Pedro Martinez, Red Sox Teammates Will ‘Take Care of’ Tim Wakefield’s Kids (Exclusive)

Pedro Martinez and his former Boston Red Sox teammates still have each others backs, even years after they left the diamond behind.

Baseball Hall of Famer Martinez, 52, and his teammates on the 2004 World Series championship Red Sox team reunited at Fenway Park in Boston on April 9 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their championship and pay tribute to the late Tim and Stacy Wakefield. Tim, who pitched for the Red Sox between 1995 and 2011, died at 57 in October 2023. Five months later, his wife Stacy died.

“The night before, I got together with the family and I was able to tell them how much I respect Wakey, how much I love them,” Martinez, who pitched with Wakefield in Boston between 1998 and 2004, tells PEOPLE of reuniting with his former teammates and Tim and Stacy’s family members. Members of that 2004 championship team accompanied the late couple’s children Brianna, 17, and Trevor, 19, as they threw a ceremonial first pitch at Boston’s first home game of the MLB season.

“We looked [out] for each other every single day. Running partners, bullpen partners and family members together,” Martinez adds. “We made sure that our families remained in contact and that we were always together and we never let go.”

The retired pitcher shares that April 9 reunion was full of “mixed emotions, because we remember the great moments, but also sad to see that this happened to two kids,” after Brianna and Trevor lost both their parents within a five-month span.

“What are the odds? For the same reasons. It is hard to think of. It’s hard to imagine,” Martinez says. “We’re here to be uncles — I’ve supported these kids. [We’re] close uncles that are going to take care of ’em and anything they need.”

Martinez’s words echoed multiple of his former teammates, including Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar, who shared during an appearance on a television broadcast of April 9’s game that dozens of the players from that team have called themselves the Wakefield’s kids’ uncles following Tim and Stacy’s deaths, per MLB.com.

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Martinez additionally tells PEOPLE that seeing his former teammates “just brought back all the memories.” He won two Cy Young Awards as the American League’s best pitcher during his time in Boston, in addition to the team’s 2004 World Series win.

“I miss my teammates probably more than anything, even competing,” he says. “Just my teammates — being around them, goofing around, hear the way they talk and the craziness that we had in the clubhouse.”

“I miss that [community]. I miss that probably more than anything, being around my true family — because that’s who they are,” he says. “They are the true family that we share all that time.”

Tim Wakefield retired from baseball in 2012 after winning two World Series championships with the Red Sox (2004, 2007). He was known for throwing the knuckleball, a pitch rarely seen in professional baseball.