Chris Nowlin—whose Knuckleball Nation training seminars are the subject of a Wall Street Journal profile (reprinted at Chris’s web site)—responds to Howard Rich’s July 3 post suggesting that teams pursue a strategy “that exploits skilled knuckleballers, who are often best deployed as relief pitchers.” Chris says: I agree wholeheartedly with “The General Manager’s Undiscovered Secret […]
Knuckleball pitchers are undervalued—even though, once mastered, the knuckleball is devastatingly effective. In part because they are undervalued, knuckleball pitchers are rare. Few teams make the effort to cultivate them. A reliable knuckleballer is clearly an artist. But there is prejudice against the pitch at every level of baseball. The very existence of the knuckleball […]
During the last days of an 80-game suspension, Steven Wright of the Boston Red Sox has been pitching for the Pawtucket Red Sox. On June 9, MassLive reported that the game on that day, a Sunday, marked the “first minor league rehab game for Wright as he returns from suspension and offseason knee surgery.” He’s […]
Once again we have recourse to the words “only knuckleball pitcher in the MLB.” Before the start of this blog (in 2013), Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey had been a dynamic knuckleball duo in the major leagues. Their career story and the story of their 2011 season pitching the knuckleball would be the subject of […]
Last month, outfielder Blake Gailen with the Oklahoma City Dodgers displayed his knuckleball from the mound. The Oklahoman tells the tale in its April 15 story: It was supposed to be a last-ditch effort to survive the night. An inning, maybe two. It turned out to be so much more…. On a night where the […]
Sports writer Tyler Kepner’s new book K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches (published just this April) includes a chapter on the knuckleball, “The Knuckleball: Grabbing the Wing of a Butterfly.” In part, we learn, the knuckleball is about being able to compete. Almost all knuckleballers were rejected by the game before they could […]
Steven Wright seems to be afflicted with the tribulations of Job. Well, nobody has it tougher than Job did. But Wright keeps getting knocked out of play just as he is getting in gear. It wasn’t easy for him to get into the MLB to begin with. Patience, persistence and the knuckleball enabled him to […]
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 […]
At overthemonster.com, Matt Collins reflects on Steven Wright’s 2018, a rough year for the knuckleball pitcher. Wright was late starting the season and then twice got knocked out of play when a knee injury from the previous year flared up. But there was “some solid pitching in between” the gaps. On the field, Steven Wright […]
Jon Weisman, author of Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition, has published his interview with former Dodger Charlie Hough in the December 16 installment of the Word to the Weisman podcast. The half-hour interview includes much information that Weisman wasn’t able to use in the book. Hough was an active player from […]