy pitch to Aaron Boone, has he had so much success against the Yankees?

"I don't know," Wakefield said, before adding with a chuckle, "And I don't want to try and figure it out either."

Better to just let it happen.

Wakefield should be this Friday night's Game 4 starter, pitching before Fenway Park's home fans that claim to have wished for the Yankees and not the Minnesota Twins. In fact, after the Red Sox swept the Anaheim Angels in the ALDS, the Boston Herald screamed a headline that said:

BRING ON THE YANKEES!

Wonderful.

As if you need to rile this rivalry. It's like turning up the heat on boiling water.

"Red Sox fans want to win a world championship, and they want to go through New York to get it," Wakefield said. "Both team's fans are passionate, but I think there's a different passion with our fans. It's like they have more goals. There is a lot of talk up here, especially from the traditionalists, that if we go to the World Series and win the World Series and we didn't beat the Yankees to get there, then it doesn't count."

Yeah, right. Something tells me that Red Sox Nation would take their first world championship since 1918 anyway they can get it. But we get the idea.

Added Wakefield, "It's like it was meant for us to play the Yankees."

Not that anyone is complaining. All you have to do is thumb through the history books to know that what we have to look forward to is going to be something special.

Heck, even recent history tells us that.

The Yankees and Red Sox have met 45 times these past two seasons, with Boston holding the edge, 23-22. The way these two teams punch and counter-punch each other, it's like watching two great heavyweights. Back on July 1, the two teams slugged it out in a nail-biting 13-inning game that saw Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter dive face first into the stands to snag a foul pop-up, inspiring New York to a 5-4 win. Many seamheads now call it the greatest regular-season game in baseball history.

"I'll tell you this," said Wakefield, a 12-year major league veteran, 10 of them with Boston, "it was the greatest regular-season game I've ever been a part of."

Regular season or postseason, it is always memorable when the marquee reads Yankees and Red Sox.

"There's a different energy, you can feel it," Wakefield said. "It's awesome. It's fun. I can't wait."

Neither can we.