So with the knuckleball, arm speed, none of that matters.
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Vazquez failed to hold a knuckleball and the run scored.
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"Inconsistent action to the knuckleball," Boston manager John Farrell said.
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RHP Steven Wright had a violent, but effective knuckleball Wednesday night.
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Dickey had trouble keeping his knuckleball in the park early on.
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The 1043-year-old knuckleball specialist walked four and struck out six.
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"I treat him just like I do against a knuckleball," Freeman said.
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"I had a tough time throwing the knuckleball for a strike," Wright said.
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He didn't go away from (his knuckleball) even in a four-run game.
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Then a scout named Goldie Holt showed him how to throw a knuckleball.
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Sparks declined, out of friendship to Wakefield and loyalty to the knuckleball brotherhood.
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R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets shows his knuckleball magic on the mound.
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Everything comes off your knuckleball, and he hasn't gotten to that yet, I don't think.
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"I thought (Dickey) had a pretty knuckleball early on," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said.
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He sent another Dickey knuckleball deep into the right-center field seats in the sixth.
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Gamboa had fiddled with a knuckleball since he learned it from his father at age 12.
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When a knuckleball goes up, the thing that it does off the bat, sometimes is bewildering.
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What makes the knuckleball so damned difficult to hit or catch is its unusually erratic trajectory.
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Johnson could list a bonus skill on his job application: the ability to throw a knuckleball.
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It was a big, weird, pushy heave that sailed through the air like a fat knuckleball.
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RHP Steven Wright hopes his knuckleball wakes up by the time he faces Rays hitters Monday morning.
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"I had a good enough knuckleball where I was getting a lot of weak contact," Dickey said.
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Davis crushed RHP R.A. Dickey's 3-2 knuckleball over the left-center wall in the second inning.
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Johnson is a converted first baseman whom the Dodgers are attempting to convert into a knuckleball pitcher.
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The Texas humidity and the Rangers' bats made it tough for Wright, who struggled with his knuckleball grip.
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Every time he gets into a little trouble or doesn't quite get the knuckleball over or doesn't feel good, he goes back to the other stuff, and he kind of gets them out and stays with the other stuff, other than committing — or recommitting — to the knuckleball the whole ballgame.
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If Niekro could control his knuckleball just a little better, Murff said, he would pitch in the big leagues.
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So that's kind of how I gauge how the knuckleball was is how well they were squaring it up.
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"We're at the first quarter of a marathon," said knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey, who took the loss on Wednesday.
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"Of course I smash my knuckleball finger and my nail falls off," Johnson said, referring to his index finger.
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Many hopefuls struggle to perfect the knuckleball, in part because most coaches have no idea how to teach it.
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"He threw about six or seven pitches, and I said, 'Boy, this guy's got a major league knuckleball,' " Niekro said.
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Image: Baptiste Darbois TexierNow Cohen and her Ecole Polytechnique colleagues are back with a new analysis of the knuckleball effect.
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The only three runs he allowed in six innings came on homers — both off fastballs rather than his normal knuckleball.
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When thrown correctly, it seems to defy the laws of modern physics: It is like a knuckleball in a hurricane.
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"A knuckleball is going to do what it does, and I have to own that one to Zimmerman," Dickey said.
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Manager John Farrell said before Friday's game that Wright made his delivery more aggressive to get more movement on the knuckleball.
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The knuckleball specialist allowed one run and three hits, and he retired 15 consecutive batters from the second through sixth innings.
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Rodriguez will start only on Thursday, against Boston's Steven Wright, whose knuckleball could scramble the swing of someone Girardi needs more.
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Two batters later, Gordon hit a 1-0 knuckleball into the Monster seats with a man on to make it 5-0.
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"Hot night, still air — ball's going to have a lot of violence to it," Boston manager John Farrell said of Wright's knuckleball.
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A world where one of the Red Sox's most effective starting pitchers looks like the second coming of knuckleball legend Tim Wakefield.
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Trailing by 1-0 in the count to Mark Teixeira, Wright threw a knuckleball that bobbled out of catcher Ryan Hanigan's mitt.
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The knuckleball-throwing Dickey was wild from the start — hitting a batter and walking another in just the first three plate appearances.
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Wright continues to baffle opposing hitters with his knuckleball and did not allow an earned run in either of his last two starts.
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The only damage against the veteran knuckleball pitcher came on back-to-back homers in the second inning, the last on a curveball.
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Hanley Ramirez struck out, but Toronto catcher Josh Thole could not handle the knuckleball and Ramirez hustled to first as Ortiz took third.
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Before the game, Girardi suggested that the proper way to prepare for a knuckleball pitcher was to unleash butterflies in the batting cage.
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It is only appropriate, then, that the knuckleball will be the first regular-season pitch thrown at SunTrust Park, the Braves' new home.
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Because throwing a knuckleball does not engage the muscles that impart spin on a ball, those who throw it tend to last much longer.
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There was so much movement on his knuckleball that C Josh Thole was charged with two passes balls and Dickey made two wild pitches.
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R.A. Dickey, pitching for the United States, left a knuckleball helicoptering in the zone, and Ramirez turned on it, sending it soaring to left-center.
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Zimmerman's homer to center field came on a 1-0 knuckleball that stayed up after Dickey walked Bryce Harper with two outs in the sixth.
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"That was the first knuckleball I had ever seen, and then the other guy was throwing as hard as anybody in the league," West said.
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That means Ronaldo must kick the soccer ball at just the right velocity (close to the drag crisis threshold) with no spin to produce a knuckleball.
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His shot was peculiar, fluttering like a knuckleball, rotating only a few times before it reached the basket, but it went in more often than not.
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Despite widespread agreement on the flaws of the Cadillac Tax and the need to repeal it, progress has been as slow and wobbly as a knuckleball.
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Steven Wright, who has made 11 starts for Boston in the past three seasons, converted to the knuckleball five years ago while in the Cleveland farm system.
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"It's one of those things you try to go out there and establish your knuckleball for called strikes," said Wright, who threw a 119 pitches (78 strikes).
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At Merced High School in California, he clinched the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship by using a knuckleball to strike out the final hitter for Elk Grove.
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So naturally players and coaches around the world are quite keen for any new insights science has to offer that might give them an edge against the knuckleball.
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Toronto starter Ryan Feierabend (21-23), a left-hander who throws a knuckleball, allowed four runs, seven hits and one walk while striking out two in four innings.
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Toronto starter Ryan Feierabend (0-1), a left-hander who throws a knuckleball, allowed four runs, seven hits and one walk while striking out two in four innings.
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The book devotes a chapter apiece to the fastball, the curveball, the sinker, the slider, the cutter, the changeup, the splitter, the screwball, the knuckleball and the spitball.
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Gwen Ifil, one of the other moderators, threw a knuckleball of a question during the race portion of the debate: "I want to talk about white people, OK?" she said.
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Joey Votto led off the sixth inning with a single and then three of the next four hitters played long ball against Dickey's knuckleball in the Reds' four-run sixth.
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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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The core thrill of the knuckleball, under the weird dips and swerves, is that it survives; the thrill is all the more pronounced when it's helping a team do the same.
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It was probably one of my worst games, in terms of my knuckleball and stat line — I think I gave up more home runs tonight than I did all of last year.
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The bad news for the knuckleball is that it's designed to induce fly balls, which is something teams are avoiding like the plague in today's era of launch angles and juiced baseballs.
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The knuckleball has never been a popular pitch by any means (fewer than 100 MLB pitchers have used it as their primary pitch, per FanGraphs), but did you ever think it'd go extinct?
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What's next: The good news for the knuckleball is that the next Tim Wakefield or R.A. Dickey could certainly be out there, and all it takes is one pitcher to stave off extinction.
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Healy went 28-for-219 on Friday in his major-league debut, but in his first at-bat Saturday, he sent Dickey's 226-2121 pitch — a 23 mph knuckleball — over the left field fence.
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INF/OF Daniel Descalso went 3-for-3 with a double and a RBI against the Braves' R.A. Dickey on Friday and is 20-for-216 in his career against the veteran knuckleball pitcher.
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Vancouver widened the lead just 17 seconds later when Horvat got behind DeAngelo on the rush, took a feed from Burrows and pushed a knuckleball between Smith's arm and body for a 3-1 lead.
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It is important that a knuckleball pitcher—proxy for anyone who has ever dreamed of reaching heights far beyond their usual capabilities thanks to a bit of honed flukery—look the part, and Wright does.
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"In bocce, for example, a zigzag path should occur over a length of 27 meters, but this distance is much longer than the typical shooting length and so the knuckleball effect will be incomplete," said Darbois Texier.
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Even though he's about to get the full Hollywood C.G.I. treatment, Doctor Strange has never been a superstar of the Marvel Universe — more like an endearing benchwarmer with a knuckleball personality and a wacky Cloak of Levitation.
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The 25-metre strike in Tuesday's 4-1 win over Pahang has been dubbed the "knuckleball goal" on Twitter and YouTube and has been compared to Roberto Carlos' famous free kick for Brazil against France in 1997.
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But much like throwing a knuckleball, another freakish style that is often a last-ditch attempt to carve out a career, dropping down will surely remain an option for the rare characters who can master the skill.
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Nationals defeat Braves to earn three-game sweep ATLANTA — Not even facing R.A. Dickey's dancing knuckleball could disrupt the grooved swing of Washington's Ryan Zimmerman as the Nationals completed a three-game series sweep of the Atlanta Braves.
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And because Wright throws a knuckleball, it is impossible to watch him without thinking of the lineage to which he belongs, the gallery of hangers-on and tinkerers who have seen that beautiful, stupid pitch through to the present day.
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The margin of error for any guard who isn't respected on the outside narrows by the playoff series, but Livingston knows how to balance out Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant's 103 mile-per-hour heat with an unhittable knuckleball.
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The physics behind the spitball is simple enough: When the ball slides off wet fingers, it loses backspin and therefore rotates less — something like a knuckleball, which should not rotate at all, or a forkball tumbling in its final plunge.
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Both Boone and Bard had their playing careers defined through Wakefield — Boone famously hitting the home run off the Red Sox knuckleball pitcher that sent the Yankees to the World Series in 2003 and Bard having a more ignominious experience.
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For Boston, the move recalled the adventures of Doug Mirabelli, who was whisked across the country in May 2006 after a quickie trade with San Diego because the Red Sox needed a catcher for Tim Wakefield's knuckleball against the Yankees.
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"Even when he's misfired with his knuckleball, he's a got a couple of other pitches he can go to so he's not defenseless if that pitch is a little erratic for an inning or a couple of innings," said Farrell.
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But Bard's difficulties corralling the elusive knuckleball — allowing 10 passed balls in Wakefield's first five starts — became such fodder for the fans and news media that a month into the season the Red Sox sent Bard to San Diego to reacquire Mirabelli.
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From 1949 to 1952, Sandlock was the regular catcher for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, where one of his battery mates was Johnny Lindell, a former outfielder for the Yankees who was trying to rejuvenate his career as a knuckleball pitcher.
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But he made his stay memorable, blasting a Tim Wakefield knuckleball into the left-field seats in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, defeating the Boston Red Sox and sending the Yankees to the World Series.
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I felt pretty good in the bullpen and then I came out and kind of shot myself in the foot with the first pitch of the game hitting Seth Smith and then after that they went into swing mode and the knuckleball just wasn't doing anything — and they capitalized on it.
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But, lacking behind-the-plate seats at Shea and now Citi Field, and watching on a less-than-high-def TV at home, I registered little more of pitching technique beyond knowing that you have to do the bunny-ears thing with your index and middle fingers to throw a knuckleball.
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The young southpaw, who is expected to be a factor out of the HarbourCats' bullpen all summer, is especially known for her knuckleball—which is closer to a knuckle-curve according to her coach with the Canadian National Women's Team—and said she used the pitch between six and eight times throughout her two-inning debut.
