The ball has to be gripped with two (carefully manicured) fingernails and sort of pushed toward the plate. It is almost never used in a mixed repertoire today, however, and some believe that to throw the knuckleball effectively with some semblance of control over the pitch, one must throw it more or less exclusively. ", According to The New York Times, "Niekro's assignment is to help the Orioles transform three pitchers into full-time knuckleballers: [Zach] Clark, 30, now with Class A Frederick, Md. Like how it is difficult for batters and catchers to follow knuckleball pitches, umpires also have a hard time. By continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. In addition, the lack of backspin does shorten the length of the delivery, and also tends to make the ball skid off the pitchfaster than it would come off a normal delivery.[35]. The Cardinals pounded Pascual Perez in the makeup Game 1. The little spin that takes place on the ball creates erratic and unpredictable motion. But there are overwhelming similarities between the grips of the great knuckleball pitchers; guys like Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, Tom Candiotti, Tim Wakefield, RA Dickey and the like. Fernandez fared a little better, getting into 31 Major League games with a 9.95 ERA. The first and most obvious thing to discuss is that the knuckleball is thrown with the fingertips and fingernails, not the knuckles as the name of the pitch would suggest. The knuckleball that danced, dazzled and frustrated hitters and catchers alike, was a gift from Niekro's father, Phil Sr. A semipro pitcher in the Mine Workers League who threw 92 mph, the elder Niekro injured his arm and a coworker showed him how to throw the pitch. After the season, Niekro received the lone vote in the NL Cy Young balloting that did not go to Seaver. He made his fifth and final All-Star team, and on July 4 in Arlington, notched the 3,000th strikeout of his career by whiffing the Rangers Larry Parrish, becoming the ninth pitcher to reach that milestone. He is admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut and Illinois (House Counsel). Good fingernails are important. When Mr. Niekro was 40 years old in 1979 he threw 23 complete games nowadays it is rare to see a pitcher even throw 1 or 2 complete 9 inning games during a typical season. While the Yankees re-signed both Niekro brothers on January 8, 1986, they released Phil at the end of spring training. Baseball Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro dies at 81 Niekro didnt make it to the big leagues until 1964, when he pitched 10 games in relief for the then-Milwaukee Braves. As youd guess from those numbers, Niekros knuckler baffled hitters, making even All-Stars look foolish. His 50.9 WAR over that span not only led the majors, it was 13.1 more than runner-up Rick Reuschel. Niekro won 318 games over his 24-year career, which ended in 1987 at age 48 after he made one final start with the Braves. The fingertip grip is more commonly used today by knuckleball pitchers, like retired Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who had a knuckleball with a lot of movement. [33], Varitek holds the postseason record with three passed balls in the 13th inning of Game 5 of the 2004 American League Championship Series while catching Wakefield.[34]. By all accounts, he particularly took to Cooperstown, returning regularly for Induction weekend, later serving on both the Expansion Era Committee (which in 2014 elected Torre) and the Halls board of directors, and managing one team during the Hall of Fame Classic exhibition. My condolences to the entire Niekro family and may Mr. Niekro AKA Knucksie rest in peace. Parents Phil Niekro Sr. and Henrietta Ivy Klinkoski were both the children of Polish immigrants. Avoid the seams. that mike marshall season will forever live rent free in my head, Over the 1973-74 seasons, Mike Marshall pitched a total of 378 1/3 innings without making a single start. If someone had thrown a knuckleball down out of that tree, and Sir Isaac Newton had seen it coming and dodged it three times and it had hit him on the head anyway, it is frightening to think what we might now believe about the universe. He was 81. Your grip should avoid seams altogether. Baseball Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro dies at 81 - Yahoo News It would have been a special day. Put yourself into a position to give yourself a chance and use two fingertips. He has been a recurring guest on MLB Network and a member of the BBWAA since 2011. Baseball Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro dies at 81 Nicro tried to inherit the knuckleball by passing on know-how to many pitchers besides Wakefield, but the results did not bear fruit. Remembering Phil Niekro, King of the Knuckleballers (1939-2020) And for the few who achieve fame Niekro and Charlie Hough in the past, the Toronto Blue Jays' R.A. Dickey in the present there are hundreds of other pitchers on MLB rosters who don't try to throw the pitch. And if you can throw a ball without any spin at 65-plus miles-per-hour, than you've got a great knuckleball grip. The fingertip grip is more commonly used today by knuckleball pitchers, like retired Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who had a knuckleball with a lot of movement. Baseball Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, who pitched well into his 40s with a knuckleball that baffled big league hitters for more than two decades, mostly with the Atlanta Braves, has died after a long fight with cancer, the team announced Sunday. Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, who rode his knuckleball to 318 victories, was the seventh Hall of Famer to pass away in 2020. . Nobody likes to warm up with you." Phil and Charlie and Wake, they all would share how important it is to perpetuate the craft, Dickey, who won the 2012 National League Cy Young Award while with the Mets, said by phone on Sunday. Light-hitting and self-effacing, Uecker was hardly the knuckleball specialist that the Braves presented him as being, but Torre, the regular catcher, was at wits end, and Uecker did have experience catching the knuckleballs of the Cardinals Barney Schultz, and before that the Braves Bobby Tiefenauer. Thoughts from the Front Lines of In-House Legal Practice. He won the National League Cy Young Award for the Mets in 2012. (A common phrase for hitting a knuckleball is "if it's low, let it go; if it's high, let it fly"; meaning that a batter should attempt to hit a knuckleball only if it crosses the plate high in the strike zone due to lack of break.) That means if they have a game where "the feel" just isn't right, they can get shelled. Other names for the knuckleball have generally alluded to its motion and slower speed. He won 221 games over 22 years in the big leagues, making the Niekros baseballs winningest set of siblings, with a total of 539 victories, just ahead of Gaylord and Jim Perry. Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro, and Jesse Haines, three pitchers who primarily relied on the knuckleball, have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Philip Henry Niekro was born in Blaine, Ohio, and learned the knuckleball from his father, who played for a coal-mining team in eastern Ohio. [2] If a knuckleball does not change direction in mid-flight, however, then it is easy to hit due to its lack of speed. [5] Heck, he didn't even know where it was going most of the time. I remembered him and I thought, Oh, that poor kid, hes still in the minor leagues and I dont know how he hangs on, because Im on my way to the Hall of Fame, Bouton said, a few years before his death in 2019. Niekro also pitched for the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays late in his career. "[1] Bouton said, "Catchers hate it. See this Times graphic for some more on the physics of the pitch. It was during those community and fan activities where he would communicate with fans as if they were long lost friends.. Not many pitchers start out with it, and you can't expect to pick it up overnight. He chafed in 1982 when a couple of other future Hall of Famers Manager Joe Torre and Gibson, his pitching coach reduced his workload. Starting in December and ending on Opening Day, Joe Posnanski will count down the 100 greatest baseball players by publishing an essay on a player every day . R. A. Dickey argues that, "for most managers, it takes a special manager to be able to really trust it the bad and the good of it. The tricky pitch is the knuckleball, and it is rare in the game today to see the pitch. In the first year of division play, he helped the Braves win the NL West (!) The easiest way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up, Uecker would often joke over the next half-century or so. He made All-Star teams in 1975 and 78, began a run of three straight Gold Gloves in the latter season, and won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1979 and the Roberto Clemente Award in 1980. From 2001 2006, R.A Dickey would consistently yield a 1.6 WHIP, which was alright. Trying to hit that thing is a miserable way to make a living.. Phil Niekro, Baseball Hall of Fame knuckleballer, dies at 81 - USA Today So the knuckleball can be very effective. Niekro played basketball, baseball, and (briefly) football at Bridgeport High School. He had a presence that just transcended what you encounter every day in the clubhouse, Dickey who won the Cy Young in 2012told the New York Times Tyler Kepner. In volleyball, the float serve involves hitting the volleyball in such a way to minimize the rotation of the ball, causing unpredictability in the ball's movement. In Corporate America where ageism is a reality, Mr. Niekros career reminds us that older workers can still provide high value to their organizations as their age and that their experience, guile, confidence and ability to mentor others are very important assets. