Watch HS knuckleballer Chelsea Baker get Rays to swing and miss during BP (Video)
By Dan Zinski
Chelsea Baker is known as the Knuckleball Princess, because she’s a girl and she throws a knuckleball. Monday the 17-year-old high school pitcher got a chance to test out her knuckler against some big leaguers when she tossed BP to the Tampa Bay Rays.
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And there were some swings and misses.
That knuckler can be nasty, even if it’s coming from a 17-year-old girl. Of course this isn’t just any 17-year-old girl we’re talking about. Chelsea Baker learned her knuckler from no less an authority than Joe Niekro. So she has a legit knuckler.
How far that knuckler will take her is anybody’s guess, but hopefully Chelsea will at least get a shot somewhere in the minors. And who knows? Maybe one day in the not too distant future, Chelsea will be confusing Tampa Bay Rays hitters with her knuckler in a real live MLB game.
That knuckler is the equalizer. It turns mere mortals into wizards who can make a sphereoid dance and dip at will. It turns people like R.A. Dickey, who otherwise have no business being in the majors, into legit pitchers.
If Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey can be in the bigs, so can Chelsea Baker. The way things are going for the Rays, they might want to sign her up right now and get her out there.
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