Knuckleball Pitchers : A Vanishing Breed by Jeffrey Littrell

Knuckleball pitchers have never occupied a large percentage of pitching staffs at any time in baseball history. Commonly, there seem to be only a few pitchers in the major leagues in any given year that attempt to throw the baffling, unpredictable pitch. In recent years, the number of pitchers that include a knuckler in their repertoire has declined noticeably. There were more reported sightings of Elvis Presley and Sasquatch (not always seen together, by the way ), than people who claimed to have witnessed a knuckleball thrown last season. Tim Wakefield , the crafty Red Sox hurler, retired at the end of last season at the age of 45, leaving R.A. Dickey, of the New York Mets, as the only current knuckleball pitcher in the majors. Dickey is currently enjoying a stellar season. He was named to the NL All-Star team and has a record of 13-1, with an ERA of 2.84 and 132 strikeouts in 133.1 innings.

It is generally regarded that either Lew “ Hicks “ Moren, of the 1906 Phillies, or Eddie Cicotte, were the men to first develop the pitch. Cicotte tinkered with the pitch while in Indianapolis and brought it to the majors in 1908. Eddie pitched primarily for the White Sox, and also owns a more dubious place in baseball history as being one of eight players permanently banned from baseball for his participation in the notorious “ Black Sox Scandal “, helping to perpetrate a fix in the 1919 World Series vs. the Cincinnati Reds.

The pitch itself was originally gripped with the knuckles themselves, but is mostly thrown today by gripping it tightly with the fingertips, or even digging one’s fingernails into the ball. This grip serves to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing it to move in an erratic, unpredictable manner. The lack of spin, the velocity, and the seams of the baseball, combine to cause the ball to change it’s path and wiggle, drop, curve, or corkscrew as it approaches the batter.

Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro, and Jessie Haines are three knucklers that are in the Baseball Hall Of Fame. Other pitchers of note that threw the pitch were Joe Niekro ( Phil’s younger brother ), Tom Candiotti, Jim Bouton ( author of the controversial baseball tell-all, “ Ball Four “ ), Charlie Hough, and Wilbur Wood . Wilbur Wood’s resilience was legendary, and led to some incredible feats of endurance. On May 28, 1973, while pitching for the White Sox against the Indians, Wilbur pitched the remainder of a 21-inning carryover game that had been suspended two nights earlier, allowing only two hits in five innings of work to earn the victory. He then started the regularly scheduled game afterwards and pitched a four-hit complete game shutout, earning two wins in the same night. Later that same season, on July 20, Wood started both games of a doubleheader against the Yankees. He lost both of those games, however. The White Sox also tried starting Wood every other day in their rotation, for a brief period in the seventies.

As hard as it is to hit the knuckleball, it is just as difficult, if not more so, to catch it. Catchers have long lamented their fruitless attempts to catch the pitch. Gino Petralli set the record for allowing four passed balls in one inning while trying to catch knuckleball pitcher Charlie Hough in 1987. Jason Varitek holds the postseason record with three passed balls in Game 5 of the 2004 AL championship series, while catching Wakefield.

Carlos Ruiz of the Philadelphia Phillies ( who caught Dickey in this year’s All-Star game in Kansas City ) said , “You feel like you have to be relaxed — if you try to reach for a ball, that’s when you’re going to have trouble. You have to let it come to you.” Josh Thole, Dickey’s regular catcher, likens it to trying to catch a fish underwater. Thole uses a large Rawlings Spark, a women’s-softball catcher’s mitt when catching Dickey. When Thole began catching Dickey in 2010, he sought out advice from Doug Mirabelli, who became invaluable to the Red Sox due to his skill at catching Wakefield. Mirabelli showed Thole the catcher’s stance he found most effective. He positioned himself angled a bit toward the first-base bag, affording himself better mobility.

Of course there have been many humorous quotes and adages throughout the years concerning the knuckleball and it’s practitioners. Here are a few….

“The best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and pick it up.”- Bob Uecker

“You don’t catch a knuckleball, you defend against it.” – Joe Torre

“Trying to hit against Phil Niekro is like trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks”- Bobby Murcer

“There are two theories on hitting a knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them works.” ― famed hitting coach Charlie Lau

“You’re not expected to hit it, but I’m still expected to catch it.” – Joe Flaherty, after catching Tim Wakefield in spring training. Flaherty promptly retired the next day.

“A knuckleball is a curve ball that doesn’t give a damn.”- Jimmy Cannon, legendary sports journalist ( Cannon also famously said, “A sports expert is the guy who writes the best alibis for being wrong” )

As unpredictable as the flight of the knuckleball itself is, so is the question of where it will figure into the future of baseball. I guess as long as pitchers keep looking for an edge, there will be someone willing to try it. But throwing the pitch and actually controlling it, as Dickey does, are two different things. My guess is we will continue to see one or two brave souls a year attempt the pitch, thereby continuing to frustrate catchers, managers, and hitters for as long as baseball endures.