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. [43][44][45][46][47] This technique has also been used and even adapted by several other players, such as Andrea Pirlo,[48][39] Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo,[49] Didier Drogba,[49] Marcus Rashford, Gareth Bale,[38] and Barbara Bonansea. He made only one start over his first three years in the big leagues but finally blossomed as a starter in 1967 the Braves second year in Atlanta when he went 11-9 and led the National League with a 1.87 ERA. Phil Niekro, a pitcher who used his signature knuckleball to fool generations of hitters and craft a Hall of Fame career, died Saturday night in his sleep, the Braves announced Sunday. When done correctly, the float serve is hard for opponents to predict where the ball will end up, thus rendering it hard to pass. The first is selection bias in scouting. That year, while catching just 76 games (59 for the Braves), he set a modern NL record with 27 passed balls, but his batterymate thrived. "I think the hardest thing for me is just the alone-ness that you feel sometimes because nobody else really does it," said Wakefield. They all overlapped for one season 1967 and Niekro played the most recently, in 1987, with Cleveland, Toronto and, for a final cameo, the Atlanta Braves, his primary team. An Eephus pitch is just a slow pitch with a slow spin rate, while a knuckleball has virtually no spin and thus moves in a zigzag formation. Niekro passed away in his sleep on Saturday night. Hall of Famer that he never saw the need for other pitches. Phil Niekro shows his knuckleball grip to Pedro Martinez and Ivan Rodriguez at the 2014 Hall of Fame Classic in Cooperstown. When I was with the Phillies, the Braves Bob Uecker maintains, Richie Allen used to go up there and just swing at anything and sit down. The Knuckleball Can Devastate, So Why Don't All Pitchers Throw It? - NPR He practices at the intersection of law, technology and business. La maledetta che sfida la fisica", "Noughty Boys: No one hit a free-kick quite like Juninho Pernambucano", "Pele to Zico to Beckham to Ronaldo: Evolution of the Free-Kick Masters", "Mestre de Pirlo, Juninho Pernambucano ensinou italiano a bater falta", "The Top 15 Best Shooters in World Football", "Bonansea: I was always daydreaming of football in class", The (Mostly) Complete List of Knuckleball Pitchers, NPR.org on the Red Sox's re-acquisition of Doug Mirabelli, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Knuckleball&oldid=1137620558, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 16:41. For decades after Niekros retirement, the pitch wobbled but endured; someone was always throwing it, from Hough to Tom Candiotti to Wakefield to Dickey, with others mixed in. His maverick pitching style as a knuckleballer provided him with a competitive differentiator over others. The Baseball 100: No. Pitching coaches often struggle with knuckleball pitchers due to a lack of experience with the pitch. But while the knuckleball is easier on the arm the pitcher is trying to kill spin, not impart it no other practitioners approached Niekros innings total. Its kind of bittersweet, because each year you sit there and you look around and you say to yourself, Whos not going to be here next year? Ozzie Smith said recently. A free agent for the first time, Niekro was pursued by the Cardinals, Pirates, As and Yankees. If one of the fingers puts more pressure on the ball than the other, the ball spins. The Boston Red Sox, in their 2004 world championship season, had Mirabelli regularly catching in place of Jason Varitek when Tim Wakefield was pitching. Longtime Braves pitcher Phil Niekro threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a 2019 playoff game at SunTrust Park in Atlanta. By adding a third finger, you make the process a lot more difficult. Avoid Unconscious Bias: I remember watching Mr. Niekro pitch during the early 1980s when he was with the Braves courtesy of the TV station TBS at that time and when he played with my New York Yankees in 1984 and 1985. The Yankees came closer in 1985, and while Niekro again won 16 games, his ERA increased by a full run. The first reason is that throwing a knuckleball is challenging to master and control. Mr. Niekro's longevity in a game that can be unforgiving for players who lose their timing, great eyesight, speed and ability to throw as they age is simply remarkable. Niekro spent the first 20 years of his major league career (1964-83) with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves before moving on to the Yankees (1984-85), Indians (86-87) and Blue Jays (87). Its hard to catch it, its hard to coach it. When you first go in, you see all these people and you dont think in those terms: When is this person going to leave this earth? This year was a real tough one.. Instead, they should be celebrated and appropriately recognized. He was 48 years old then, his fifth year in a row as the games oldest player. Failed to subscribe, please contact admin. Niekro never got another shot at the postseason. Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell compared its flight to "a butterfly with hiccups. The physics of the operation are largely the same. Baseball Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro dies at 81 - NBC News Though unhappy about the decision, Niekro held his tongue while totaing just 19.1 innings over the first month of the season as the Braves stumbled to a 10-18 start.