Why The Knuckleball Is Basically Extinct... The Unpredictable Pitch With NO SPIN.. 

Wakefield lasted so long with the Red Sox because he basically said use me how you like. Starter, reliever, spot starter, and his salary was a flat $5M each year (the last several years) - they had an understanding - I want to pitch, if you want me to pitch too, it's $5M. Even when he had great years - he understood what he was, and he rode that home-town-discounted $5M/year until he was 44. Because of that selfless attitude, and the knuckler, he was a huge local fan favorite.

A knuckleballer between 2 flame throwers in your rotation could be advantageous. The 1980 Astros had JR Richard and Nolan Ryan in their rotation until Richard's unfortunate stroke. But they didn't pitch back to back. Instead, Joe Niekro was sandwiched in between. So imagine a weekend series facing JR with the gas and wicked slider, then adjusting to Niekro's flutter ball, then now adjusting to strikeout king Nolan.

"Wind currents" don't move the ball. The ball moves because of uneven air pressure due to its lack of spin. Spin creates lift (the Bernoulli Effect). Because the knuckler doesn't spin (much), air pressure can build up on one side of the ball or the other, causing to to change direction in flight. Although some pitchers develop a tendency in terms of ball flight direction, it is nearly random for the most part. Thus, it's unpredictability (for the pitcher, the hitter, the catcher, and the umpire). Bob Uecker once said that catching the knuckleball was easy. "I just wait for it to stop rolling and then I go over and pick it up."

Bob Uecker (announcer in the film Major League) was one of the absolute best personal catchers for legendary knuckleballer Phil Niekro. Some good Uecker quotes: “Catching Niekro’s knuckleball was great. I got to meet a lot of important people. They all sit behind home plate.” “In those days, Phil had less control. Sometimes I’d know before he let go of it that it was going to get by me. I’d just start running and play it off the wall. At least I got to know a lot of the folks in the box seats.” "In 1967 I set a major-league record for passed balls, and I did that without playing every game. There was a game, as a matter of fact, during that year when Phil Niekro's brother (Joe) and he were pitching against each other in Atlanta. Their parents were sitting right behind home plate. I saw their folks that day more than they did the whole weekend." "Every time (Niekro) started, I went through the same ritual before the game. I took four aspirin for the headache I knew I would have afterwards."

And one of the great knuckleball pitchers had recently passed, RIP Tim Wakefield.

My favourite story about knuckleballers is the one told by Johnny Bench. Sparky Anderson mentioned to Bench that the Reds were looking into trading for Charlie Hough. Bench's response was, "you better trade for Hough's catcher too."

I’ve heard the knuckleball described as a survival pitch. Players develop it when it’s their last shot at making the Show. Wakefield was an infielder in the minor leagues who was about to get cut when he said “uh, I can throw a knuckleball”

One of my favorite things to watch in baseball is to see a slo-mo of a knuckleball with close to no spin fluttering towards the plate.

Jim Bouton wrote in his book Ball Four that he had to throw daily to keep his knuckleball sharp and managers didn’t like it because they thought his arm would be too tired. He said the knuckleball placed no strain in his arm and he could throw more pitches. He came a up as a fire baller but injured his arm and used the knuckleball to extend his career. Ball Four is a good read but baseball and especially commissioner Bowie Kuhn hated it.

I had a friend in college who could throw the knuckleball. He took me to the side of the dorm one time and threw it to me. It was scary trying to catch it. He told me to quit trying to catch it and just swat it down with the glove I was using. I had no catchers mask or pads. When that thing darted toward your face at the last second it was unnerving.

I think you hit on a lot of the important points for why the pitch is almost extinct in MLB. I think some other reasons go along with those. In addition to being a very hard pitch to throw, there's very little margin for error with it before it becomes a meatball (as you said), and most knuckleballers are almost *exclusively* knuckleballers. So if they don't have the feel for their knuckleball in a particular game, there's very little else they can mix in to work through it. Plus, the whole concept of the knuckleball is swimming against the two biggest currents in modern pitching orthodoxy. Everyone nowadays focuses on high velocity and high spin rate...and the knuckleball intentionally minimizes both of those.

