Persistent knuckleball pitcher Mickey Jannis has published a few more installments of “A Knuckleballer’s Journey” at MetsMerizedOnline. There are four in the series now. In order: Part 1, published January 8. My dad, Nick Jannis, was a baseball coach, and almost from the day I was born he introduced me to America’s pastime…. My college […]
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Knuckleball Pitcher Wright Has Knee Surgery; Physics of Pitching; Stephen Darst, Has-Been Knuckleballer at 13
Last month, Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright had to sit out the World Series (the Sox won) because his left knee was acting up again. MassLive reported that on November 12 he “underwent a left knee arthroscopy and debridement…at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Dr. Riley Williams performed the procedure.” The Red […]
Josh Turley Evolves from Part-Time to Full-Time Knuckleball Pitcher
We reported early in 2016 that Josh Turley, now of the Toledo Mud Hens, was using the knuckleball as one of several pitches. At that time, pitching coach Mike Henneman was urging Turley to throw the knuckleball more often, advice he seems to have heeded. In a recent interview with Turley, the Toledo Blade asked when […]
Knuckleball Pitcher Steven Wright Signs with Red Sox for 2018 Season
Steven Wright has signed a one-year, non-guaranteed contract with the Red Sox to pitch in 2018. “Wright, 33, was limited to five starts in 2017 before a knee injury cut short his season,” NESN.com recalls. “The knuckleballer, who’s also under team control through 2020, was a surprising All-Star in 2016, posting a 13-6 record with […]
Dickey Knuckleball Still Going Strong
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 […]
Chris Nowlin on Finding Your Own Personal Knuckleball
In a recent post at his Knuckleball Nation site, IKA’s Chris Nowlin (bio here) suggests that which of various equally effective knuckleball grips you adopt depends on personal “feel” that can’t be determined by formula—and also depends on how short you cut your fingernails. Once you’ve reduced any variables and put yourself into position to […]
R.A. Dickey on Not-Finalizing the Knuckleball: “It’s been one big, constant, perpetual adjustment….”
R.A. Dickey, who just turned 42, is getting more than his share of goodbyes for someone who has not yet decided whether to hang up his baseball cap. May it all be embarrassingly premature. In any case, Dickey’s ponderings in an interview with John Lott at TheAthletic.com (“R.A. Dickey has much to fill his life without […]
Knuckleballers Coach Pitching Coaches; Wright, Dickey Top Nasty-Pitch GIF List
Knuckleballers Steven Wright (#35) and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield (the suit) have been coaching pitching coach Carl Willis, who joined the Red Sox team in the middle of last season. As manager John Farrell recalls “with a chuckle,” coaching assistance from the coachee seems to be normal when a coach suddenly must contend with so different […]
Knuckleball Pitchers to Batters: Fooled Ya, It’s NOT a Knuckleball This Time
How do you trick a hitter into thinking he’s about to swing at yet another knuck when you’ve got very different pitch up your sleeve? And why would you ever want to do that, anyway, if you know how to effectively throw so tricky a pitch as the knuckleball? To answer the second question first: […]
Can a Knuckleball Pitch Work As Just Part of a Mix?
If you’re regularly pitching a knuckleball at the pro level, it should be, by far, your primary pitch. That’s what the full-time knuckleballers tend to say. As we noted last week, during his struggle for mastery of the knuckleball Eddie Gamboa felt obliged to restrain an admittedly excessive tendency to revert to fastballs, a pitch […]