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Every knuckleball aficionado keeps an eye out for the wonkiest offering—this particular evening's came in the form of a pitch to Miguel Sano that crept to the plate, paused, and scudded hard to the left, so that Sano missed it by a seeming yard and spun fully around on his cleats—but no one moment proved as fun as the game's larger tempo.
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R.A. Dickey estimates that it takes at least a year to grasp the fundamentals of the knuckleball. The knuckleball is radically different than any other pitch in a pitcher's arsenal, and less predictable, thus difficult to control. It is for this reason that the knuckleball is widely regarded as unreliable, and knuckleball pitchers are prone to extended slumps, such as when Tim Wakefield was released from the Pirates in a mid-career slump during spring training in 1995. Another reason for the difficulty of the knuckleball is due to the network effect.
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They cut the corner sharp. They were puzzlers and I still don’t know if they were a knuckleball or a palm ball.” Japanese players called Kipp a “knuckleball artist”.
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Because there are so few knuckleball pitchers, the resources for learning and improving the knuckleball are few compared to more common pitches. Pitching coaches often struggle with knuckleball pitchers due to a lack of experience with the pitch. "I think the hardest thing for me is just the alone-ness that you feel sometimes because nobody else really does it", said Wakefield. Coaches have also been seen as a barrier to succeeding with the knuckleball.
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He earned a reputation as one of the best knuckleball catchers in baseball when he had the arduous task of catching for a Senators' starting pitching staff made up entirely of knuckleball pitchers. Dutch Leonard, Johnny Niggeling, Roger Wolff, and Mickey Haefner all threw the notoriously difficult-to-catch knuckleball, making Ferrell the first catcher in major league history to accomplish the feat.
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Tim Wakefield in his throwing motion, showing his grip of the knuckleball Since it developed during a period when the spitball was legal and commonly used, and was similarly surprising in its motion, the knuckleball was sometimes called the "dry spitter". Cicotte was widely reported to throw both the knuckleball and a variant on the spitball known as a "shine ball" (because he would "shine" one side of a dirty ball by rubbing it on his uniform). However, Cicotte called the shine ball "a pure freak of the imagination", claiming that he did this to disconcert hitters and that the pitch was still a knuckleball. Other names for the knuckleball have generally alluded to its motion and slower speed.
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Candiotti became known for his use of the knuckleball. According to former Texas Rangers pitching coach Tom House, Candiotti was only the 20th pitcher in major-league history to throw the knuckleball on a full-time basis.
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Toward the end of his career, he relied mostly on the knuckleball.
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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. However, young pitchers with smaller hands tend to throw the knuckleball with their knuckles. 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. Regardless of how the ball is gripped, the purpose of the knuckleball is to have the least possible amount of rotational spin.
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Tim Wakefield throwing a knuckleball Knuckleball pitchers are baseball players who rely on the knuckleball as their primary pitch, or pitch primarily based on their ability to throw a knuckleball. The inventor of the knuckleball has never been established, although several pitchers from the early 20th century have been credited. Baseball statistician and historian Rob Neyer named four individuals in an article he wrote in the 2004 book The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers as potentially deserving credit, any of whom may have originated the pitch in either the or seasons. Nap Rucker of the Brooklyn Dodgers came up to the majors in 1907, initially throwing hard stuff but later switching to the knuckleball. A 1908 article credited Lew Moren as the inventor of the pitch. Ed Cicotte earned a full-time spot with the Detroit Tigers in 1908, earning the nickname "Knuckles" for his signature pitch.
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The team is also notable for having female knuckleball pitcher Eri Yoshida on their roster.
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Though Jeetan Sareen developed the knuckle ball for cricket as early as 1989, the Knuckle ball was first introduced by India's Zaheer Khan in 2011 world cup. Bowlers who often use the knuckleball include India's Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Australia's Andrew Tye. Tye's lethal use of the knuckleball leads to vast success in limited overs competitions, and his eventual selection for Australia. Tye's fame is largely due to his world-renowned use of the knuckleball.
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Eddie Cicotte, who is sometimes credited with inventing the knuckleball As used by Cicotte, the knuckleball was originally thrown by holding the ball with the knuckles, hence the name of the pitch. Ed Summers, a Pittsburgh teammate of Cicotte who adopted the pitch and helped develop it, modified this by holding the ball with his fingertips and using the thumb for balance. This grip can also include digging the fingernails into the surface of the ball. The fingertip grip is more commonly used today by knuckleball pitchers, like retired Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who had a knuckleball with a lot of movement.
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Thus they are kept as separate statistics and are not recorded as errors. There tends to be a higher incidence of passed balls when a knuckleballer is pitching. The physics that make a knuckleball so difficult to hit make it similarly difficult to catch. While teams with a knuckleballer on their pitching staff often employ a special "knuckleball catcher" who is equipped with a knuckleball mitt, similar to a first baseman's glove, it is still extremely difficult to catch.
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Jofra Archer successfully deployed the knuckleball during the 2019 Cricket World Cup and subsequent Test series against Australia.
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When originally developed, the knuckleball was used by a number of pitchers as simply one pitch in their repertoire, usually as part of changing speeds from their fastball. It is almost never used in a mixed repertoire today, however, and some believe that to throw the knuckleball effectively with some semblance of control over the pitch, one must throw it more or less exclusively. At the same time, pitchers rarely focus on the knuckleball if they have reasonable skill with more standard pitches. Unlike conventional pitches, which perform fast results without much exertion, a knuckleball pitcher must train his body and muscle memory to be able to execute a 65 mph pitch with under one rotation.
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He led the league in victories and strikeouts and, was voted the league's Most Valuable Player. His knuckleball proved to be unpredictable as he also led the league in bases on balls. Lindell returned to the major leagues in at the age of 36 as a knuckleball pitcher, playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in August 1953. His knuckleball proved to be difficult to control in , as he led the league in bases on balls and wild pitches.
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Wilhelm broke with tradition when he began throwing the pitch as a teenager and threw it nearly every pitch. The New York Times linked his knuckleball with that of modern pitcher R.A. Dickey, as Wilhelm taught pitcher Charlie Hough the knuckleball in 1971, and Hough taught it to Dickey while coaching with the Texas Rangers.
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Two later pitchers, Jesse Haines and Freddie Fitzsimmons, were sometimes characterized as knuckleball pitchers even by their contemporaries, but in their cases this again refers to a harder-thrown, curving pitch that would probably not be called a knuckleball today. Historically, the term "knuckle curve" had a usage that was different from what it has in the game today. Many current pitchers throw a curveball using a grip with the index finger touching the ball with the knuckle or the fingertip (also called a spike curve). This modern pitch type is unrelated to the knuckleball.
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Herrmann developed a reputation as one of the best knuckleball catchers in the American League from his work with such knuckleball pitchers as Hoyt Wilhelm, Wilbur Wood and Eddie Fisher. Wood won twenty or more games for four consecutive years between 1971 and 1974 with Herrmann as his catcher. Unfortunately for Herrmann, trying to catch the unpredictable knuckleball pitch also contributed to his leading American League catchers four times in passed balls allowed. In , Herrmann was selected to be a member of the American League All-Star team.
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Knuckleball! is a 2012 documentary film that follows the 2011 seasons of Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey, Major League Baseball's only knuckleball pitchers that year. It was released in theaters on September 20, 2012 and on DVD on April 2, 2013. Wakefield won his 200th game in 2011 and Dickey won the 2012 Cy Young Award.
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Clark signed with the Camden Riversharks of the unaffiliated Atlantic League of Professional Baseball a few days later, and scrapped the knuckleball.
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Wakefield throwing a knuckleball in a 2006 game Wakefield pitched with what is said to be a slow sidearm motion, but is actually a ¾-overhand motion. This also revealed some of his pitches to hitters, because they can see his hand. Wakefield's primary pitch, the knuckleball, is normally thrown about 64–68 mph and has a great deal of variance in how much it 'flutters'. The flutter of his knuckleball depended on a variety of factors including temperature, humidity, precipitation (both type and intensity), air resistance, wind speed, wind direction, the condition of the ball, and very small changes in his grip or the orientation of the seams. Wakefield also featured a 71–75 mph fastball, a slow curve (57-61 mph), and a slower version of his knuckleball (59-62 mph).
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Dickey relied primarily on the knuckleball, using the pitch around 80% of the time. His repertoire was rounded out by two-seam and four-seam fastballs (82–85 mph) and a rare changeup (76–78 mph). Dickey's knuckleball came in two forms — a "slow" knuckler in the low-to-mid 70s that has been clocked as low as 54 mph, and a "fast" one in the upper 70s, sometimes reaching as fast as 83 mph. Dickey tended to use the slow knuckleball when he was behind in the count, and used the fast one when he was ahead.
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He was converted into a starting pitcher in Texas, where he pitched from 1980 to 1990, making his only All-Star team in 1986. He left Texas as the franchise leader in wins, strikeouts, complete games and losses. He was famous for his "dancing knuckleball" pitch that he threw around 80% of the time. Hough complemented his knuckleball with a fastball and slider.
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If a knuckleball does not change direction in mid-flight, however, then it is easy to hit due to its lack of speed. (A common phrase for hitting a knuckleball is "if it's low, let it go; if it's high, let it fly"; meaning that a batter should attempt to hit a knuckleball only if it crosses the plate high in the strike zone due to lack of break.) Since it typically only travels , far slower than the average major league fastball , it can be hit very hard if there is no movement. One 2007 study offered evidence for this conclusion. To reduce the chances of having the knuckleball get hit for a home run, some pitchers will impart a slight topspin so that if no force causes the ball to dance, it will move downward in flight.
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The knuckleball does provide some advantages to its practitioners. 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. This means knuckleball pitchers can throw more innings than other pitchers, and, requiring less time to recover after pitching, can pitch more frequently. The lower physical strain also fosters longer careers.
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Tim Wakefield argues that "The problem is that [baseball] is so radar gun-oriented." Former knuckleballer and pitching coach Charlie Hough says that the increased rarity of the knuckleball is due to scouts increasingly looking only for the best arm. This effect is increasing over time as the modern game continues to emphasize power in pitching and average pitch speed increases. Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro, and Jesse Haines, three pitchers who primarily relied on the knuckleball, have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Additionally, Ted Lyons, another member of the Hall of Fame, relied heavily on the knuckleball after injuring his arm in 1931.
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In 1960, Wood was signed out of Belmont High School by the Boston Red Sox. He pitched on-and-off for them for a few seasons before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in late September 1964. After two seasons with Pittsburgh, he was traded to the White Sox after the 1966 season.Pirates peddle Wood to Sox When he arrived, knuckleball specialist Hoyt Wilhelm advised him to use his knuckleball exclusively.
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Knuckleball is a 2018 Canadian thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Michael Peterson. The movie was released on March 3, 2018, at the Cinequest Film & VR Festival.
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On December 18, 2008, Niekro decided to make a comeback as a knuckleball pitcher and was signed by the Atlanta Braves to a minor league contract.Kepner, Tyler "Lance Niekro Dusts Off a Family Heirloom: The Knuckleball" The New York Times, Sunday, February 22, 2009 He pitched one season in the Braves' system, appearing in 14 games for the Gulf Coast League Braves in before becoming a free agent at the end of the year.
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Dutch Leonard, Johnny Niggeling, Roger Wolff and Mickey Haefner all threw the notoriously difficult to catch knuckleball. Further recognition came when he was selected to be the starting catcher for the American League in the 1943 All-Star Game. The difficulty in catching the knuckleball was evident as Early led the league in passed balls allowed. In December 1943, Early was called into military service and was inducted into the United States Army.