Man the heyday of Tim Wakefield throwing his little floating knuckler, especially when he first burst onto the scene with the Pirates, was really different time in baseball, but it was always fun watching guys succeed with the knuckler

This really needs to come back into the current game

I really want this back. Besides being effective when thrown well, it makes for some hilarious blooper *and* highlight reels. Truly uncanny, and brings so much fun to the game.

This was great, especially the point of pitchers having to change their style due to increasing longevity. My Uncle Bill pitched for the Cardinals for almost 15 years after personally being discovered by Branch Rickey with over 300 games pitched and several 50 FULL seasons in his career. Despite throwing an unGodly number of pitches in his career, he did alright because of his early implantation of the " slow ball/breaker, curve and slider. You cant be a fireballer and expect to stay Healthy

I have a teammate in college who actually throws a good knuckleball and it's so hard to hit against. It just dances around your barrel as it gets to you

Interestingly the knuckleball has had a true renaissance in cricket of all places... Guys like Bhuveneshwar Kumar introduced it into the sport and since then guys like T Natarajan, Arshdeep Singh, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar perfected the art - with Chahar having an 80 MPH knuckleball!

This is where video games are great. I'm not a HUGE baseball fan, but enjoy playing the MLB games, and when I do a career as a pitcher, I throw some crazy pitches lol. My current one I've got the Knuckleball, your standard 4 seamer, a screwball, a forkball, and a knuckle curve. When you can choose any pitches you want, and up to 5, why not have fun and make a pitcher with a crazy arsenal?

It has only been a couple years since MLB had a knuckleballer, they will be back. It's a hard pitch to throw, catch and it requires a certain weather and stitching on the balls to be truly effective. Someone in the front office will realize that a knuckleballer can keep your bullpen on the bench for a night, figure out that even 15 appearances a year would be worth the money. But you can't put the guy in a 4 day rotation, because that will put him in games that the weather isn't right. Favorite baseball book, Ball Four by knuckleballer Jim Bouton.

I sat behind home plate a section to the right of home plate and watched Tim Wakefield pitch against the Mariners at what was then Safeco Field. It was an absolute pleasure to watch. It was like his pitches would take a quick breath just before home plate and then flutter to the catcher's glove. It defied physics. Damn, it was so cool!

Good video...I liked the impersonations you did lol. I do like the knuckleball and I hope someone can bring it back....it's a fun pitch.

Growing up with the Red Sox on TV, Tim Wakefield was always a pitcher I didn’t know how to feel about on the mound. Some nights he had his stuff, other nights he was bombed harder than the Somme. Not only that, but it also meant Jason Varitek was on the bench since Doug Maribelli was Wakefield’s catcher as Varitek has trouble with knuckleballs. That said, Sox Nation has a soft spot in their hearts for Tim Wakefield. Towards the end of his career, he actually was good enough to be elected into an All Star Game. Unfortunately, he didn’t pitch; which I found disappointing, I wanted to see a bunch of All Stars potentially struggle against Wakefield’s knuckleball.

Jim Bouton wrote in Ball Four that he talked to Joe Niekro about the knuckleball and why Niekro would throw a fastball instead. Niekro said if his arm felt too strong he'd throw a fastball to tire his arm out. If his arm was too strong then he said his knuckleball wasn't that good.

After I read RA Dickey's autobiography, "Whenever I Windup" he became my favorite major leaguer of all time. I then watched a documentary about the knuckleball and Tim Wakefield and Charley Hough joined Dickey at the top of my list. These are the ones I have watched the most. The Niekro brothers, Joe and Phil, are also on the top of my list. I hadn't thought of the others and hadn't really followed them. These men were amazing to me. Thank you.

I play Out of the Park Baseball and whenever I see a Knuckleball pitcher spawn I snag them up on the spot. It is such an interesting pitch and as a Red Sox fan back when Tim Wakefield was part of the team win or lose, vying for a no hitter or getting absolutely lit up unique pitchers like him, Steven Wright, Bob Stanley (with his Palmball) or similar junk ball pitchers always made the game interesting back then.

