As always, Tim Wakefield is looking forward to the new season. But his view is much brighter than it was a year ago when he reported to spring training.

In 2003, he gave up Aaron Boone's homer that won the AL championship series for the New York Yankees over the Boston Red Sox. Last year, he was part of the pitching staff that posted the team's first World Series championship in 86 years.

"It's nice to remember the good things. You want to forget the bad things, obviously, in 2003," Wakefield said Wednesday. "I've always been a big believer (that) you're only as good as your next season or you're only as good as your next start as a starting pitcher.

"So you don't walk backwards. You walk forwards. So we won the 2004 World Series and now our eyes are set on the goal in front of us."

After his first unofficial workout at the Red Sox spring training complex, Wakefield said he was disappointed that Jose Canseco is "maybe throwing some guys under the bus" in a book that alleges steroid use by some of his former teammates.

But he said he and Canseco were good friends as teammates with Boston in 1995 and 1996.

"He was a great teammate," Wakefield said. "When I came over here (in 1995) I had some expectations that I thought he might be a prima donna and he wasn't, by no means, at all that way. I was able to joke around with him and have fun and we played golf together and kidded each other a lot."

Others have a less positive view of Canseco, who wasn't known for his extraordinary work habits.

"I didn't know him when he was in Oakland or in Texas before he came over," Wakefield said.