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His use of the knuckleball allowed him to extend his career after his other pitches became ineffective. Unlike other knuckleball pitchers who gripped the pitch with their fingertips, Haines actually held the ball with his knuckles, throwing it as hard as he could. Haines began to pitch fewer games in 1932. By 1936, manager Frankie Frisch thought that Haines had become too old and held him out of any games until May.
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Charles Oliver Hough (; born January 5, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a knuckleball pitcher from 1970 to 1994.
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Wilhelm was noted during this period for his mentoring of relief pitcher Wilbur Wood, who came to the 1967 White Sox in a trade. Wood sometimes threw a knuckleball upon his arrival in Chicago, but Wilhelm encouraged him to throw it full-time. By 1968, Wood won 13 games, saved 16 games and earned a 1.87 ERA. He credited Wilhelm with helping him to master the knuckleball, as the White Sox coaches did not know much about how to throw it.
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The split- finger fastball, or "splitter", is truly an off-speed pitch rather than a type of fastball. Like the changeup, to which it is a close relative, it is thrown with the same arm motion as a normal fastball, but the adjusted grip causes it to behave quite differently. The ball does not have the characteristically tight spin of a fastball. The ball appears to tumble in a knuckleball-like fashion; but it is much faster than a knuckleball.
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He began to develop his reputation as a good defensive catcher from his association with knuckleball pitcher Jim Tobin. The other Braves catchers shunned Tobin due to the unpredictability of the notoriously difficult to catch knuckleball and, Masi took over the job as his catcher. When Lombardi was traded to the New York Giants in 1943, Masi became the Braves regular catcher. His work with Tobin paid off on April 27, 1944 when Tobin pitched a no hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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Promoted to the Triple-A Oakland Oaks in 1946, he finished the season with a 15–4 record and a 3.13 ERA. While in Oakland, he learned to throw the knuckleball under manager Casey Stengel. He would become primarily a knuckleball pitcher in the major leagues as a result, with that encompassing 80% of his pitches. On December 6, 1946, the New York Yankees, traded him to the Cleveland Indians along with Hal Peck and Al Gettel for Sherm Lollar and Ray Mack.
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On March 5, 2016, Johnson signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays, with the intention to convert from a first baseman into a knuckleball pitcher. He was released on March 30.
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The Knuckleball Suite is the seventh album by American singer/songwriter Peter Mulvey. Produced in 2006 by David Goodrich and released by Signature Sounds, it contains a cover of the U2 song "The Fly".
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Zimniuch 2010, p. 34. Relievers in the 1950s started to develop oddball pitches to distinguish them from starters. For example, Hoyt Wilhelm threw a knuckleball, and Elroy Face threw a forkball.Zimniuch 2010, pp. 38–45.
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The film sets up the 2011 season by showing how the knuckleball saved both pitchers from obscurity. Dickey moved his family 37 times before landing with the New York Mets. The film presents Wakefield's chase of his 200th win as a member of the 2011 Red Sox and Dickey’s make-it-or-break-it season with the 2011 Mets. It demonstrates the fraternal nature of knuckleball pitchers who trade tips of the trade via various meetings with the likes of Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough.
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The origins of the knuckleball are unclear. Toad Ramsey of the Louisville Colonels in the old American Association—his pitch likely resembled the knuckle curve—and Eddie Cicotte of the major leagues' Chicago White Sox, who in 1908, was nicknamed "Knuckles", are two possible creators of the pitch. Other accounts attribute the pitch's creation to Charles H. Druery, a pitcher for the Blue Ridge League. In 1917, Druery taught the pitch to Eddie Rommel who became successful with the knuckleball for the Philadelphia Athletics.
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This kind of knuckle curve is rare—it is easier to control than a standard knuckleball, but still difficult to master. The most famous practitioners of this type of knuckle curve are Burt 'Happy' Hooton, who pitched for the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, and former reliever Jason Isringhausen. The third type of knuckle curve was thrown by Dave Stenhouse in the 1960s. Stenhouse's knuckle curve was thrown like a fastball but with a knuckleball grip.
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Harden threw four pitches: a fastball, a changeup, a splitter, and a slider. Harden's fastball typically reached speeds of 92–96 miles per hour (mph) and on occasion broke 100 mph. Because of the grip he used, his splitter often acted much like a knuckleball because it was difficult to predict what it would do, resulting in it often being referred to as the "ghost pitch". Former Oakland Athletics catcher Adam Melhuse coined the term "spluckle" (a combination of splitter and knuckleball) to refer to this innovative pitch.
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Yoshida was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan where, she taught herself how to throw the knuckleball at the age of 14 after watching Major League Baseball pitcher Tim Wakefield on television. She stands tall, and her pitches have been clocked at , while her knuckleball pitch velocity measures around 50 mph. As a high-school sophomore at Kawasaki-kita Senior High School in Kawasaki, she threw the pitch well enough to earn a place on the school's baseball team. Her success caused a sensation in the national media, who dubbed her the Knuckle Princess.
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As a player Daley made his home in Orange, California. He was successful in public relations and a skilled speaker. In the offseason he once appeared in seventy-two towns in six states. Daley was a knuckleball pitcher.
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Charles Wallis Haeger (September 19, 1983October 3, 2020) was an American professional baseball player. He was one of the few knuckleball pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB) during his career.Former MLB knuckleballer Charlie Haeger retires. Yawkey Way Report.
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Its starting rotation featured four knuckleball artists—Roger Wolff, Dutch Leonard, Johnny Niggeling and Mickey Haefner—who combined for 60 victories. Wolff and Leonard posted sterling 2.12 and 2.13 earned run averages, third and fourth in the league.
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The following season, Lolich added a knuckleball to his pitching. Lolich had an inconsistent season in 1979 and decided to retire. He pitched in his final major league game on September 23, 1979 at the age of 39.
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Eduardo Avila Gamboa (born December 21, 1984) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays. He is a knuckleball pitcher.
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"Dammit", he says. "You know you've got to > pitch from the stretch in that situation."Bouton, p. 143 Bouton and Maglie clashed over the knuckleball, which Bouton wanted to throw exclusively; Maglie preferred that he throw other pitches as well.
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Charles Wesley Flowers (August 13, 1913 – December 31, 1988) was a knuckleball pitcher in Major League Baseball, appearing in 14 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1940 and 1944 seasons. Flowers served in the Navy during World War II.
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Robert Allen Dickey (born October 29, 1974) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves. After limited success in the MLB as a conventional starting pitcher, Dickey learned to throw a knuckleball. In 2012, Dickey was selected to his first All-Star Game, won the Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award, and became the first knuckleball pitcher to win the Cy Young Award after posting a 20–6 record with a league-leading 230 strikeouts.
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Throughout his career, Dickey did not know that his "forkball" pitch was actually a hard knuckleball, but by 2005, Dickey had realized that the best way to extend his career was to perfect the pitch. At the beginning of the 2006 season, the Rangers gave Dickey a chance to try out his knuckleball at the major league level by naming him the 5th starter. However, after giving up 6 home runs in his first start on April 6, tying the modern era baseball record with another knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield, he was demoted to the Rangers' Triple-A minor league affiliate, the Oklahoma RedHawks.
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His 2011 season was followed in the documentary film Knuckleball! His autobiography, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, written along with New York Daily News reporter Wayne Coffey, was released in 2012. In the book, Dickey reports suffering sexual abuse as an 8-year-old child by a 13-year-old female babysitter, and later by a teenage male, and discusses his struggles with suicidal thoughts as an adult. In September 2012, Dial Press announced a deal with Dickey to publish three books, including a children's version of his memoir.
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That same year, Stern co-directed with Sundberg and Nic Dunlop, Burma Soldier narrated by Colin Farrel, Stern next co-directed Secret Access: UFOS ON the Record, which premiered on the History Channel in August 2011. In 2012, Stern co-directed Knuckleball! which follows baseball players relying on knuckleball. In 2013, Stern co-directed Let Them Wear Towels, a short documentary film following Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke being denied access to the New York Yankees players locker room, and Lisa Olson a reporter for The Boston Herald who was sexually harassed by New York Patriot members during an interview .
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He had 64 strikeouts and a 3.51 ERA. Wynn missed the rest of the season, even giving up eating meat in an attempt to get the ailment under control. By 1962, Wynn had started pitching mainly with the slider and the knuckleball.
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He received a $5,000 signing bonus. Sauveur pitched in Minor League Baseball and learned to throw a knuckleball in 1986. He made his major league debut on July 1, 1986, as a starting pitcher against the Philadelphia Phillies. In innings pitched, Sauveur allowed two runs.
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On April 6, 2010, Ohka signed a contract with his former team, the Yokohama BayStars in Japan. He pitched for them through 2011. In 2013, he reinvented himself as a knuckleball pitcher and played for the Toyama Thunderbirds of the Baseball Challenge League.Elliott, Bob.
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Edwin Americus Rommel (September 13, 1897 - August 26, 1970) was an American right-handed pitcher and umpire in Major League Baseball. He spent his entire playing career (1920–1932) with the Philadelphia Athletics. He is considered to be the "father" of the modern knuckleball.
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Previously, particularly in the Montreal Royals days, French broadcasters would use English for baseball concepts that didn't have a French equivalent. Through their efforts, a French language baseball lexicon was created: words like "home run" became "" and "hit" became "". A knuckleball became "", literally "butterfly ball".
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In 2012, Sundberg co-directed Knuckleball! which follows baseball players relying on knuckleball. In 2013, Sundberg co-directed Let Them Wear Towels, a short documentary film following Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke being denied access to the New York Yankees players locker room, and Lisa Olson a reporter for The Boston Herald who was sexually harassed by New York Patriot members during an interview . From 2014 to 2016, Sundberg co- directed The Fashion Fund a documentary series for Amazon Prime Video following a competition led by Anna Wintour and Diane von Furstenberg nominating promising designers to prove their place in the future of fashion.
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In 1991, Pettitte pitched for the Gulf Coast Yankees of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and Oneonta Yankees of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League, making six starts for each team. With Oneonta, Pettitte teamed up with catcher Jorge Posada, his longtime batterymate, for the first time. Pettitte threw a knuckleball at the time. Posada struggled to catch the knuckleball, prompting Pettitte to abandon the pitch. In 1992, Pettitte pitched for the Greensboro Hornets of the Class A South Atlantic League. He pitched to a 10–4 win–loss record and a 2.20 earned run average (ERA), with 130 strikeouts and 55 walks, in 27 games started.
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This will cause the position of the stitches to change as the ball travels, which changes the drag that gives the ball its motion, thus making its flight even more erratic. Even a ball thrown without rotation will "flutter", due to the "apparent wind" it feels as its trajectory changes throughout its flight path. Hitting a knuckleball is different enough from other aspects of baseball that players specifically prepare for the pitch during batting practice before games they expect it in. According to physicist Robert Adair, due to the physiological limitation of human reaction time, a breaking knuckleball may be impossible to hit except by luck.
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The second type of knuckle curve is a breaking ball that is thrown with a grip similar to the knuckleball. Unlike a knuckleball, which spins very little, a knuckle curve spins like a normal curveball because the pitcher's index and middle fingers push the top of the ball into a downward curve at the moment of release. Since only two fingers produce the spin, however, a knuckle curve does not spin as fast as a curveball, meaning the break is less sharp, and less predictable. Because this knuckle curve can be thrown with the same general motion as a fastball, it is more deceptive than a normal curveball.
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Steven William Sparks (born July 2, 1965) is a former knuckleball-throwing right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher, who graduated from Holland Hall School, then attended Sam Houston State University in 1987. In addition to the knuckler, Sparks threw an occasional slider and low-80s fastball.
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A knuckleball specialist, Ojala pitched mostly in long relief, although he made 5 starts for the Marlins in 1997 after being called up from the minor league Charlotte Knights,O'Brien, David. "Eight-year Wait Ends For Ojala", Sun Sentinel, Monday, Aug. 18, 1997. Accessed 7/5/2010.