Good news - after being let go by Chicago, Jannis signed with the High Point Rockers of the Atlantic League and did well posting a 2.72 ERA in 39.2 innings in the regular season. In the playoffs he had one bad outing, giving up 7 runs in 5 innings. But he also had a solid one in the championship series, giving up one run in 6 innings. Great video, long live the Knuckleball!

I saw a documentary about the knuckleball where R.A. Dickey got shelled on opening day, and it was determined that his knuckler wasn't working because he had a broken nail, which caused the ball to spin too much. I've also heard that it's an easy pitch to steal a base off of because of how slow it is.

This chanel brings me so much closer to baseball man i love it so much knowledge

I used to watch Tim Wakefield all the time, and I would drive around w/ a baseball in my hand, and making the Wakefield knuckled grip. I modeled my delivery after him and everything. Played in adult leagues, served up some home runs before I learned how to use it right. The pitch made me obsessed with baseball, and now I love to make the ball flutter. it’s like a freak accident, and one of the greatest feelings. Also, the video didn’t mention Dennis Springer, Steve Sparks, and Charlie Haeger!!

I remember watching Wakefield throw a pitch that was 37 mph. His lead foot only left the ground by a few inches with barely a stride towards the plate. Looked like he playing catch with his kids.

Good video. I learned a little bit about baseball. I remember Phil Niekro being a well known knuckle baller from when I was a kid and I had the Topps card in the video. Go Cubs Go!!!

Well, it wasn’t a short video but it was very informative!! Excellent video!!! Well done!!!! Thank you

Even though i was never a huge baseball fan, I used to watch Charlie Hough and Tim Wakefield whenever I found a chance, just because the knuckler is so rare. Saw the Niekro bros pitch a few times too, but was too young to understand what I was seeing.

One of the enjoyable stories in Ball Four was Jim Bouton trying to talk catchers to catch his knuckleball in the bullpen.

Great video. I honestly didn't know about the Heir to the Neikro line trying to come back as a knuckleballer.

It was awesome to get to go to Fenway Park and watch Tim Wakefield pitch. It seemed like every game I went to he was the starter. Saw some great performances from him. One of my favorite Red Sox players ever. a real stand up dude too

I remember watching Wilhelm warm up for the Dodgers in 1971, we were sitting next to the bullpen. He had such an easy motion. To me he threw pretty hard. He was 48 years old.

The last knuckle ball I remember was the one that Reggie Jackson put deep center field in Yankee Stadium to Charlie Hough in is last at bat of the 1977 World Series.

Underrated baseball RU-vid channel . Do more deep dives!

I was a knuckler in a local adult league. I threw it pretty slow. I remember the looks on the batters faces when I first threw it. They were like "wtf" and actually were laughing or smiling at how slow it was. But when they couldn't hit it they quickly got serious. Great video and history of the pitch. Thank you.

Hoyt Wilhelm, one of the great knuckleballers, baffled batter for many years. One time, Norman Cash of the Tigers went to bat against Hoyt Wilhelm with a table leg instead of a bat. He said it would be just as effective. Another Tiger player, Charlie Maxwell, developed a reputation for hitting home runs on Sundays. He hit a dinger off Hoyt one Sunday and was asked how he managed to do it. He said, "I just closed my eyes, counted three, and swung." Another story, possibly an urban legend, was that in spring training, the pitching coach send a minor league catcher out to catch some warm-up pitches. As he walked to the plate, the coach yelled out, "Wait, you forgot you mask." The kid said, "What do I need a mask for? I'm just going to catch some warm-ups." When he revived on the trainer's table he said, "I don't get it. The pitch was too high, I reached for it, and it hit me in the face." Gus Triandos was Wilhelm's catcher In Baltimore. Tired of all the passed balls he was getting charged with he worked with Wilson Sporting Goods and came up with the "elephant" mitt which was almost twice the circumference of a standard catcher's mitt.

When strikes/balls start being called electronically (they're working on it) the knuckleball will be back. It's the pitch most commonly miscalled as a ball when it's really a strike, so it would have a huge benefit to knuckleballers.

