![Back-up catcher Doug Mirabelli was the perfect team player for the Red Sox, doing anything needed -- even welcoming ceremonial first pitch participants in 2002. By U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Seaman Joe Burgess. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.lizaketchum.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/US_Navy_020703-N-7422B-001_Torpedomans_Mate_3rd_Class_Brian_Ryan_Secretary_of_the_Navy_Gordon_England_U.S._Marine_Captain_Israel_Garcia_and_Boston_Red_Sox_catcher_Doug_Mirabelli.jpg)
Back-up catcher Doug Mirabelli was the perfect team player for the Red Sox, doing anything needed — even welcoming ceremonial first-pitch participants to Fenway Park in 2002. By U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Seaman Joe Burgess. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
If baseball was basketball, stats might credit back-up catcher Doug Mirabelli with 12 assists for knuckleballer Tim Wakefield’s dozen wins in 2004.
As “Wake’s” personal catcher with over-sized mitt, he gave the hurler the perfect defensive partner.