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FIFA described Bonansea as “pacey and snake-hipped” and “able to balletically slalom past opponents on grass like Alberto Tomba did poles,” comparing her to Paulo Futre and Ryan Giggs in their primes. Bonansea is renowned for scoring wonder goals, including the knuckleball free-kicks pioneered by Juninho Pernambucano.
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393 of slugging, while her .282 batting average ranks her sixth in the all-time list of hitters who had a minimum of 1000 at bat appearances.How To Pitch A Knuckleball Underhand Softball PitchAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2000.
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197 in . In , Martin batted a career-best .261, however, he also set a major league record with 33 passed balls (after committing 24 the year before)—due, in large part, to catching knuckleball pitchers Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher. This record stood until Geno Petralli broke it in .
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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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In association football or soccer, the method of striking the ball so that it produces almost no spinning motion during its flight has also frequently been colloquially described as "knuckleballing" by commentators, due to the ball motions that resemble that of a baseball thrown with a knuckleball pitch. This shooting technique is frequently used by players for long-range shots and free kicks. A successful knuckleball shot will "move," "dip," or "wobble" in the air unpredictably, making it difficult for the goalkeeper to save. This technique has also been described as the "dry leaf" or "dead leaf" technique (or "folha seca," in Portuguese), the "tomahawk," or even "the accursed" (or "maledetta," in Italian).
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He switched to the Cubs' organization as a member of its College of Coaches experiment from 1961–65, then returned to the Dodgers as a scout through the early 1980s. During that time, he taught Charlie Hough how to throw a knuckleball. Goldie Holt died at age 89 in Burbank, California.
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Jacob Willard Early (May 19, 1915 – May 31, 1985) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Browns. Early was a left-hand-hitting batter and was known for his skill at catching the knuckleball.
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On March 2, 2010, she trained with Tim Wakefield at the Boston Red Sox minor-league training facility. And on April 8, 2010, she signed with the Chico Outlaws, debuting on May 29, 2010. Another factor contributing to the rarity of the knuckleball is the difficulty of throwing the pitch.
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After being released mid-season by the Heroes, Feierabend signed with the KBO's KT Wiz in 2016. He re-signed with the team for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and became a free agent following the 2018 season. Beginning in 2017, Feierabend began throwing a knuckleball consistently as part of his pitching arsenal.
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The Orioles did not assign Clark to a minor league affiliate at the start of the 2014 season, as he worked on his knuckleball in extended spring training. In June, the Orioles opted not to assign Clark to the Aberdeen Ironbirds of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League, and instead released him.
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Robert Thomas Purkey (July 14, 1929 – March 16, 2008) was an American right- handed pitcher in Major League Baseball known for his use of the knuckleball. From 1954 through 1966, Purkey played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds / Redlegs, and St. Louis Cardinals. In 1974 he was elected to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
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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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He was designated for assignment on May 4, 2013. On May 6, he was outrighted to Bowie, where he began developing a knuckleball. He experienced a hamstring injury, and struggled for the remainder of the season. Clark became a free agent at the end of the season, and signed a new minor league contract with the Orioles.
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As a catcher, Redmond was known for his skill in calling the right pitches for the pitcher to throw. He was also noted for his veteran leadership and clubhouse presence. He was also known for his defensive ability. He caught R.A. Dickey and Dennis Springer, who all threw a knuckleball, considered a difficult pitch to catch.
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Ultimately, they were defeated by New Orleans, three games to one, in the conference series. Nashville-native knuckleball pitcher and 13-game winner R.A. Dickey won the PCL Pitcher of the Year Award. Massive flooding in the Midwest resulted in the Sounds and Iowa Cubs playing a game with an official attendance of zero on June 14, 2008.
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Thomas Caesar Candiotti (born August 31, 1957) is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who was known for his knuckleball. He played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Dodgers. As of the 2015 season, Candiotti is a television and radio analyst for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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"It was tough for Myers and Borders to adjust to me mid- season", Candiotti said. "Because I threw the knuckleball, I normally spent more time with my catchers than other pitchers. People don’t realize this— even the guys in the media — but not having spring training to work with them made a big difference."Wee, K. P. (2014).
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Although he had a 2.49 ERA, none of the Indians' catchers could handle Wilhelm's knuckleball. General manager Frank Lane, alarmed at the large number of passed balls, allowed the Baltimore Orioles to select Wilhelm off waivers on August 23, 1958. In Baltimore, Wilhelm lived near the home of third baseman Brooks Robinson and their families became close friends.
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Williams used an assortment of different pitches against opposing batters. He used a cut fastball which he could throw between 89–92 mph, which was considered his best pitch overall. He relied on his curveball as his strikeout pitch, and utilized a straight change as well. Williams was also known to throw an occasional knuckleball in games.
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Also revealed was the heavy drinking of Yankee legend Mickey Mantle, which had previously been kept almost entirely out of the press. Bouton additionally described clashes with his coaches (usually about his role with the team, his opinion that he should use the knuckleball exclusively, and his desire to throw between outings) and his outspoken views on politics.
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The Chicago White Sox selected Haeger in the 25th round of the 2001 Major League Baseball draft. He made his professional debut with the AZL White Sox. He briefly retired to pursue a career in golf following the 2002 season, but returned in 2004. While in the minor leagues, he learned how to throw a knuckleball.
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Miller played in five games with 12 plate appearances for the Minnesota Twins in 2005. In 2005, he also pitched for the first time in a professional game with the Twins AAA-affiliate the Rochester Red Wings. (He has since pitched a number of times—using a knuckleball—for the Louisville Bats.)"Corky Miller Quiz," Cincinnati.com. Accessed Aug.
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Wilbur Forrester Wood Jr. (born October 22, 1941) is an American former professional baseball player. He was a pitcher in Major League Baseball for seventeen years and racked up 164 wins. All but one of those wins came with the Chicago White Sox. A knuckleball specialist, he threw left-handed and batted right-handed, stood tall and was listed at .
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The youngest recipient was Dwight Gooden (age 20 in 1985). In 2012, R.A. Dickey became the first knuckleball pitcher to win the award. In 1974, Mike Marshall won the award, becoming the first relief pitcher to win the award. In 1992, Dennis Eckersley was the first modern closer (first player to be used almost exclusively in ninth-inning situations)Zimniuch 2010, p.
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The deal did not include an invite to Major League camp. Pucetas pitched for the Frisco RoughRiders of the Class AA Texas League in 2013. After the season, he agreed to try to become a knuckleball pitcher. Pucetas signed a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants for the 2015 season, making his way back to the team that first drafted him.
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On June 9, 2016, Martin signed a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals. Taking advice from years earlier from then-Nationals pitching coordinator Spin Williams, Martin began throwing a knuckleball. He joined the Potomac Nationals and made his first start in the Carolina League in ten years on August 14 against Frederick. He was released on July 9, 2017.
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The fourth and final pitch is the "special." Special pitches include the super fastball, super changeup, splitter, cut fastball, and knuckleball. The special pitch is used by pressing the Z and B buttons at the same time. Batters use the analog stick to move a batting circle to where the pitch is shown to go before it reaches the plate.
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They are: fastball, super fastball, change up, super change up, knuckleball, curveball, slider, and screwball. Every pitcher has his own unique set of pitches and no pitcher can throw all the pitches. The speed of the pitches can range anywhere from 37 mph to 103 mph. This game allows the player to select pitchers of a team from the bullpen or rotation.
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With his big league career over, Lemke decided to chase a dream and, in 1999, signed as a knuckleball pitcher with the New Jersey Jackals an independent Northern League team. Lemke, who also worked as an infield coach during his stint with the Jackals, was 5-1 with a 6.68 earned run average in 1999.Mark Lemke UticaOD.com. July 19, 2000.
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He returned to the Nankai Hawks, this time as manager, in 1981. Blasingame tabbed Barney Schultz, a former knuckleball pitcher, as his pitching coach, and brought in Wally Yonamine as a coach and interpreter. The team struggled with a lack of talent, and Blasingame was let go during the 1982 season. His managerial record was 180–208–28 (Japanese baseball allows for ties).
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On May 4, , the Giants designated Niekro for assignment and recalled Scott Munter from Triple-A Fresno. He was later optioned to Fresno when no other team claimed him. He became a free agent after the season. Like his father and uncle, Niekro can throw a knuckleball, and was first allowed to pitch professionally for the Grizzlies in August 2007.
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James Hudlin's pitch selection was a knuckleball, slider, curveball, and sinker, as well as a two-seam fastball which topped out at . Willis Hudlin was a member of the Army Air Forces during World War II as a flight instructor. He died in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the age of 96, and was interred in Hazelhurst Cemetery, Hazelhursrt, Copiah County, Mississippi.
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Wilhelm was born in 1922, long thought to have been 1923. He was one of eleven children born to poor tenant farmers John and Ethel (née Stanley) Wilhelm in Huntersville, North Carolina. He played baseball at Cornelius High School in Cornelius, North Carolina. Knowing he could not throw fast, he began experimenting with a knuckleball after reading about pitcher Dutch Leonard.
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Ridzik signed with the Washington Senators three years later in 1963 after developing a knuckleball. He would appear in 132 games, mostly in relief, over the next three years for the Senators. On April 13, 1966, his contract was sold back to his original team, the Phillies. He would appear in two games with the Phillies that year before calling it a career.
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During the 1910 and 1911 seasons, Steen played for the Portland Beavers in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). He had the best seasons of his career, posting a 27-17 record with a 1.78 ERA in 1910 and a 30-15 record with a 2.36 ERA in 1911. While playing with Portland, Steen's pitchers included a knuckleball and a spitter.
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The brothers were the sons of a coal miner who had pitched semipro baseball and had learned to throw a knuckleball from another coal miner. He later taught his sons the pitch in their backyard while they were kids. In addition, Phil played American Legion Baseball growing up. Niekro was signed to the Milwaukee Braves by scout Bill Maughn in 1959 for $250.
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Miller started the 2014 season in Triple-A Louisville. Miller served as a primary catcher for the Bats due to Tucker Barnhart starting the season in Cincinnati with Devin Mesoraco on the DL. On April 13, 2014, while pitching for the Bats, Miller used a knuckleball to strike out a batter.Clark, David. "Video: Bats' Corky Miller uses knuckler for strikeout," Cincinnati.
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45s, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and the Philadelphia Phillies. Shantz began his career as a starting pitcher, but about halfway through he converted to a competent relief pitcher. In 1951, he added the knuckleball to his repertoire. Standing only , Shantz had a career record of 119 games won, 99 games lost, and an earned run average (ERA) of 3.38.
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Fisher led Pacific Coast League pitchers with 239 innings while playing for the Tacoma Giants in 1960. His minor league record from 1958 to 1961 was 47-28 (.627) with a 3.23 ERA in 93 games (632 innings pitched). Fisher's best pitch was the knuckleball, and in 1963-1966 he worked out the White Sox bullpen with fellow flutterball specialist Hoyt Wilhelm.
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This sinker-like effect gives him the best ground ball/fly ball ratio (6:1) among four-seamers in that group. Remarking on its unusual movement, former Twins catcher Ryan Doumit said, "His fastball's unlike anything I've ever seen. ... It's like catching a 92-mile-an-hour knuckleball." Deduno has a high walk rate, walking 55 batters in his first 83 innings.
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In summer leagues, Bouton did not throw particularly hard, but he got batters out by mixing conventional pitches with the knuckleball that he had experimented with since childhood. Bouton attended Western Michigan University, and pitched for the Western Michigan Broncos baseball team. He earned a scholarship for his second year. That summer, he played amateur baseball, catching the attention of scouts.
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The Astros bought Niekro from the Braves for almost nothing. Niekro had bounced around the big leagues with minimal success. His older brother Phil Niekro had started teaching Joe how to throw his knuckleball and Joe was just starting to use it when he came to the Astros. Niekro won six games, saved four games and had an ERA of 3.07.
