In 2016, the Rays tried to cultivate knuckleballers, without much luck.
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The scarcity of former knuckleballers to teach the pitch makes it harder to spread.
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There are no comparables for R.A. Dickey, no knuckleballers in their 40s on the market.
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Plus, the lack of former knuckleballers to teach the pitch makes it harder to spread.
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" Knuckleballers, Kepner reports, are typically the nicest players, and brave enough "to bring Silly String to a battlefield.
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They have other knuckleballers in their system, and a former knuckleballer, Charlie Haeger, is their minor league pitching coordinator.
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They are the R. A. Dickey knuckleballers of this staff, their bowled balls dipping and diving like drunken fireflies.
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Knuckleballers are the sport's preservationists; how well they do their job will always be secondary to the fact that they do it at all.
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R. A. Dickey, the 4.013-year-old knuckleball pitcher, signed a one-year free-agent deal to pitch for the Atlanta Braves, a team with a rich history of knuckleballers.
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But the Red Sox and the Astros both have former knuckleballers on their broadcast teams: Tim Wakefield is an analyst for the Red Sox network, NESN, and Steve Sparks is an Astros' radio voice.
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Nothing about it seems all that precise; where other knuckleballers monitor nuances of stride and release point, Wright looks for all the world like someone playing catch in the park for the first time since winter, with the primary goal being not to pull anything.
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Knuckleballs thrown in 2019: Steven Wright, Red Sox: 114 Ryan Feierabend, Rays: 73 (currently in the minors) Luke Maile, Blue Jays: 13 (catcher) Total: 200 The big picture: The knuckleball's peak came in 1970, when 7 knuckleballers — including Hall of Famers Phil Niekro and Hoyt Wilhelm — combined for 47 wins and 44 saves.
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From 2013 to 2017, Dickey and Boston Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright were the only two active knuckleballers in the Majors.
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DIPS ERA is not as useful for knuckleballers and other "trick" pitchers, a factor that McCracken mentioned a few days after his original announcement of his research findings in 1999, in a posting on the rec.sport.baseball.analysis Usenet site on November 23, 1999, when he wrote: "Also to [note] is that, anecdotally, I believe pitchers with trick deliveries (e.g. Knuckleballers) might post consistently lower $H numbers than other pitchers. I looked at Tim Wakefield's career and that seems to bear out slightly".
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Some knuckleballers have continued to pitch professionally well into their forties; examples include Tim Wakefield, Hoyt Wilhelm, R.A. Dickey, Charlie Hough, Tom Candiotti, and the brothers Phil Niekro and Joe Niekro. Pitchers like Bouton have found success as knuckleballers after their ability to throw hard declined. Indeed, Bouton's famous best-selling book Ball Four (1970), while scandalous at the time for its unvarnished and often uncomplimentary portrayal of player behavior and coaching small-mindedness, is primarily a tale of the ups and downs of trying to hang on in the major leagues as a knuckleball pitcher.
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Six days after being released from the Pirates, Wakefield was signed by the Boston Red Sox. He worked with Phil and Joe Niekro, two former knuckleballers, who encouraged him to use the knuckleball as an out pitch. In Triple A Pawtucket, Wakefield went 2–1 with a 2.53 ERA.
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He won a career-high 15 games with the Browns in 1942 before joining the wartime Senators, who in both 1944 and fielded a starting rotation featuring four knuckleballers (Mickey Haefner, Dutch Leonard and Roger Wolff were the others). Niggeling's career won–lost record was 64–69 with a 3.22 ERA.
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On July 22, 2007, White Sox pitcher Jon Garland started against Boston Red Sox knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield. Garland was relieved by Haeger in the fifth inning, marking the first time in recent years that two knuckleballers faced each other in the same game. Wakefield got the victory as the Red Sox won, 8–5.
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In later postings on the rec.sport.baseball site during 1999 and 2000 (prior to the publication of his widely read article on BaseballProspectus.com in 2001), McCracken also discussed other pitcher characteristics that might influence BABIP. In 2002 McCracken created and published version 2.0 of dERA, which incorporates the ability of knuckleballers and other types of pitchers to affect the number of hits allowed on balls hit in the field of play (BHFP).
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Wakefield retired at 45. The prevalence of the knuckleballer has varied over time. The 1945 Washington Senators finished 1½ games out of first place with a starting pitching staff that almost exclusively used the pitch, with four knuckleballers in the rotation. That season, the team's three catchers — regular catcher Rick Ferrell and backups Al Evans and Mike Guerra — combined for 40 passed balls, more than double that of any other team in the league.
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At age 27, Bob Locker had made the big leagues, joining a bullpen that featured knuckleballers Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher. He made his debut in Baltimore on April 14, 1965, tossing two innings and giving up three runs. Locker settled down, however, and in a stretch from May 30 to June 20—10 total appearances—he was unscored upon. He would finish his rookie campaign with 93⅓ innings pitched and a 3.15 earned-run average.
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In 1999, Boston's closer Tom Gordon was injured and manager Jimy Williams installed Wakefield as the new closer during the middle part of the season. On August 10, 1999, he joined a select group of pitchers who have struck out four batters in one inning. Because the fluttering knuckleball produces many passed balls, several knuckleballers share this honor with him. He recorded 15 saves before Derek Lowe emerged as the new closer and Wakefield returned to the starting rotation.
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He began his career in the minor leagues in the late 1930s with the Toledo Mud Hens and Seattle Rainiers. Then reached the Majors when manager Connie Mack knew he could catch knuckleballs and wanted him as the fourth catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics. Hancken played his only Major League game on May 14, 1940, getting a putout in the field, but he never had a chance to bat. Unfortunately, Mack sent his two knuckleballers to the minors and Hancken became expendable.
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Franco was talking in the weight room in August 2003 with Jason Marquis, when he leaned on a stand and an 80-pound weight rolled over his finger, breaking it. "When the weight started to roll", Franco said, "I said, 'Uh-oh.'" In 2004, Franco passed Cap Anson as the oldest regularly playing position player in MLB history. (A few regularly playing pitchers, including knuckleballers Phil Niekro and Hoyt Wilhelm, were older than Franco, and a few non-pitchers, like Minnie Miñoso and Jim O'Rourke, appeared as publicity stunts at old ages but did not play regularly.) On December 8, 2005, at age 47, Franco signed a two-year contract with the Mets.
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