Growing up as a Ranger fan I loved Charlie Hough and I knew about the Niekro brothers so I just figured the knuckle ball was going to be a part of baseball forever. It was fun while it lasted...

Used to practice throwing a knuckle ball all the time in little league. Kept at it as I got older, ended up throwing knuckles in high school for strikes. More fun than a curve! Was throwing with my nephew a few months ago and got to show him a couple. Gotta love the game

Which is why baseball is turning quite boring because everything will be so generic, almost every pitcher has the fastball as their main pitch, everyone looks the same and has the same stuff, no one is original in any aspect. Hitting is also the same, all hitters try to hit home runs, there's no contact hitters anymore and everybody just strikes out or hits home runs. No stolen bases, no sac bunts, no bunt hits. The only strategy is to hit the ball as hard as they can and that's it.

ive been to around 14 tim wakefield starts in my childhood. i was always disappointed when i saw him over josh beckett, but i never witnessed a loss with tim on the bump. and having paid bookoo bucks to watch an ace lose, its a lot more satisfying to witness a W from whomever throws it

Very informative and entertaining video. Thank you.

Charlie’s son is a good buddy of mine, to hear the baseball stories is something a sports guys dream. My fav is while playing with ChiSox, Bo Jackson was rehabbing his new hip. His “rehab weight” on the leg press was my buddy’s max weight. Said he was the strongest man he ever saw.

I experimented with a knuckle ball, in my teens. Sometimes I could knuckle one pretty good, but not very consistently. I had trouble throwing a successful one multiple times in a row. Ended up scrapping it.

In my entire lifetime, I pitched in ONE pickup baseball game, and I threw only knucklers and laughably slow"fastballs" as an occasional change of pace. The first knuckler I threw, and most of them throughout the game, actually WORKED. It was a fun day. Hilarious to watch hitters hungrily gear up to try and CRUSH such a tantalizingly slow pitch, only to end up chopping air....😆😆

...I'd like to see a series where you describe all the pitchs. Slider, curve, etc. It's cool seeing it from behind the plate in slow motion.

Great video & background music!👍

Love Wake and Tek together! Wish they could find another duo like them. Great to see Tek in the dugout these days and Wake on NESN.

In the 1970s the Cincinnati Reds thought of dealing for Phil Niekro from the Braves until Johnny Bench warned them they'd need to trade for a new catcher as well! Bench didn't want to lose his status as a Gold Glove catcher. Too many wild pitches from knuckleballers are tallied as past balls which are charged as errors to catchers.

Tim Wakefield is loved here in beantown. So many great memories watching him dominate at Fenway. From our came so close years to our world series years he was great.

Fun and interesting video! Bring back the knuckleball, variety is the spice of life!

With slow-pitch softball I'm always reminded that the knuckleball is a much more difficult pitch than something like a curve ball or change up. It's real too bad we don't see more MLB players currently doing the knuckleball.

If Jamie Moyer had ever figured out the knuckle ball he’d still be pitching today lol.

I learned to pitch this from my actual knuckles 30 years ago. Loved this pitch.

This Is A Great Mini Documentary !!..Hats Off To The Research Invested To Create This Masterpiece !!..

Steve Sparks was a knuckleballer for Detroit in the 2000's. He did pretty well.

“I work for three weeks to get my swing down pat and Phil (Niekro) messes it up in one night,” said Pete Rose. “Trying to hit that thing is a miserable way to make a living.”

I can still throw a great one at 52yrs old. Everyone hated me because no one-not even me- knew where the ball would go-but it's so awesome to watch. We nicknamed it the laughing pitch.

great video. i really enjoyed watching all the greats since 1960. wilhelm was my favorite.

loving the history of the knuckleball!