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Niekro was given the nickname "Knucksie" during his career. Other prominent knuckleball pitchers have included Josh Turley, Joe Niekro (Phil's brother), Charlie Hough, Dave Jolly, Ben Flowers, Wilbur Wood, Barney Schultz, Tom Candiotti, Bob Purkey, Steve Sparks, Eddie Rommel, Tim Wakefield, Steven Wright, and Dickey. During the 1945 season, with talent depleted by call-ups to fight in World War II, the Washington Senators had a pitching rotation which included four knuckleball pitchers (Dutch Leonard, Johnny Niggeling, Mickey "Itsy Bitsy" Haefner and Roger Wolff) who combined for 60 complete games and 60 wins, carrying the Senators to second place. In November 2008, it was announced that 16-year-old knuckleballer Eri Yoshida was drafted as the first woman ever to play in Japanese professional baseball for the Kobe 9 Cruise of the Kansai Independent Baseball League.
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After the 1931 injury, his pitches included a fastball, slow curve, knuckleball and an even slower curveball used as a changeup.The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches. Bill James and Rob Neyer. 2004. As Lyons aged, his career benefited from the White Sox' decision to never let him pitch more than 30 games per season from on.
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The 1950s Brazilian star Didi invented the folha seca (dry leaf) which is nowadays commonly known as the knuckleball free kick, notably used by modern day players such as Juninho (whose technique has been emulated), and Cristiano Ronaldo, where the ball would be struck with either no or a low amount of spin, causing it to swerve unexpectedly at a point near the goal.
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Smoltz continued to post excellent statistics in 1998 and 1999, but he was spending significant time on the disabled list and missed about a quarter of his starts. In 1999, Smoltz began experimenting with both a knuckleball and a three-quarters delivery, though he rarely used either in game situations.Neyer, Rob and Bill James, The Neyer-James Guide to Pichers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
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Mabel attempted to perform a splash from the second rope but missed. Jarrett attempted a sunset flip, which Mabel tried to counter by sitting on him. Jarrett moved out of the way and quickly pinned Mabel to win the match. In a reference to the 1994 Major League Baseball strike, Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz was shown picketing in the crowd with an "I'm on strike!" sign.
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He hit 20-plus home runs in single and double A minor league stops and was voted the Minor League Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 for the Portland Sea Dogs. He hit .198 in his minor league career. In 2013, Booty spent spring training in Arizona with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a knuckleball pitcher after winning MLB Network's reality show The Next Knuckler.
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Moyer's pitching approach evolved as he aged. Most pitchers lose velocity later in their career, and Moyer was no exception – his average fastball speed in 2012 was about 80 MPH, a very slow speed for a non- knuckleball pitcher. Instead of velocity, Moyer relied on control and mixing his pitches. He threw five main pitches: a sinker, a cut fastball, a slider, a changeup, and a curveball.
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He was a member of the 1962 World Series champions, appeared in the 1963 MLB All-Star Game, and won both of his starts in the 1964 World Series. Later in his career, he developed and threw a knuckleball. Bouton authored the 1970 baseball book Ball Four, which was a combination diary of his 1969 season and memoir of his years with the Yankees, Pilots, and Astros.
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Reportedly, after facing Leonard, Jackie Robinson once said: "I am glad of one thing, and that is I don't have to hit against Dutch Leonard every day. Man, what a knuckleball that fellow has. It comes up, makes a face at you, then runs away." In the 2013 biographical movie about Robinson, 42, former MLB pitcher C. J. Nitkowski plays the role of Leonard pitching against Robinson.
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Born in Alger, Ohio, he had a large variety of pitches in his arsenal, including a sinker, a slider, and even a knuckleball, but his best pitch was his curveball. Brown would fire the curveball at a batter no matter what the count was, having supreme confidence in that pitch. Brown played for Cum Posey's Homestead Grays from 1932 to 1945. Brown married Posey's daughter, Ethel.
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The PCL was popular at the time since MLB had not yet reached the West Coast. Sandlock said that he made twice the amount of money with the Stars as he did in the major leagues, and he noted that the Stars' games were often attended by celebrities such as movie stars. With the Stars, Sandlock became adept at catching the knuckleball thrown by pitcher Johnny Lindell.
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He voluntarily stepped down as manager after the 2004 season, remaining with the Gulf Coast League Pirates as a coach. One of Woody's early successes, in 1989, was identifying Tim Wakefield's potential as a knuckleball pitcher (at the time, Wakefield was a light-hitting first baseman) and convincing the Pittsburgh Pirates organization not to release him. In 2010, Huyke won the Mike Coolbaugh Award for his mentoring of minor league players.
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On March 30, the Dodgers sold starting pitcher Eric Stults to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the Japanese League. On March 31, they released outfielder Jason Repko. On April 1, the Dodgers announced the knuckleball pitcher Charlie Haeger had locked up the fifth starter position and that Blake DeWitt would be the starting second baseman. The Dodgers concluded their Cactus League schedule with a record of 11–13–2.
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On October 8, 2014, he announced that he would be exercising his player option for 2015. However, the Dodgers designated him for assignment on December 16, 2014. He was released by the Dodgers on December 19 and became a free agent. Wilson did not play in the MLB in 2015 or 2016, but announced in early 2017 that he would be attempting a comeback as a knuckleball pitcher.
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Born in Caracas, Carrasquel had a fine fastball, which he complemented with an effective knuckleball and a decent curve. He started his major league career with the Senators of the American League on April 23, 1939. Carrasquel became the second player to go straight into the major leagues, following Ted Lyons, who did it in 1923. Carrasquel made his first appearance against the New York Yankees at Griffith Stadium.
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After posting just a .186 batting average in 36 games for the Cardinals, he was sold to the Cardinals' minor league affiliate, the Columbus Red Birds who then traded him to the Hollywood Stars of the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. The Stars' manager, Fred Haney, converted Lindell into a knuckleball pitcher and, in , he won 24 games against 9 losses to help the Stars win the Pacific Coast League pennant.
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Knuckleball (2012, movie) He pitched for minor league teams at several levels for the next few years, appearing mostly as a relief pitcher. While he was briefly promoted to the Class AAA Louisville Colonels in 1960, he spent the entire next season with the Class AA Austin Senators. He returned to Louisville in 1962 and recorded a 9-6 win-loss record. He missed the 1963 season due to military service.
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Thus the fastball falls less than a ball thrown without spin (neglecting knuckleball effects) during the 60 feet 6 inches it travels to home plate. On the other hand, a curveball, thrown with topspin, creates a higher pressure zone on top of the ball, which deflects the ball downward in flight. Instead of counteracting gravity, the curveball adds additional downward force, thereby giving the ball an exaggerated drop in flight.
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Knuckleball pitchers are traditionally believed to be able to pitch more frequently and for more pitches per game than conventional pitchers. Throughout the first decade of his career, Wakefield followed a similar pattern: on April 27, 1993, he threw 172 pitches over 10+ innings in a game for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Atlanta Braves.April 27, 1993 Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Braves Box Score and Play by Play Baseball-Reference.
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Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm shows how he placed his fingers before a pitch. A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to transition from laminar to turbulent flow. This transition adds a deflecting force on the side of the baseball.
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He led the league's catchers in 1886 with 157 assists despite catching only 65 games. Many of those assists came on one of Ramsey's 499 strikeouts that season when Kerins would mishandle a Ramsey knuckleball, which necessitated a throw to first base to complete the strikeout. Offensively, the 1887 season may have been his best; he hit .294 with a league-leading 19 triples and 49 stolen bases.
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Stenhouse discovered that this pitch had excellent movement, and when he came to the majors, he utilized it as a breaking pitch. This pitch may have been the same as the knuckleball thrown by Jesse Haines and Freddie Fitzsimmons. The pitch would be perfected by Chicago White Sox legend Hoyt Wilhelm during the later stages of his career, after flirting with it for most of his time in the majors.
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After pitching in the low minor leagues from 1967 to 1969 with the Ogden Dodgers, Santa Barbara Dodgers and Albuquerque Dodgers with limited success, Hough's career and fortunes changed dramatically when he learned how to throw a knuckleball in spring training in 1970, leading to a successful season with the Spokane Indians in AAA, where he led the Pacific Coast League in saves and posted a 1.95 ERA.
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However, when it is released it is slower than expected. The delivery was adopted from baseball’s knuckleball. The physics of the operation are largely the same. However, the seam on a cricket ball is equatorial, and thus the extent of erratic movement is reduced due to the symmetry (at least in the conventional release position where the planes of the ball's trajectory and the seam are nearly co-planar).
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Joe Morgan returned in 1980. The 1980 pitching staff was one of the best Houston ever had, with the fastball of Ryan, the knuckleball of Joe Niekro and the terrifying 6 ft 8 in frame of J. R. Richard. Teams felt lucky to face Ken Forsch, who was a double-digit winner in the previous two seasons. Richard became the first Astros pitcher to start an All-Star game.
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In baseball terminology the pitcher and catcher together are known as a "battery", and having a catcher experienced in catching a knuckleball pitcher is preferable, so the trade of pitcher and catcher together is sometimes referred to as a "batteries included" trade. For example, Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas went with Dickey when the pitcher was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in late 2012, and the team later signed Henry Blanco, who also caught for Dickey. The record for passed balls in an inning (4 passed balls) was first set by Ray Katt of the New York Giants in 1954, catching Hoyt Wilhelm. It was tied by Geno Petralli of the Texas Rangers in 1987 while trying to catch knuckleball pitcher Charlie Hough, and tied again in 2013 when Ryan Lavarnway of the Boston Red Sox passed four balls in the first inning, catching knuckleballer Steven Wright in Wright's first major league start.
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He finished the 1942 season with 12 wins and a league leading 21 losses and allowed a league leading 20 home runs to opposing batters. He also hit 6 home runs that year as a pitcher and pinch-hitter. Still with the Braves in 1944, Tobin began throwing a knuckleball, and that season he threw his two no- hitters. The first was April 27, 1944, when he beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2–0.
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Nesbitt enjoyed many firsts in her fruitful All-American Girls Professional Baseball League career. She is recognized as one of the sixty original founding members of the league. An ideal fastpitch, knuckleball left-handed, she was one of the most dominant pitchers in the early years of the circuit. The unpredictable movement of her pitches made it almost impossible to hit, until a severe injury suffered in a regular game shortened her promising career.
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He was a standout athlete and became the star of the Iola High basketball team. After World War II ended, the Piqua town baseball team resumed playing and Fred was 14 when he started pitching for the Piqua town against other local farming towns. He struck out men twice his age and got known for his knuckleball. When he was 18, Kipp hitchhiked to a New York Giants tryout in Cassville, Missouri.
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Early developed a reputation as a talkative player on the field, using several methods to distract the hitter. These methods of distraction included his imitation of a radio announcer's play-by- play commentary, an auctioneer's sales pitch and even singing. By 1943, Early was being recognized as one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. He had the arduous task of catching for a Senators' starting pitching staff that included four knuckleball pitchers.
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Niekro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. Phil and his younger brother Joe Niekro amassed 539 wins between them, the most combined wins by brothers in baseball history. Phil's 121 career victories after the age of 40 is a major league record. His longevity is attributed to his knuckleball, which is a difficult pitch to master but is easy on the arm and often baffles hitters due to its unpredictable trajectory.
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209 with 28 hits, 16 runs scored, eight runs batted in and one home run in 134 career at bats. He played 17 games in left field and 15 in right field. His lone homer, a solo shot, came off knuckleball pitcher Roger Wolff of the Washington Senators on May 14 at Briggs Stadium — representing the Tigers' only run in a 15–1 rout.Retrosheet Moore died at age 76 in Pearl, Mississippi.
