The late Tim Wakefield‘s generosity knew no bounds, as the director behind Netflix’s new docuseries The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox experienced firsthand.
Colin Barnicle is a documentary film director who grew up in the Boston area and worked for the Red Sox as a clubhouse attendant between 2005 and 2007. While Barnicle was not working for the Red Sox in 2004, he first got to know the late Wakefield, who died last year at age 57, while working for the ballclub the following season.
When the Red Sox won the World Series at the conclusion of the 2007 MLB season, Barnicle tells PEOPLE, the team’s players elected to give Barnicle a partial share of a monetary bonus they received that he says was “in the tens of thousands of dollars.”
“That needs to be voted on by the players,” he says. “And Wakefield was the guy who championed me in the vote.”
Barnicle says that he and his wife eventually used the money the Red Sox — and Wakefield — granted him for a down payment on a home. “So in a very direct way, Tim Wakefield has completely helped my life,” he tells PEOPLE.
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While conducting interviews for the new Netflix series, the filmmaker noticed that many of Wakefield’s former Red Sox teammates (he pitched for Boston between 1995 and 2011) remembered the two-time champion’s generous spirit.
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“This is a guy who did that for everybody. He was a huge team leader. And the way that the players talk about him and his death actually helped us in a way with the interviews,” Barnicle says. “Each player was more present. They realized that this was such a huge deal in ’03 and ’04 and what they did. They were thinking about Wakefield and time they spent around him, and the idea that they were talking about something that was living and breathing to them, like a memory that was living and breathing became more present after Tim’s passing. This team is so close.”
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Wakefield was a pivotal member of Boston’s World Series teams in both 2004 and 2007 and a fan favorite in Boston, whom Barnicle remembers was nicknamed “the Heavy” in the team’s clubhouse. While speaking with PEOPLE, Barnicle noted that at least one Red Sox player from that 2004 season moved back to Massachusetts to be closer to Wakefield’s family after his death. (Wakefield’s wife Stacy died in February, just five months after her husband’s death. The couple shared two children.)
“It wasn’t just like, ‘This is a great, we were a close team and 20 years later, I’ll see you again at a reunion,’ ” Barnicle adds, while reflecting on the bond Red Sox alumni share 20 years after their 2004 World Series win. “These are guys who really, truly loved each other and loved each other’s families and hung out all the time.”
The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox is streaming on Netflix now.