When I was a catcher, I couldnt catch him; when I was an opposing player, I couldnt hit him; and the last two years, Ive found out I cant manage him, Torre had said. Dickey is the latest "journeyman" pitcher to have found stardom late in his career thanks to the knuckler. Then take your game to the next level with the Advanced Knuckleball and Pro Knuck instructional videos! "They talk about having to 'have a feel' " for the pitch that requires using it all the time, Nathan says. Pitchers throw knuckleballs when it becomes a compelling pitch for them to get batters out. Because there are so few knuckleball pitchers, the resources for learning and improving the knuckleball are few compared to more common pitches. #RIPKnucksie pic.twitter.com/LGYfXEOEz4, Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) December 27, 2020, Trying to hit against Phil Niekro is like trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks, outfielder Bobby Murcer once said. Phil Niekro gave me a few minutes and we spoke about all things Braves.Phil's catcher was the legendary broadcaster Bob Uecker, he reflects on both of their times in Atlanta. That is why he has hit so many catchers in the forehead. [28], The knuckleball does provide some advantages to its practitioners. [19] At the same time, pitchers rarely focus on the knuckleball if they have reasonable skill with more standard pitches. Baseball Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro dies at 81 And todays two tips are all about reducing those variables. hide caption. Niekro would finish with 5,404 innings, fourth on the career list behind Cy Young, Pud Galvin and Walter Johnson, who were all born in the 19th century. 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. 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. The airflow over the baseball seams creates a strange movement since there is no spin, making the ball essentially dance or flutter in the air towards the home plate. Another disadvantage is if the pitcher cant throw the pitch perfectly, the pitch will not move as much. With a fluttering knuckleball that required catchers to wear an oversized mitt, Niekro went 23-13 as the Braves won the first NL West title in 1969. 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. Phil Niekro showing his grip at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was as much a part of these 300 wins as I was. His father lived for three more years. Using everything but his knuckleball for the first 26 outs, he held the Blue Jays hitless into the fourth inning. It would be incredibly effective in todays game as hitters swing hard and go for launch angle. His 50.9 WAR over that span not only led the majors, it was 13.1 more than runner-up Rick Reuschel. Smith, the virtuoso shortstop, spoke by phone this month before the departure of yet another grand old man of the game. Hoyt Wilhelm, the other knuckler with a plaque in Cooperstown, retired at 49. [50], This article is about the baseball pitch. Niekro joined Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford and Joe Morgan in a grim lineup of greats we lost in 2020. Parents Phil Niekro Sr. and Henrietta Ivy Klinkoski were both the children of Polish immigrants. Now, I say knuckleball grips because there is more than one way to hold a knuckleball, mainly because all of our hands are unique. Keep a stiff wrist during the throwing motion. Let the ball slip out of your palm, almost as if it were covered in olive oil. Learnings from Baseball Knuckleballer Phil Niekro Youve made you development 50% more difficult. From 2001 2006, R.A Dickey would consistently yield a 1.6 WHIP, which was alright. Niekro also mentored knuckleballers such as Tim Wakefield, Steve Sparks, and R.A. Dickey, as well as nephew Lance Niekro, who after spending parts of 2004-07 playing for the Giants made an unsuccessful bid to return to the majors as a pitcher. Joe Niekro showing the proper fingertip grip 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. [36] This technique has also been described as the "dry leaf" or "dead leaf" ("folha seca" in Portuguese),[37] the "tomahawk",[38] or even "the accursed" ("maledetta" in Italian). Phil went to the well three more times in pursuit of the milestone but was tagged for 17 runs in 19.2 innings. Hall Of Famer Phil Niekro, Pitcher Known For Knuckleball, Dies - Forbes His knuckleball was as unpredictable a pitch as any in the game's history, leaving baffled hitters' attempts at connecting utterly futile. Pitching for the Braves Class-D team in Wellsville, New York, Niekro was lit for a 7.46 ERA in 10 appearances totaling 35 innings. Jim Bouton said, "coaches don't respect it. This was common due to the amount of practice one must put into the pitch. Throw it hard and trust your grip. hide caption. Niekro passed away in his sleep on Saturday night. Basically, Nathan says, the pitcher lets "chaotic dynamics" determine how the ball moves. Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey of the Toronto Blue Jays won the 2012 Cy Young award for best pitcher in the National League after winning 20 games and losing just six for the New York Mets. In retirement, Niekro spent one season managing the Braves Triple-A Richmond affiliate, and four more (1994-97) piloting the Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-female professional team that barnstormed, playing mens amateur, semi-pro, and indy league teams. The pitch he perfected also appears to be lost. Baseball Hall of Famer, Knuckleballer Phil Niekro Dies at 81 [33] It was tied by When done correctly, the float serve is hard for opponents to predict where the ball will end up, thus rendering it hard to pass. Bouton noticed Niekro practicing his knuckleball in the outfield before a game, and the pitch was dancing. 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. And, yes, there have been guys who have gotten to the Major Leagues with funky grips, like Charlie Zink and Jared Fernandez. The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and pick it up. He ended up winning 318 games and is fourth on the career innings list.CreditGray Mortimore/Getty Images. The suburban Atlanta resident had a longtime battle with cancer. 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. ", 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. The little spin that takes place on the ball creates erratic and unpredictable motion. The idea that his pitch would survive only as a joke must have dismayed Niekro. Although he may have never looked or pitched like a prototypical major league pitcher, he consistently fooled hitters throughout his career enroute to 318 pitching wins with his very hard to hit knuckleball. "I think the hardest thing for me is just the alone-ness that you feel sometimes because nobody else really does it," said Wakefield. The Stadium Reviews, LLC It actually giggles at you as it goes by, outfielder Rick Monday told Sports Illustrated in 1983. Thats all were going to throw.. Jim Bouton, the author of Ball Four, loved telling the story of meeting Niekro in Kearny, Neb., in 1959, when they were both 20 years old and just starting their pro careers. Please follow Dennis on Twitter @DennisCGarcia and on his In-House Consigliere Blog. And they all hold their knuckleball similarly. Niekro learned the pitch he used through 24 major league seasons from his father, also named Phil, a sandlot pitcher in Ohio who turned to it after hurting his arm. Now you have to apply even pressure using three fingers. He has been a recurring guest on MLB Network and a member of the BBWAA since 2011. After giving up a two-out double to pinch-hitter Tony Fernandez and then a loud foul ball against former teammate Jeff Burroughs, he broke out the knuckler and got the final two strikes for win number 300, becoming the 18th pitcher to reach that milestone and, at 46 years and 188 days, surpassing Satchel Paige as the oldest pitcher to throw a shutout (Jamie Moyer would later eclipse him on that front): I figured if theres anyway Im going to win my 300th game by striking the guy out, I was going to do it with the pitch that won the first game for me, he told reporters afterwards while admitting that he would have traded the milestone for a game that meant something in the pennant race.. Thats a long phrase, but it is an important one to learn, A solid knuckleball grip with no fatal flaws. 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. Furthermore, other factors, such as a dearth of knuckleball teachers and the dramatic increase in the running game base stealing is often easier against knuckleball pitchers may be contributing to its demise. Richard Drew / AP file Link copied Good fingernails are important. Coaches are quick to banish the pitch after one bad outing. The knuckleball is also employed by cricket fast bowlers Zaheer Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Andrew Tye as their slower delivery. 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.. from Columbia Law School. Finally, Niekro was elected with 80.3% in 1997. Niekro didnt make it to the big leagues until 1964, when he pitched 10 games in relief for the then-Milwaukee Braves. 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. Most knuckleballers end up throwing the pitch almost exclusively mixing in few, if any, fastballs, curves or sliders. He was a hard thrower until he injured his arm, whereupon he asked teammate Nick McKay, a former minor league player, to teach him the knuckleball. Hes one of 10 pitchers to attain the dual milestones of 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts six of them cohorts from That Seventies Group and ranks 16th overall on the all-time list for the former and 11th for the latter. 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. Remembering Phil Niekro, King of the Knuckleballers (1939-2020) * Imminent Big Leaguers article. He was 81. Baseball Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro dies at 81 - Yahoo News Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro, and Jesse Haines, three pitchers who primarily relied on the knuckleball, have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. As of 2021, four primary knuckleball pitchers are in the Baseball Hall of Fame today. A free agent for the first time, Niekro was pursued by the Cardinals, Pirates, As and Yankees. Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, who rode his knuckleball to 318 victories, was the seventh Hall of Famer to pass away in 2020. . The one current player throwing a knuckleball as their primary pitch in 2021 is Minor Leaguer, Steven Wright. Regardless of how the ball is gripped, the purpose of the knuckleball is to have the least possible amount of rotational spin. Knucksie learned the pitch from his father, a coal miner and semiprofessional hurler, at the age of eight, and while he didnt establish himself as a big league starter for another 20 years, he carved out a 24-year-career in the majors, winning 318 games, striking out 3,342 batters, starting more games than all but four pitchers, and earning a spot in the Hall of Fame. getting into 31 Major League games with a 9.95 ERA. As of 2021, four primary knuckleball pitchers are in the Baseball Hall of Fam e today. And take a look at your grip. Knuckleball - Wikipedia A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. Dennis received his B.A. After another postponement, Niekro returned for Game 2, but Torre pinch-hit for him in the top of the seventh inning with a 3-2 lead, and the Cardinals rallied late for a win en route to a three-game sweep. This is one of the most common misconceptions about the knuckleball. I guess this is the end of a 25-year marriage, he told reporters at an impromptu clubhouse press conference on the day of his release. He lived in the Atlanta suburb of Flowery Branch, where a main thoroughfare bears his name. Unlike any other projectile known to man, a properly knuckled ball will change direction suddenly, several times, in different ways and for no apparent reason. Though the team won its final game to finish with its first winning record in 1997 (23-22), the Coors Brewing Company discontinued its sponsorship, and they folded. Mr. Niekros career is a great reminder that we should never judge a book by its cover and that we need to avoid our own unconscious bias about others. However, young pitchers with smaller hands tend to throw the knuckleball with their knuckles. "We may look back on this period in another five years," he says, "and say it was the start of something a bit of a knuckleball era. Check out the next chapter in a series about knuckleball grips coming soon! Phil Niekro (1939-2020), legendary knuckleball pitcher Big leaguers are always looking for ways to stay relevant in the game. Sometimes, a pitcher in minor league baseball will work on the knuckleball pitch to get into the majors, while some players will pick them up later in their careers. A little more pressure from any of the fingertips and the ball spins. Great knuckle ball pitchers curl their fingers around to make hooks and then they dig their fingernails into the rawhide of the ball. 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. By adding a third finger, you make the process a lot more difficult. Niekro learned his knuckler as a 12-year-old from his coal miner father in Ohio. It does not need to be thrown hard (in fact, throwing too hard may diminish its effectiveness), and is therefore less taxing on the arm. Mr. Niekros 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. 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. Well, guess what? These guys broke into the Major Leagues and stayed there, enjoying long and fruitful careers. The greats Dickey, Hough, Niekro and Candiotti all use their fingertips. [STEVE JACOBS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS] [14], Another factor contributing to the rarity of the knuckleball is the difficulty of throwing the pitch. 229 Washington Street, Suite 306 But because the pitch is so difficult to throw, even on a good day, you want to reduce as many variables as possible. From: https://t.co/iTpUdz3u21 pic.twitter.com/pyAzIbvWan, Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) January 18, 2020. He also had 20-win seasons in 1974 and 1979, despite pitching for a team that fell on hard times after its appearance in the inaugural NL Championship Series, where the Braves were swept in three games by New Yorks Amazin Mets. It speculates that the appearance of abrupt shifting may be due to the unpredictability of the changes in direction.[9]. Knuckle Ball (Floater) Grip 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. He caught on with the Indians, and put up a league-average-ish season while helping 28-year-old Tom Candiotti establish himself as a formidable knuckleballer in his own right. 