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This version of the knuckle curve is currently used by Major League pitchers Phil Hughes and Brad Peacock. Mike Mussina was well known for his incorporation of the pitch into his repertoire. Justin Verlander formerly threw a knuckle curve but was forced to abandon the pitch due to problems with blisters. This knuckle curve is usually called the spike curve by MLB players and coaches because the pitch is nothing like a knuckleball.
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Roger Francis Wolff (April 10, 1911 – March 23, 1994) was an American professional baseball player. A right-handed knuckleball pitcher, he appeared in 182 games over all or part of seven seasons in Major League Baseball between and : three with the Philadelphia Athletics, three with the Washington Senators, and one season split between the Cleveland Indians and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wolff was born in Evansville, Illinois; he was listed as tall and .
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Louis Mortimer Sleater (September 8, 1926 – March 25, 2013) was a left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1950 to 1952 and from 1955 to 1958 for the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, Kansas City Athletics, Milwaukee Braves, Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles. He stood tall and weighed . He attended the University of Maryland. A knuckleball specialist, Sleater was signed as an amateur free agent by the Boston Braves in 1946.
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Joe Sullivan (September 26, 1910 – April 8, 1985), was a left-handed American baseball pitcher. Sullivan played professional baseball from 1931 to 1949, including five seasons in Major League Baseball with the Detroit Tigers (1935–36), Boston Bees / Braves (1939–41), and Pittsburgh Pirates (1941). In five major league seasons, he compiled a record of 30–37 with a 4.01 earned run average (ERA). A knuckleball specialist, Sullivan once pitched 12 straight scoreless innings as a relief pitcher.
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George Jasper Caster (August 4, 1907 – December 18, 1955), nicknamed "Ug", was a right-handed professional baseball pitcher for 21 years from 1929 to 1948 and again in 1953. He played 12 years in Major League Baseball with the Philadelphia Athletics (1934–1935, 1937–1940), St. Louis Browns (1941–1945), and Detroit Tigers (1945–1946). Caster became known as an early knuckleball pitcher. He played for American League pennant winning teams in both 1944 and 1945.
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The name dry spitter is sometimes used to describe a pitch that moves like a spitball without saliva, such as the forkball or split-finger fastball. It is sometimes used simply as slang for the knuckleball. There is also the remote term of God-given spitter, which is when the ball is naturally dampened by moist air or light rainfall, which allows pitchers to be able to throw pitches with sharper breaks, much like a spitball.
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His clutch hitting for the Rays, along with his red hair and beard, earned him the nickname "The Great Pumpkin". Also within his extensive Minor League Baseball career that began in 2001, Johnson has won a Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in two different Triple-A leagues. He won the Pacific Coast League MVP in 2004 and the International League MVP in 2010. In 2016, Johnson signed with the Rays organization, entering spring training as a knuckleball pitcher.
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Caraway was a lanky Texan who debuted professionally in 1927 with the minor league Rock Island Islanders. He also played for the Amarillo Texans and Topeka Jayhawks before being called up to the Chicago White Sox for the 1930 season, pitching in his first Sox game on 19 April 1930. His last major league game was 17 July 1932. A left-handed submarine delivery pitcher, Caraway was one of the few submariners in MLB history to develop a knuckleball.
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Wynn remained with the Indians following retirement, becoming their pitching coach in 1964. Several of his players – including Sam McDowell, Sonny Siebert, Luis Tiant and Steve Hargan – were still with the team in 1967 when they set a record for team strikeouts in a season with 1189. In August 1965, Wynn flirted with the idea of making a comeback as a knuckleball pitcher. Wynn left Cleveland after the 1966 season and joined the Minnesota Twins as pitching coach.
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Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Recker was raised by mother Alicia and stepfather Kip. He attended Catasauqua High School, where he also played football and basketball, and later continued his baseball career at Alvernia College, a small NCAA Division III school in Reading, Pennsylvania. One of Recker's college teammates was Zach Lutz, and the pair were coached by Lutz's father. While playing for the Crusaders, Recker spent some time on the mound, where he occasionally threw a knuckleball.
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Wilhelm was named to the NL All-Star team that year, but he did not play in the game because team manager Charlie Dressen did not think that any of the catchers could handle his knuckleball. The Giants renewed Wilhelm's contract in February 1954. In 1954, Wilhelm was a key piece of the pitching staff that led the 1954 Giants to a world championship. He pitched 111 innings, finishing with a 12–4 record and a 2.10 ERA.
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Accessed May 4, 2009. The lower velocity of the knuckleball is credited with giving some who use it the ability to pitch more often and to sustain pitching careers far longer than those who rely on their fastball to get outs. Tim Wakefield pitched on consecutive days, when most starting pitchers in the 21st century throw after four days of rest. Hoyt Wilhelm pitched until he was almost 50 and Phil Niekro used the pitch until he was 48.
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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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Wakefield's 2011 season was followed in the documentary film Knuckleball! Wakefield started his seventeenth season in a Red Sox uniform as a reliever. Injuries to John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka moved him into the starting rotation. On May 11, 2011, Wakefield pitched 1⅓ innings in relief as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Red Sox 9–3 at the Rogers Centre. He became, at 44 years, 282 days, the oldest player ever to appear for the Red Sox.
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This record stood for nearly 25 years before Jamie Moyer (47 years, 170 days) bested the feat in May 2010. He did not throw his trademark knuckleball throughout the game until the final hitter, former AL MVP Jeff Burroughs. Prior to facing Burroughs, Niekro's teammate and brother Joe visited the mound in the role of "substitute pitching coach" and jokingly suggested that an intentional walk was in order. Instead, Niekro struck Burroughs out to end the game.
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Emil John "Dutch" Leonard (March 25, 1909 – April 17, 1983) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed knuckleball pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1933–1936), Washington Senators (1938–1946), Philadelphia Phillies (1947–48), and Chicago Cubs (1949–1953). He was born in Auburn, Illinois. In a 20-season career, Leonard posted a 191–181 win–loss record with 1170 strikeouts and a 3.25 earned run average in innings pitched.
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He hit a Tim Wakefield knuckleball just over the low fence into the Giant's bullpen in right field. It was his first home run off his former Pittsburgh Pirate teammate, who became the 441st different pitcher to surrender a four- bagger to Bonds. The 750th career home run, hit on June 29, also came off a former teammate: Liván Hernández. The blast came in the 8th inning and at that point tied the game at 3–3.
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Boone signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, spending about a year in their farm system before being released once again. For the next five years, he dropped off the radar of American professional baseball. Then, in 1989, a new league started that gave Boone a new lease on his career: the Senior Professional Baseball Association. Boone signed on with the Bradenton Explorers, where he showed off a new pitch in his arsenal: the knuckleball.
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George Warren "Barney" Schultz (August 15, 1926 – September 6, 2015) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He was a knuckleball-throwing pitcher in the Major Leagues for all or parts of seven seasons between 1955 and 1965 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs. In October 1966 he was briefly reactivated by the Cardinals so that he could receive a Major League pension. Born in Beverly, New Jersey, he threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed .
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136, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, He lost both of those games. The knuckleball is also difficult to control, and in 1977, Wood tied a record by hitting three consecutive batters in the first inning. Wood's 1976 campaign was cut short on May 9 when a line-drive single hit by Ron LeFlore fractured his left kneecap in the sixth inning of a 4-2 White Sox victory over the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium.Rogers, Thomas.
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Blanco signed a non- guaranteed contract on January 11, 2013 with the Toronto Blue Jays. Blanco made the opening day roster for Toronto as the batterymate to recently acquired 2012 NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey. Blanco and Dickey previously played together for the New York Mets during the 2010 season, and Dickey had said Blanco was "the best [Dickey's] had seen at catching the knuckleball". Blanco was designated for assignment on June 7, 2013, and released on June 10.
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Mirabelli on-deck during 2007 spring training. Mirabelli was reacquired by the Red Sox on May 1, 2006, in exchange for catcher Josh Bard, setup man Cla Meredith, and $100,000 cash. This reacquisition occurred because Bard had trouble catching Tim Wakefield's knuckleball, committing 10 passed balls in 7 games. The day the trade occurred, the Red Sox were to play their first game of the year against their rivals, the New York Yankees, at Fenway Park, and Wakefield was scheduled to start.
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Born in Winter Haven, Florida, Niekro graduated from George W. Jenkins High School in Lakeland, Florida, and attended Florida Southern College. While in high school, he had transitioned from being a knuckleball pitcher to a position player, playing third base at Florida Southern. In 1999 and 2000, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), and was named league MVP in 1999. He was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2006.
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As a coach, Wilhelm said that he did not teach pitchers the knuckleball, believing that people had to be born with a knack for throwing it. He sometimes worked individually with major league players who wanted to improve their knuckleballs, including Joe Niekro. The Yankees gave Wilhelm permission to work with Mickey Lolich in 1979 even though Lolich pitched for the San Diego Padres. Wilhelm was on the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame for eight years before he was elected.
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He was a knuckleball pitcher and workhorse, leading the league in games pitched three times, including 50 appearances on the mound in 1926. Scott started both ends of a doubleheader on June 19, 1927 for the Phillies, beating the Reds in the opener 3-1, dropping the nightcap 3-0. He threw complete games in each, allowing just four runs and one walk. He finished his career with a record of 103-109 with a 3.85 earned run average and 657 strikeouts.
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Wallace Harper Burnette (June 20, 1929 – February 12, 2003) was an American professional baseball player who pitched for the Kansas City Athletics from -. He was born in Blairs, Virginia. In three seasons, he compiled a win-loss record of 14–21, appeared in 68 games, started 27 games, completing 5 games and once pitching a shutout, pitched 262.7 innings, walked 122, struck out 122, gave up 259 hits, and had a career ERA of 3.65. His key pitch was his knuckleball.
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350 in four straight seasons, the only players to do so since 1931. They joined Lou Brock and Rod Carew as the only players whose careers ended after World War II who finished with 3,000 hits and fewer than 160 home runs. Boggs recorded 2.1 innings of pitching at the Major League level. His main pitch was a knuckleball, which he used 16 times (along with one fastball) in one shutout inning for the Yankees against the Anaheim Angels in a 1997 game.
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On August 26, the first time Victor Martinez caught Wakefield, he used a first baseman's glove, instead of a regular catcher's mitt. For a catcher, a key disadvantage to using a first baseman's glove instead of a regular catcher's mitt is that first baseman's gloves are not designed for easy extraction of a ball from the glove, a drawback that makes it harder to prevent baserunners from stealing bases. On occasion, teams have traded knuckleball pitchers and their catchers in the same transaction.
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Lewis Howard "Hicks" Moren (August 4, 1883 – November 2, 1966) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched six seasons from 1903 to 1910: two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and four seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1908, Moren was credited by the New York Press for inventing the knuckleball; however Eddie Cicotte is today more often cited as the inventor of the pitch. Moren retired with a career record of 48 wins, 57 losses, and a 2.95 earned run average.
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Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kerins began his major league career with the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the American Association. After the season, the Hoosiers folded, and John moved on to the Louisville Colonels, where he spent the next few seasons. Though Kerins played twice as many career major league games at first base as he did at catcher, he was often known more for his play at the latter position. In Louisville, he was the personal catcher for left-handed knuckleball pitcher Toad Ramsey.
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Bouton's frequent use by the Yankees during these years (he led the league with 37 starts in 1964 in addition to pitching in that year's World Series) probably contributed to his subsequent arm troubles. In 1965, an arm injury slowed his fastball and ended his status as a pitching phenomenon. Relegated mostly to bullpen duty, Bouton began to throw the knuckleball again, in an effort to lengthen his career. By 1968, Bouton was a reliever for the minor league Seattle Angels.
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The Indians were being predicted as the best team in baseball on the back of their two 30+ home run hitters. What sports writers overlooked was that Cleveland had the worst performing pitching staff in the majors, despite the presence of 300 game winners Phil Niekro and Steve Carlton, as well as Tom Candiotti (with Niekro and Candiotti, Cleveland had two starters whose main pitch was the Knuckleball). The 1987 Indians would fall well short of SI's bold prediction. They were not above .
