Stacy Wakefield took one for the team yesterday.

Baseball wives are the unsung heroes of the game. Theirs is a life of sacrifice in which they are alone a lot, raise children by themselves too often and live too much in the shadow of famous husbands. For all its rewards, it is not an easy life.

So the idea of getting away for a few days during the All-Star break with her husband probably appealed to her when the idea was proposed. She just didn't figure it would be a few days in St. Louis, not that she'll be complaining.

Yesterday Tim Wakefield learned he was one of All-Star Game manager Joe Maddon's selections to this year's American League team, making him the second oldest All-Star Game rookie behind Satchel Paige, and the first knuckleballer selected since Charlie Hough in 1986. (We'll have more about that later.)

When you are tied for the league lead in victories with 10, it is unfair to call the selection a shock. But when you're 42 and getting there for the first time, it's at least fair to call it unexpected. Perhaps that's why Terry Francona couldn't pull off his plan when he called Wakefield to his office before yesterday's 8-4 victory over Seattle at Fenway Park .

“I was actually in the weight room doing my work and (pitching coach John) Farrell had come in and said Tito wanted to see me after he talked to the other guys,” a beaming Wakefield recalled. “I didn't know what other guys. I didn't know what he was talking about at first.

“Then I got down to his office and the office was closed. When it opened he called me in and I saw all the other (five) guys walking out with all their All-Star packages. He sat me down and tried to play it off like it wasn't good news, but he couldn't hold his laughter and finally told me I made the team too.

“I didn't know what to expect going in after I saw the guys walking out, but after he told me I was very happy. It's been a long time.”

Seventeen years - an eternity for a professional athlete - without once making an All-Star team. That's a long time to throw knuckleballs and a longer time to wait for recognition. But yesterday, it finally came - and perhaps at the best of times.

“You go and play professional baseball and always want to make an All-Star team,” Wakefield said. “I've had opportunities, just never got a chance. I think I appreciate it more now knowing how hard it is to be picked. If it had happened a lot sooner, I still would have appreciated it, but not as much as I do now.”

With a 10-3 record and 4.30 ERA, his selection was not a lock. He is one of four AL pitchers with 10 wins, but that ERA was a mitigating circumstance that could prevented his inclusion. So, even Wakefield conceded perhaps there was more to his selection than merely his pitching this season.

It has been exemplary, but there was a sense that the old guy with the good manicure had earned it not just in 2009 but for all the years he put in. Some were great, some not. Some were filled with promise, some with despair and disappointment. Yet always Wakefield came back the next spring anxious to pitch. It's the same way he'll feel in St. Louis.

“He's going to show up in St. Louis next week, and when they introduce his name he's going to be one of the proudest guys - and he should be,” Francona said. “He's very worthy.”

Indeed he is, but judging by what happened the last time a knuckleballer took the All-Star Game mound, AL catchers Joe Mauer and Victor Martinez should be very wary.

In 1986, Hough came on in the eighth inning and was all but unhittable. He was also all but uncatchable. He gave up an opening double, then struck out the next two batters - but both reached base, on a wild pitch and passed ball, as catcher Rich Gedman scrambled to stop pitches that seemed to be going where he least expected.

Unnerved, Hough then balked, struck out a batter, then gave up a single before leaving the game. Some say Gedman was never the same. All Wakefield knows is if his knuckler causes that many problems “it means it's working well.”

That's what his has been doing all season and it led him to St. Louis. That might not be a vacation paradise to everybody, but Stacy Wakefield will take it.