This was a VERY good documentary on the pitch, its history, and why it seems to be going the way of the dodo. Being a Red Sox fan for 40 years, I saw more than my share of Tim Wakefield starts on television and in person. On the nights the ball danced just right, you couldn't hit that pitch with an oversized tennis racket. Of course, there were more than a few times that it didn't fool batters and it turned ugly fast. There was actually one game against the Tigers in Detroit in which he gave up SIX home runs, yet he still managed to earn the win. Believe it or not, Wakefield is tied with Roger Clemens for the most wins by a Red Sox pitcher (192), and he even took a turn for part of one season as a closer. I will say that there is still room in baseball for the pitch, but it's unlikely that you'll find a pitcher who exclusively throws the knuckleball, and even then, it cannot be his primary weapon.

You left off Jim Bouton, who made a great comeback in the late 70's after being out of baseball and then developing the knuckler. My neighbor, who played JC baseball for a natl champion team, was an infielder but he had the best knuckler I have ever seen. No one could hit it, but the coach was reluctant to let him use it due to its gimmicky reputation. That guy could throw it two feet off the ground and it would suddenly jump up, it was amazing.

Ive been waiting since the first day of your screwball video for a knuckleball video! Gotta love the knuckleballers! Great video Erik!

The only way someone's throwing a knuckleball if it's a position player pitching

Very interesting indeed. Good job. I can't believe that one guy said it was a "trick" pitch and should be banned. It's a thrown ball like all other pitches.

Baseball is the most fascinating of all the big sports. Angles, off speed, spin, lefty, screwball, etc. just amazing

How about doing a video on the ephus pitch? When I was a kid growing up in the Bronx in the late 60s and early 70s, the Yankees had a lefty reliever by the name of Steve Hamilton. I would get excited when he’d come on to pitch in anticipation of him throwing his version of the ephus, the “folly floater”.

Believe it or not. I started throwing a knuckleball around age 8. By 14. I was pulled from the JV team to the varsity to start against certain teams. My fastball couldn't break a window pane. But my curve and a natural cut/slider would eat up a right handed batter. My knuckle ball flustered batters with a 1-2 or 2-2 count. Funniest knuckleball was one that hit a batter in the back and bounced up an hit his bat for a foul tip strike (in batters box). lol The scariest. Pitching the second game of a double header. Bases loaded, count 2-2, 1 out. Knuckleball did not break. Just floated calmly until the beast at the plate launched it like a rocket straight away centerfield. It may still be flying around out there. That was 35 years ago. lol Great video.

The reason that you dont see the knuckleball as much is because they shrunk the strike zone.They did that in the early nineties or late eighties.The strike zone is about 1.5 to 2 feet smaller now then what it was when the knuckleball was used quite a bit.Some of the longest pitching careers were knuckballers in the sixties and early 70s in particular.Its a hitter's game now and they dont call the highstrikes anymore.

Great video!!

Great video on the knuckleball! One thing I don't hear mentioned is the effect of throwing off hitters' rhythm and timing when facing a knuckleball pitcher. Hitting is all about rhythm and timing. It's not so hard to hit a 95mph fastball if you see it every single day. But sprinkle in a starter (or reliever) that throws a knuckleball at 60mph, over a 4-game series, then there may be some problems. How do hitters adjust - not just for the knuckleball pitcher that day, but also for when they go back to facing conventional pitching? I think it can throw them off, on both accounts.

The knuckleball has really become a lost art in baseball. As a knuckleball pitcher my entire life, I looked up to guys like Tim Wakefield, R.A. Dickey, etc. and knowing that there aren’t any of them left (aside from those who throw a knuckle curve) really saddens me!

I’ll expand upon the statement that there is a stigma associated with throwing the knuckleball. In the movie Bull Durham, pitcher Nuke LaLoosh said that he wouldn’t throw a curveball because he wanted to “announce my presence with authority.” I’m sure that attitude still persists today, especially among younger pitchers. No pitcher is able to announce their presence with authority by throwing a knuckleball.

