Tim Wakefield, knuckleball (cricket fans: a specialty pitch, with the ball gripped not exactly by the knuckles but at the fingers’ edge, with an inward curl; the grip keeps the pitched ball from rotating so that it floats in an impossible-to-control-as-well-as-predict way toward the tantalized batter) pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, and winner of 200 games (cricket fans: one of those round baseball numbers denoting career excellence), has announced his retirement at forty-five. This not-unexpected passing—to the lean-and-slipper’d-pantaloon set—nevertheless marks further changes for the proud Boston franchise into 2012.