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A competent defensive catcher with a great ability to handle the knuckleball, Chiti was only 17 years old when he broke into the majors with the Chicago Cubs, making infrequent appearances from 1950 to 1952. After two years in the United States Army during the Korean War, Chiti returned to Chicago and handled the starting job in 1955, batting .231 with 11 home runs and 41 RBI in a career-high 113 games. In 1956, Chiti shared catching duties with Hobie Landrith.
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Steven Richard Wright (born August 30, 1984) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. Wright has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, having made his MLB debut in 2013; he was an All-Star in 2016. He is known for his knuckleball pitch. Wright received two World Series rings in 2013 and 2018 as a member of the Red Sox for being on the active roster, but did not play in the playoffs.
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The Cleveland Indians selected Wright in the second round of the 2006 MLB draft. From 2007 to 2012, Wright played Minor League Baseball with the Lake County Captains, Kinston Indians, Akron Aeros, and Columbus Clippers, all affiliates of the Cleveland Indians. With the 2008 Akron Aeros, he pitched a career-high 75 innings. Wright has a 90-mph fastball, but he turned to the knuckleball as his primary pitch in the 2011 season as a collective decision among Wright and the Indians.Cleveland.
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In January 2009, Greene told the Gwinnett Daily Post that he was retiring from professional football. He returned to Atlanta in September 2008 and joined an insurance brokerage firm, Sterling Seacrest Partners, along with fellow former Bulldog Matt Stinchcomb.Chris Gay, Bulldogs' visit thrills two devoted alumni, Augusta Chronicle, February 19, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2009 Greene appeared on MLB Network's "The Next Knuckler", in which the winner received a chance to go to spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a knuckleball pitcher.
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A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as saliva or petroleum jelly. This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner. It may also cause the ball to "slip" out of the pitcher's fingers without the usual spin that accompanies a pitch. In this sense, a spitball can be thought of as a fastball with knuckleball action.
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After Wakefield went on the disabled list after the All-Star break, Kottaras followed suit with a lower back strain. He remained with Pawtucket until call ups on September 1. With Wakefield's first start in September, Red Sox manager Terry Francona had to decide whether to start Kottaras due to his familiarity with Wakefield or Víctor Martínez due to his bat and having made one start with Wakefield in which he caught the knuckleball very well for the first time. Francona eventually chose Martínez.
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Johnson was born Mamie Belton in Ridgeway, South Carolina on September 27, 1935 to Della Belton Havelow and Gentry Harrison. She lived for a time in Long Branch, New Jersey before moving to Washington, D.C. in the 1940s. Along with Connie Morgan, she was signed by the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953, played with the team from 1953 to 1955, and had a 33–8 win-loss record. A right-handed pitcher with a deceptively hard fastball, she also threw a slider, circle changeup, curveball, screwball, and knuckleball.
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The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers is divided into three main sections. The first section contains a series of 11 chapters dealing with eight different pitches, such as the fastball, spitball, curveball, change, slider, knuckleball, forkball, and screwball. These chapters detail such matters as the origin of these pitches, the history of their nomenclature, a description of any sub-types, and citations of different pitchers who were noted for their skill in throwing particular pitches. All but two of these chapters are credited to Neyer.
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A picture of Ed Summers showed him gripping what he called a "dry spitter" using a variation of the knuckleball grip using the knuckles of his index and middle fingers. Unlike almost every other pitch in baseball, the knuckleball's erratic trajectory has often required teams to use dedicated catchers, often using specialized mitts, to field the deliveries. Clint Courtney used a specially constructed catcher's mitt, about 50% larger than the conventional mitts used at the time, to catch knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm during a game in May 1960.
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Over his career, Smoltz threw a four-seam fastball that was clocked as high as 98 miles per hour, a strong, effective slider and an 88–91 mph split- finger fastball that he used as a strikeout pitch. He also used a curveball and change-up on occasion, and in 1999, he began experimenting with both a knuckleball and a screwball, though he rarely used either in game situations.Neyer, Rob and Bill James, The Neyer-James Guide to Pitchers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
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Niekro in 2013 After the end of his professional baseball career, Niekro managed the all-women Colorado Silver Bullets baseball team. Niekro tutored his nephew, Lance Niekro, to throw a knuckleball after Lance's unsuccessful stints as a power-hitting first base prospect with the San Francisco Giants. Niekro was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1997, his fifth year of eligibility. He was the only player elected that year; Tony Pérez and Don Sutton were among the notable players who were not elected.
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Jared Wade Fernandez (born February 2, 1972) is a former Major League Baseball knuckleball pitcher who last pitched in for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan's Central League. Fernandez attended Fresno State University and in , the right- handed hitting and throwing Fernandez was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Boston Red Sox. He played in their organization until , when he was signed by the Cincinnati Reds to a minor league contract. He made his major league debut with the Reds on September 19, .
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Ten weeks later, on July 21, Toronto traded Johnson to the Cincinnati Reds, a surprise pennant contender in the National League. The trade, and Johnson's addition of the knuckleball to his repertoire, enabled him to solidify his status as a major league pitcher. The Reds were in first place by 1 games over the Los Angeles Dodgers, but had lost five games in a row when Johnson was acquired. Between July 26 and September 16, Johnson made 11 starts, winning six games, losing two, and posting three complete games and his first MLB shutout.
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The float serve is one of the types of serves in the game of volleyball. The serve involves hitting the volleyball in such a way to minimize the rotation of the ball, causing unpredictability in the ball’s movement and is akin to baseball's knuckleball. During this serve, the ball is moving in the air without spin, allowing drag, lift, and turbulent air flow to have a big effect on its movement. When done correctly, the float serve is hard for opponents to predict where the ball will end up, thus rendering it hard to pass.
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Barsky was inspired to work on documentaries after observing the success of Waiting for Superman and Gasland in sparking discussion about their respective underlying issues (charter schools and fracking). He produced and directed Koch, a documentary released in 2012 (and theatrically released February 2013) about the role that former New York City Mayor Ed Koch played in transforming the city in the 1980s. Barsky was co- executive producer and director of the documentary Knuckleball!, the short documentary Witnesses NYC, and the Koch episode in the TV series documentary POV.
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Starting in 2012, Frank III has worked with R.A. Dickey and Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro on developing a knuckleball to resurrect his baseball career. In December 2012, he appeared as himself on the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Final Page", where he is on the phone with Marshall, one of the main characters. On March 5, 2014, he was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays to a minor league contract and currently pitches for the Dunedin Blue Jays in the Advanced Single A Florida State League.
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" Although, due largely to his military service, Wilhelm did not debut in the major leagues until he was already 29 years old, he nonetheless managed to appear in 21 major league seasons. He earned the nickname "Old Folks" while he still had more than a decade left in his playing career. He was the oldest player in Major League Baseball for each of his final seven seasons. Former teammate Moose Skowron commented on Wilhelm's key pitch, saying, "Hoyt was a good guy, and he threw the best knuckleball I ever saw.
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An accurate free-kick taker, he was known in particular for his powerful, bending knuckleball free-kicks and shots from distance. In spite of his ability, the journalist Gianni Brera accused him of being inconsistent, lacking dynamism, and having a poor defensive work-rate, something which Corso himself denied, however; as a result, Brera gave Corso the nickname "past participle of the verb "to run"", a reference to his surname, as well as the fact that, according to Brera, Corso did not run a lot during matches, preferring to make the ball move.
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With this style, the ball is not brought over the head at all but down and behind the body and back in one smooth motion tracing out a figure eight. There are many different pitches which can be thrown, including a two-seam fastball, four-seam fastball, changeup, two different riseballs, two dropballs, curveball, offspeed, screwball, knuckleball and more. These pitches can be taught in many different styles, depending on the pitching coach's method and the player's abilities. Catching is also a very important part of fast pitch softball.
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He had a whopping 28 passed balls that season,Durso, Joseph. "A's Send Epstein to Rangers; Scheinblum, Nelson to Reds," The New York Times, Saturday, December 2, 1972. Retrieved April 12, 2020 mostly due to his inability to catch Phil Niekro's knuckleball. However, he also had 28 home runs and 87 RBIs, drawing the attention of the Baltimore Orioles who acquired him along with Taylor Duncan from the Braves for Davey Johnson, Pat Dobson, Johnny Oates and Roric Harrison on the last day of the Winter Meetings on December 1, 1972.
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Mancuso was traded to the New York Giants before the 1933 season where new manager Bill Terry was rebuilding the team after the resignation of longtime manager John McGraw. Terry wanted to build his team around speed, defense and pitching. He replaced the slow-footed Shanty Hogan and installed the agile Mancuso as the Giants' starting catcher. Terry allowed Mancuso to be in charge of the Giants' pitching staff that included; Carl Hubbell's sharp-breaking screwball, Hal Schumacher's diving sinker ball, Freddie Fitzsimmons' knuckleball and Roy Parmelee who threw a variety of different pitches.
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Nix was the final out of the 2012 American League Championship Series popping up to first baseman Prince Fielder as the Yankees were swept and eliminated by the Detroit Tigers in 4 games. Nix was placed on the 15-day disabled list on July 3, 2013, due to a hamstring strain. On August 21, Nix was hit by an R.A. Dickey knuckleball and immediately removed from the game with what was later determined to be a broken left hand. On August 22, Nix was placed on the 15-day disabled list.
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Casey Stengel, now manager of the Yankees, had told his players to avoid swinging at it, as his knuckleball rarely landed in the strike zone. In his first matchup against the Yankees in 1949, he allowed 16 hits and four runs in a 4–3 loss. By July, after failing to throw a complete game in June, he was moved to the bullpen, where he spent the rest of the season. Bearden finished 1949 with an 8–8 record and a 5.10 ERA, and he led the AL in wild pitches with 11.
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He was noted in his time as one of the early pitchers of the knuckleball. Lear made his major league debut on May 2, 1914 for the Reds, and remained on the roster for the season as a relief pitcher. He finished the 1914 season having pitched in 17 games for the Reds, starting four and finishing nine. He won one game, lost two, threw three complete games, one shutout, and had an earned run average (ERA) of 3.07. Lear's most productive season came in 1915 when he pitched 40 games.
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The Knoxville, Tennessee native posted a 27–20 record with 181 strikeouts and a 3.84 earned run average in 519 innings pitched. He posted an 18–8 mark as a Cardinals rookie in 1945, with 22 starts and 20 relief appearances; his 18 victories and .692 winning percentage each tied him for third in the National League, while his 2.90 ERA ranked him seventh, but an ailing throwing arm ended his season prematurely, and he increasingly worked from the bullpen afterwards. As a pitcher, since he lacked a speedy fastball, he relied on an "oddly breaking knuckleball" The Sporting News.
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In baseball, an off-speed pitch is a pitch thrown at a slower speed than a fastball. Breaking balls and changeups are the two most common types of off- speed pitches. Very slow pitches which require the batter to provide most of the power on contact through bat speed are known as "junk" and include the knuckleball and the Eephus pitch, a sort of extreme changeup. The specific goals of off-speed pitches may vary, but in general they are used to disrupt the batter's timing, thereby lessening his chances of hitting the ball solidly or at all.
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Kottaras played the regular and post season 2008 schedule for Pawtucket, but after Pawtucket was eliminated from the International League playoffs he was called up to MLB. On September 8, 2008, he was called up from Pawtucket and on September 13, 2008, he made his MLB debut in the 6th inning of a game against the Toronto Blue Jays and scored the only run for the Red Sox that game. Boston Red Sox in 2009 spring training In 2009, Kottaras was knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield's personal catcher; while Jason Varitek caught the other pitchers in the rotation.