Great video. Thanks

Great video Thank You

Zach Greinke had a nasty knuckle ball with the dbacks but he didn’t use it much

4:10 Nolan Ryan pitched 332 innings in 1973 and was one of the first pitchers (along with Steve Carlton) to go all-in on strength training to keep in shape. Wilbur Wood threw 40 more innings in 1972 despite being, to put it indelicately, fat. Knuckleballers are typically pitchers who have lost the ability to overpower hitters. Managers and GMs will always prefer power pitchers, so the guys who lose that skill don't often get the chance to transition to the knuckler. Additionally, it's difficult to catch, and fairly easy to steal against. As a result, most of the teams who used knuckleballers were bad teams. Phil Niekro was statistically the best pitcher in the NL three times in the 1970s, but the Braves were so terrible that (1) he alone couldn't pull them up, (2) they shared a division with both the Big Red Machine and the Dodgers: in 1974, the Braves had the same record as NL East champion Pittsburgh, yet finished ten games behind Cincinnati - who, in turn, finished ten MORE games behind LA. Finally, (3) he ended up pitching a ton of complete games that he lost. One season he went 21-20; in another he was 19-18. Between 1977 and 1979, he pitched 1,007 innings and threw over 60 complete games. This is another reason bad teams used to employ knuckleballers: as staff savers, since usually, teams that employ those guys don't generally have a lot of good pitching otherwise. Wilbur Wood was similar, pitching for the White Sox in the same era. Hough went to World Series in LA in 1974, 1977 and 1978, but those teams were so good that he was only a marginal contributor in the postseason. I don't recall that he was ever on any other notable teams, and he never made any postseason appearances after 1978, so it's safe to say that the one good team he played for kept him pretty far down the depth chart.

Bobby Tiefenauer. Pitched between '52 and '68. Pitched for 6 teams, but I remember him for his stint with the Braves.

Excellent Video!

One of my favorite old time baseball quotes comes from a veteran catcher (whose name I can't remember) who was asked how to catch a knuckleball. He replied, "You wait for it to stop rolling then walk over and pick it up."

I loved this story of the knuckleball! Very interesting! I personally think having as many different pitches as we can helps keep baseball fun and interesting. It’s shame it currently seems to be dying/to have died out. This analytical age of baseball is usually downer for me. Computers and conformity. No thanks! Bring back the human elements, variety and creativity please! Please Mr. Baseball… ! ( this for the commissioner? For the baseball gods? But…I am afraid there is maybe no coming back.😢). Thank you Mr. Hummbaby Baseball for the great content❣️❤️⚾️ God Bless!

I’ve got three different knuckleballs with distinct grips. Used my first knuckles for all three pitches: Half to 3/4ths a rotation @ 82 mph with two, one to two rotations @ 78 mph with three, zero to one rotation @ 68 mph with all four. First one is most like a knuckle slider, second a knuckle curve/change, and the last one a true knuckleball. Rotational consistency was tightest with two, but the amount of movement was greatest with all four. The misses with four were so painful though.

I am old enough that I got to see Phil Niekro (And Joe, too...although I also remember Brother Joe in his pre-knuckler days) in his prime, and also Hoyt Wilhelm toward the end of his career. (Also, being a Pirates fan, I used to watch a young Tim Wakefield, before his Red Sox days.) Niekro's ball would dart and break all over the place, while Wilhelm's would seem to flutter on the way in before it "decided" which way to break. They were effective back then, when making contact with the ball was something batter tried to do as much as possible. Can you imagine how effective a good knuckleball pitcher would be now, when all that batters care about is launch angle and exit velocity, and actually making contact is considered a secondary skill? Let's face it, these days, an average of .235 is deemed acceptable if you hit 25 or more HR. If Niekro could have face these "Analytics Divas" his whole career, he might have broken Cy Young's record. What used to blow my mind was that a few times a game, these guys would throw a ball that would break 2 or even 3 times on the way to the plate. (Not an optical illusion. Super slo-mo proved the existence of the phenomenon.) It was like they were playing the baseball game on the old Atari 2600, where you could control the ball with the joystick all the way into the batter. I really think that what pretty much drove the knuckleballer out of existence was the utter incompetence of home plate umpires in calling balls and strikes. Willie Stargell had one of the best descriptions of a knuckleball..."Throwing a knuckleball for a strike is like throwing a butterfly with hiccups across the street into your neighbor's mailbox." And Rick Monday said that Niekro's knuckler "actually giggles at you as it goes by."

