 In all, Wakefield missed half of the 1944 season and the entire 1945 seasons to military service.While in the service, Wakefield met Ted Williams in Hawaii and bet him that he would top him in home runs, RBIs, and batting average when the war ended.They bet $1,000 on each statistic, with Wakefield losing on all three bets, as his post-war performance never returned to its 1943–1944 levels.