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. On Sunday we learned that Phil Niekro, the greatest knuckleball pitcher in baseball history, had died of cancer the day before at age 81. https://www.youtube.com/MLBClassicsFollow us elsewhere too:Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLBInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mlb/ \u0026 https://www.instagram.com/mlbvault/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mlbTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/share/user/656Visit our site for all baseball news, stats and scores! It comes flying in there dipping and hopping like crazy and you just cant hit it.. After two hours and 20 minutes, umpires decided conditions were unplayable, and under the rules at the time, that meant the proceedings to that point were wiped out (today it would be resumed as a suspended game). Niekro one of Hall of Fame's great ambassadors - MLB 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. How to Throw a Knuckleball - Driveline Baseball Many people, including pros, think that the pitch is thrown with fingertips dug into the seams. Knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro reacts to the news that he has been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame during a press conference on Monday, Jan. 6, 1997 at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta. As with hitters, the unpredictable motion of the knuckleball makes it one of the most difficult pitches for catchers to handle, and they tend to be charged with a significantly higher number of passed balls. Because the pitch travels at 60 mph to maybe 80 mph, throwing that "softly" puts far less stress on an arm than throwing 90 mph or above. It worked so well for young Phil in pickup games with neighborhood kids including John Havlicek, the future N.B.A. Knuckleball Grips, Part 2 - Knuckleball Nation As Torre told Wulf, Knucksie was the type of guy who never wanted to come out, and I think the media made more of it than it should have because in all the years when the team wasnt good, they just left him out there.. Heck, he didn't even know where it was going most of the time. ", "Knuckleballers' paths as tricky as the pitch", "MLB pitchers setting velocity records, altering balance of power", "Knuckleball life comes full circle for Wakefield", "Japan's 'Knuckle Princess' Arrives in U.S.", "Knuckleball pitchers may be a dying breed", "The art of the mysterious knuckleball is on the verge of extinction", "Wakefield, Dickey share a unique relationship", "R. A. Dickey calls Cy Young Award a victory for all knuckleballers", "Knuckleballer Mickey Jannis Making His MLB Debut at Age 33 Is So Cool", "Frazier breaks out knuckler in pitching debut", "You knew Wade Boggs could hit, but did you also know he had a nasty knuckleball? 83, Phil Niekro. Matched up against Seaver in the NLCS opener, he carried a 5-4 lead into the eighth inning before the Mets erupted for five runs, four of them unearned; they went on to sweep the best-of-five series. Defying age, of course, is part of the magic of the knuckleball. 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. Cito Gaston, who would later cross paths with Niekro as a teammate in Atlanta and as the hitting coach in Toronto, grounded out for the final out. The knuckleball grip used by Boston Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright. [10] This effect is increasing over time as the modern game continues to emphasize power in pitching and average pitch speed increases.[11]. He ended up winning 318 games and is fourth on the career innings list. Age + Experience = an Asset and Not a Liability:Incredibly, Mr. Niekro pitched until he was 48 years of age into the 1987 baseball season. In-person Lessons at the Knuckleball Academy, Zink only pitched one game in the Major Leagues, earning himself a 16.62 ERA in the process. If a batter expects an Eephus pitch, they can sit back and swing hard to hit the ball, while a knuckleball pitch has random movement due to the aerodynamic force of the ball, which makes hitting it hard. 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. Tim Wakefield argues that "The problem is that [baseball] is so radar gun-oriented." Baseball Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro dies at 81 Niekro, fearing that he too would wind up working in a coal mine or a steel mill, begged for another chance, and he had a backer in Birdie Tebbetts, a legendary scout and former manager then serving as the Braves executive vice president. The four pitchers in the hall of fame include Phil Niekro, Ted Lyons, Jesse Haines, and Hoyt Wilhelm. He never caught for Dickey again. There are other prominent knuckleball pitchers like Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, who had a very effective knuckler and knuckle curve, and Cy Young Award winning pitcher R. A. Dickey. All three are in the Hall of Fame. Phil baffled batters on the field and later was always the first to join in our community activities. The Braves said Niekro died Saturday night in his sleep. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Sadly, Mr. Niekro is the 7th Hall of Fame player that has died in 2020 and a few months ago I wrote about two of those baseball immortals here. The most important thing was to wear the (Braves) uniform again.. Over the 2018-19 seasons, only nine pitchers threw more innings in all of the major leagues (starters and relievers). As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He was 48 years old then, his fifth year in a row as the games oldest player. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dennis worked as an in-house counsel for Accenture and IBM. Starting Nine: A study in No. 35, Phil Niekro - Battery Power Sometimes young players will throw the knuckleball with their knuckles flat against the ball, giving it less spin but also making it difficult to throw any significant distance. Joe Niekro showing the proper fingertip grip. The knuckleball pitch is difficult for hitters to hit due to the zigzag behavior that the ball makes when traveling to home plate. The screwball is, sadly, a mostly lost pitch. He was 81. And its the most unstable friend that youll ever have. A five-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner, he never won a Cy Young award, but he started more games (716) than all but Young, Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton, and Greg Maddux, taking more turns than any starter who never pitched in a World Series. On July 4, he threw a four-hit complete game victory against the Cubs and brother Joe, a 22-year-old rookie. The Braves won 88 games but finished three behind the Dodgers. Its hard to catch it, its hard to coach it. Teams look for pitchers to throw harder, so teams shift their focus on pitch type and more about pitch speed. On Sunday we learned that Phil Niekro, the greatest knuckleball pitcher in baseball history, had died of cancer the day before at age 81. Hall of Famer. Major League Baseball teams try and have a dedicated catcher catch this pitch to reduce passed balls since they train to catch this pitch. Niekro pitched to a 3.37 ERA (116 ERA+) while averaging 256 innings and 4.2 WAR during that span. A knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to reduce the spin of a ball traveling to the home plate. What is Baltimore thinking? He lived in the Atlanta suburb of Flowery Branch, where a main thoroughfare bears his name. When you feel the ball "tick" off of your fingertips, you have probably thrown a good knuckleball. Of the thousands of pitchers who have reached the majors, fewer than a hundred mastered the knuckleball that maddeningly erratic, spin-free butterfly well enough to rely upon it as their primary pitch. He compiled a 17-1 record on the mound while relying upon the knuckleball, the lone blemish coming in his freshman year, when he served up a solo homer to Warren Consolidated High Schools Bill Mazeroski, himself a future Hall of Famer, and lost 1-0. The Houston Astros scored on him three times. All four of these pitchers had a baseball WHIP below 1.35, which shows how effective they were at reducing hits and limiting walks per inning. My advice to them is take your fastball, curveball and slider and forget about em flush em down the toilet, he said. By ESPN.com news services. [This states that a sphere with a three-inch diameter makes its maximum movement between 50 and 75 mph.] It can keep guys in the majors who might otherwise have been out of baseball years earlier. With Phil Niekro's Death, Baseball Has Lost the Knuckleball and Its In 2013, J. P. Arencibia set a Toronto Blue Jays franchise record by allowing four passed balls in the season opener (a 42 loss) while catching for knuckleballer R. A. Dickey. ATLANTA -- Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro has died at the age of 81. He had three more years of close-but-no-cigar; Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt cut the line as the lone honorees in 1994 and 95, but then the fools in the BBWAA failed to elect anyone in 96, with Niekro receiving 68.3%, Tony Perez 65.7%, and fellow 300-game winner Don Sutton 63.8%, making for the writers first shutout since 1971. A paper presented at the 2012 Conference of the International Sports Engineering Association argues, based on PITCHf/x data, that knuckleballs do not make large and abrupt changes in their trajectories on the way to home plateor at least, no more abrupt than a normal pitch. Other names for the knuckleball have generally alluded to its motion and slower speed. "He was a very good pitcher," Niekro told ESPN in. Its these similarities that make up the key points of a great knuckleball grip. Initially, older sister Phyllis served as her brothers backyard catcher, before his closest friend, future Boston Celtics star and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer John Havlicek, took over. Learn more about this baseball pitch below. He began his answer to our question with this observation: "There's a stigma attached to the knuckleball" by many in baseball. Just because someone in our opinion may not look or speak the part of an outstanding lawyer or business leader doesnt mean they are incapable of being an outstanding lawyer or business leader.