Young pitchers should at least have the knuckler in their arsenal. Every knuckleballer had a long career.

If analytics were truly stat based, then the knuckleball would have a valued place in the game today. I'm talking about innings, as in have a back of the rotation fifth starter who more often than not, could give his team a solid six, seven or more innings every fifth day. Thereby taking stress off the bullpen, lessening innings for those late inning flame throwers, while giving a big league team 35 starts and somewhere between 225 to 250 innings. Giving said team an actual statistically driven numerical advantage. Unfortunately these calculator crazy, suit wearing, self important ego driven children can't see the forest for the tree's anymore. But then again the American education system has fallen apart, and baseball is merely evidencing this reality.

my dad threw a pretty wicked knuckleball with his actual knuckles. best BP pitcher I ever had, but when he threw that thing I was lost. obviously not a pro but he did play college ball in the late 70's

Great video! Also, the music is awesome. What’s the piece?

Running into this video made me remember out of nowhere a dream I had last night about how I was throwing a knuckle ball.... so weird

My son pitched until he was 18 on traveling teams, AAU teams, special regional all star teams, etc. Basically playing future pro, D1 players. When his hand got big enough at age ten I taught him how to throw a knuckleball. It was actually a fingertip ball. Knuckleball is a bit of a misnomer. Upon release you flick your fingers as if flicking water at someone. This action stops the rotation which allows for unpredictable movement while in flight. As the years went on and his hands grew he got better and better at it until he could throw it for strikes consistently. He'd throw it at batting practice, but they never allowed him to throw it in a game situation. Fastball, curve, changeup. That's all they wanted him to throw. He was always under threat to be pulled if he threw it. Finally one game his team was out of relievers and had no one else to go to. They were getting shellaced. He came in the the 4th inning of a tournament game when he was 17. He told the manager on the mound. "I'm throwing nothing but knucklers. You can have the ball back right now, but that's what I'm going to do." I was up in the stands and couldn't hear the exchange, but I could tell the manager was steamed as he walked back to the dugout. He pitched 5 2/3 innings of perfect ball. 11 Ks, 0 bb. No one even got the ball out of the infield. All he threw were knuckleballs. They left him alone after that. He played one more year, but lost interest in baseball as he'd started college. Baseball has gotten more and more conservative over the last 2 decades. Starters go 6. One or two set up guys and a closer. Complete games are unheard of. 100 pitches and gone. I can't even watch it anymore.

Having a knuckleballer in your rotation has another great advantage. He can chew up innings like crazy. If he has a good season, your bullpen and/or your young flame thrower will be so much fresher late season and early playoffs.

Yes, Tom Candiotti did play with the Dodgers but his best years were with the Cleveland Indians. I believe the Tribe at that time had Candiotti and Phil Niekro on the staff at the same time.

Awesome synopsis. To this day, the pitcher I’ve seen start the most games I’ve attended is the late Tim Wakefield. I agree with your final analysis on the pitch. In the era of predictability nobody wants a feature pitch that you have to live and die with. If the wind was blowing in his face, Wake could easily K 12 batters in a start. If conditions weren’t right, he’d throw batting practice. It’s also incredibly hard to catch and a lot of catchers hate doing it. Wake always had a special catcher (Doug Mirabelli being the most famous.) Jason Varitek once likened it to “catching a butterfly with a tire.”

Cool video. One thing to add in the video would be from the catchers perspective. You mentioned that the KB leads to many passed balls and wild pitches, which would be reasons why catchers would hate trying to catch them. It takes a certain type of player to catch a Knuckleballer. It would take a lot of time for a KBer to develop the pitch as well as a catcher to get experience catching them.

Fascinating! I never knew all this about the knuckle. Seems like a risky proposition, to slow the ball down, and then risk it just floating straight over the plate .

I grew up with some pretty bad rheumatoid and doing anything on the mound was hard. The Knuckleball helped me... survive up there, but damn watching that thing dance was beautiful. I wish I could throw more just to see it one more time.