Ryan Nagelhout of Uproxx.com remembers, and interviews, Tim Wakefield, who “had one of the most fascinating pitching careers in the modern Major Leagues.” But Wakefield rebuilt his career as a knuckleballer, catching on with the Boston Red Sox for 17 seasons in which he pitched the most innings in Red Sox history. He won 200 […]
In a strange article last week, Jeremy Fuchs of Sports Illustrates asserted that although R.A. Dickey is doing well with the Atlanta Braves, his new team this season, the Braves may not be the best home for him. (Fuchs’s question: “It’s a bit of a weird fit, is it not?” Our answer: “Huh?”) Fuchs suggests […]
After the Atlanta Braves edged out the Oakland Athletics 4-3 in their Saturday, July 1 game, R.A. Dickey said of his performance that he “had a good enough knuckleball where I was getting a lot of weak contact. Even the inning they scored their run, it was little nubber up the middle, a ground ball […]
Last time, we reported the comments of R.A. Dickey after he had helped the Braves beat the Phillies 3-1. He said, in effect, that the game was a good omen for future outings in the season. And he challenged himself to keep up his current performance. He has indeed kept it up—for example, with his role […]
Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports that Dickey on Thursday held the Phillies to a season-low one run and three hits with eight strikeouts over seven innings. He also didn’t walk any batters for the first time in 12 starts, a significant development because Dickey blamed an unusually high walk percentage for much of […]
Although the knuckleball takes some getting used to, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Michael Cunningham, Braves manager Brian Snitker is figuring it out with the help of Braves newcomer R.A. Dickey. When Dickey is on the mound managers, opposing batters and catchers accustomed to things going a certain way have to adjust their systems to process this […]
Kurt Suzuki had never before worked with a knuckleball pitcher when he joined the Atlanta Braves as a catcher around the same time that knuckleball catcher R.A. Dickey was also signing on. But Suzuki tells the Macon Telegraph’s Ron Siebel that he’s getting the hang of it. During spring training, Suzuki worked with Dickey, going […]
Knuckleball pitchers are the ones who pitch the knuckleball. They are the ones who are on the mound letting it loose. They also deserve the primary credit for choosing to make such a large change in their careers in order to stay in the game; for as we know, knucklers often adopt the knuckleball as […]
Is it spring training or some kind of All-Star thing? According to Rob Bradford, “Steven Wright looks the same as when he marched on to an All-Star appearance last season.” On Saturday the he pitched “three hitless innings against the twins” and “worked up to 41 pitches before going back down to the bullpen for another […]
R.A. Dickey isn’t worried that his performance during an early March spring-practice game was “not sharp” (according to the Atlanta-Constitution’s David O’Brien). He feels good that despite feeling bad he got in a decent day’s work. “As far as my knuckleball is concerned, really the only hard-hit ball on that pitch came on, Dee Gordon […]