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A creative, technically gifted, and hard-working, right-footed, advanced midfield playmaker, Magrin was usually deployed as an attacking midfielder, or as a winger or central midfielder, and was capable of both scoring and creating goals. Despite his talent in his youth, which even led Platini to say "he's better than me", his career was marked by inconsistency and he failed to live up to his initial potential. Magrin was known in particular for being a penalty-kick specialist and for his incredible accuracy on set-pieces, as well as his use of the bending "knuckleball" technique on free kicks.
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He was generally considered to be a sound defensive player and committed very few errors in his Major League career as a catcher, completing his career with a fielding percentage of .981. However, in 1967, despite playing only 59 games, he led the league in passed balls and is still on the top 10 list for most passed balls in a season. At least a partial explanation is that he spent a good deal of the season catching knuckleballer Phil Niekro. He often joked that the best way to catch a knuckleball was to wait until it stopped rolling and pick it up.
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio After being confounded for four innings by Tim Wakefield's knuckleball, the Indians scored seven runs in the bottom of the fifth in Game 4. Casey Blake led off the inning with a homer off Wakefield, Franklin Gutiérrez singled, Kelly Shoppach was hit by a pitch, and Grady Sizemore reached on a fielder's choice. After Kevin Youkilis bobbled and dropped a foul ball, Asdrúbal Cabrera reached on an infield single as Gutiérrez scored. Travis Hafner struck out, and then Víctor Martínez hit an RBI single to left.
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Wilhem carried the nickname "Old Sarge" because of his service in the military. After his release from the military, Wilhelm returned to the Moors for the 1946 season, and earned 41 wins over the 1946 and 1947 seasons. He later recalled being dropped from a Class D minor league team and having the manager tell him to forget about the knuckleball, but he persisted with it. The Boston Braves purchased Wilhelm from Mooresville in 1947, and on November 20, 1947, he was drafted by the New York Giants from the Braves in the 1947 minor league draft.
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Paul Edmore LaPalme (December 14, 1923 – February 7, 2010) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played from 1951 through 1957 for four different teams in Major League Baseball. Listed at , , he batted and threw left-handed. A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, LaPalme was a knuckleball specialist. He spent 16 years in baseball, pitching seven seasons in the major leagues and 12 in the minors. He also served in the Army from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. Nicknamed "Lefty", LaPalme started his professional career in 1941 at the age of 17, pitching for the Bristol Twins of the Appalachian League.
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Typical gameplay screenshot. The game extensively utilizes the Nintendo DS touchscreen, which controls the power and technique of bat swings and the speed and accuracy of pitches. Fielding, baserunning and other controls will also utilize the DS touch screen, by dragging and tracing lines to execute those baseball actions. The game also features the ability to obtain special "power-ups", which can increase batting, pitching and fielding skill, as well a "chicken ball" that causes the opponents to chase a decoy ball, and a "crazy ball" that causes a batted ball to take a knuckleball-like flight.
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Philip Henry Niekro (pronounced NEE-kro) (born April 1, 1939), nicknamed "Knucksie", is an American former baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), 20 of them with the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves. Niekro's 318 career victories are the most by a knuckleball pitcher and rank 16th on MLB's all-time wins list. He won the National League (NL) Gold Glove Award five times, was selected for five All-Star teams, and led the league in victories twice and earned run average once. He was a key contributor to the Braves winning their only two division titles before .
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His losses included a 1-0 defeat in which he only allowed one unearned run on a wild throw against the St. Louis Browns. During the season, Wensloff added a knuckleball to his selection of pitches, which he threw regularly during the season. As the end of the season approached, Wensloff was being promoted as a rookie of the year candidate, due to being second on the team in strikeouts, as well as his 13 wins. Wensloff finished the season with a 13–11 record and a 2.54 ERA in 29 games, 27 of them starts.
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In January 2006, Bard was acquired by the Boston Red Sox, along with outfielder Coco Crisp and reliever David Riske, for reliever Guillermo Mota, third base prospect Andy Marte, and catcher Kelly Shoppach. He became the Red Sox's backup catcher during spring training 2006 following the retirement of John Flaherty. As a member of the Boston Red Sox in April 2006, his primary duties were catching knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield. In the beginning of the season, this proved to be a challenging task, as Bard gave up 3 passed balls in his first appearance for the Red Sox on April 5, 2006.
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Timothy Stephen Wakefield (born August 2, 1966) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Wakefield began his pitching career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but is most remembered for his 17-year tenure with the Boston Red Sox, from 1995 till his retirement in 2012 as the longest-serving player on the team. When he retired, Wakefield was the oldest active player in the majors. Known for his signature knuckleball, Wakefield won his 200th career game on September 13, 2011, against the Toronto Blue Jays, and is third on the Boston Red Sox with 186 team victories, behind Cy Young and Roger Clemens.
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Because of the difficulty of catching a knuckleball, the Red Sox sometimes carried a backup catcher who specialized in defense and who caught most or all of Wakefield's starts. For several years, his personal catcher was Doug Mirabelli, who used a league-approved mitt similar to a softball catcher's mitt for catching Wakefield. Josh Bard briefly caught Wakefield during the first month of the 2006 season, before Boston reacquired Mirabelli on May 1 after trading him to San Diego the previous offseason. Mirabelli was released in the spring of 2008 and Wakefield's catcher was Kevin Cash during 2008.
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Antônio Augusto Ribeiro Reis Júnior (born 30 January 1975), commonly known as Juninho or Juninho Pernambucano, is a Brazilian former footballer, who is currently sporting director of Olympique Lyonnais. Noted for his bending free kicks (particularly the knuckleball technique which he developed), Juninho holds the record for the highest number of goals scored through free kicks (75) and many consider him to be the greatest free kick exponent of all time. Juninho began his professional career in 1993 with Brazilian club Sport do Recife. Two years later he joined Vasco da Gama where he played over 100 matches and won six titles.
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Born in Recife, Juninho started his professional career at Sport Recife and quickly established himself as a rising star in Brazilian football. He won two regional titles with the club. According to Juninho, it was as a 13-year-old that he started to take free-kicks and began to develop his knuckleball technique, telling FourFourTwo magazine: “I started by copying free-kicks taken by Marcelinho, who played for Corinthians. He was one of my inspirations, and the first player I had ever seen hit the ball head on and make it dance in the air.
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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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He was a six-time All-Star selection, and became the pitching coach of the Cubs immediately after his playing career ended (1954–56). On July 4, 1939, Leonard pitched a complete game and the Senators defeated the New York Yankees in the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. At the conclusion of the first game, Lou Gehrig delivered his famous "luckiest man on the face of the earth" speech. During the 1945 season, Leonard was part of what was possibly the only four-man rotation in baseball history to have been all knuckleball pitchers.
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Bearden finished the season, in addition to his ERA title, in second place for wins with 20, second in shutouts with six, and an eighth-place finish in the American League Most Valuable Player Award balloting. He also finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Alvin Dark, shortstop of the Braves. During the offseason, Bearden went to Hollywood and appeared as himself in two movies, The Stratton Story and The Kid From Cleveland. Bearden remained in the starting rotation for 1949 and pitched in the home opener against the Detroit Tigers, but his knuckleball was figured out by opposing managers.
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Wright pitched shutout innings in relief of Ryan Dempster. Koji Uehara picked up the save, and presented Wright with the ball following the victory. On August 1, Wright picked up his second win, also against the Mariners and again in relief of Dempster; Boston trailed 7–2 entering the ninth inning, but staged a comeback to walk off with an 8–7 victory, making Wright the winner. On August 6, while pitching in his first major league start, Wright's knuckleball caused catcher Ryan Lavarnway to tie a major league record with four passed balls in one inning.
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In 2010, whilst on assignment in Bangladesh Fountain and Ian Pont Fast Bowling Coach, combined to use their cricket & baseball backgrounds, to design a completely new slower ball for pace bowlers or variation ball for spin bowlers"Pont to launch butterfly during cricket wc" retrieved 04/04/2011 Having both had experience as baseball pitchers, Fountain and Pont were both well aware of the movement it is possible to achieve, with the correct ball release. The delivery has been named the "Butterfly Ball" due to its erratic movement patterns through the air, and is based on the same aerodynamic principles as baseball's knuckleball.
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He worked his way into the starting rotation the following year, when he posted a 12–11 record and 4.87 ERA. On August 21, , Lyons no-hit the Boston Red Sox 6–0 at Fenway Park; the game took just 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete (Ted Lyons August 21, 1926 No-hitter Box Score). Lyons was at his crafty best in 1930, when he posted a 22–15 record and A.L.-leading totals of 29 complete games and 297⅔ innings for a team that finished 62–92. Prior to a 1931 arm injury, his pitches included a "sailer" (now known as a cut fastball), knuckleball, curveball, and changeup.
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These developments meant that catchers began to take on a crucial defensive role, as a pitcher's deceptive deliveries could only be effective if the catcher was capable of fielding them. The progression of the catcher positioning himself closer to the plate would lead to changes in pitching deliveries that would revolutionize the sport. In the 1870s, pitcher Candy Cummings was able to introduce the curveball because his catcher, Nat Hicks, fielded his position in close proximity to home plate and was able to catch the deceptive pitch. Other specialized pitches such as the spitball and the knuckleball followed, which further emphasized the defensive importance of the catcher's position.
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The player taking the direct free kick may choose to strike the ball with as much force as possible, usually with the laces of the boot. Alternatively, players may attempt to curl the ball around the keeper or the wall, with the inside or outside the boot. Additionally, certain free-kick specialists will choose to kick the ball with minimal spin, making the ball behave unpredictably in the air (similar to the action of a knuckleball pitch in baseball). The kicker may also attempt to drive the shot under the wall formed by the opposition defenders using the inside of their boot in a passing manner.
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Rookie Brock Stewart made his second spot start in the next game and was pounded, allowing four home runs and nine runs overall, in a 12–2 loss. They avoided the road sweep thanks to Kenta Maeda pitching 5 solid innings for his 10th win, the 13th Dodger rookie pitcher with double digit wins. Corey Seager tied Hanley Ramírez for the Los Angeles Dodgers single- season record for home runs by a shortstop with his 19th in the 4–2 win. Back home for a rare series against the Boston Red Sox, the Dodgers were shut out by knuckleball pitcher Steven Wright and lost 9–0.
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He made two other starts in the Series but failed to pitch past the fourth inning in either, as the Los Angeles Dodgers won the series in six games. Towards the end of his career, Wynn began to rely more heavily on the knuckleball, as the velocity of his pitches declined. The White Sox released him after the 1962 season, but Wynn signed with the Indians in 1963 because he was determined to win 300 games. He picked up his 300th victory against the Kansas City Athletics on July 13, his last major league win, though he remained on the roster for the rest of the season.
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He returned the next season with the Jackals, but was released on June 20, 2000 after being hammered in his first few appearances. In that stint though, he was wild with his knuckleball and threw an independent league record nine wild pitches in successive at bats. Currently, Lemke hosts the Braves pregame show on the Braves Radio Network with co-hosts Leo Mazzone and Buck Belue on WCNN-AM in Atlanta. Lemke also fills in on radio during spring training and road games during the regular season as color commentator, until 2008 with Pete Van Wieren and presently with Jim Powell and Don Sutton.
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Phil Niekro played with the Braves from 1964 to 1983 and in 1987; he holds the MLB record for most wins by a knuckleball pitcher After three straight losing seasons, Bobby Cox was hired for his first stint as manager for the 1978 season. He promoted 22-year-old slugger Dale Murphy into the starting lineup. Murphy hit 77 home runs over the next three seasons, but he struggled on defense, unable to adeptly play either catcher or first base. In 1980, Murphy was moved to center field and demonstrated excellent range and throwing ability, while the Braves earned their first winning season since 1974.
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Together, the Core Four progressed through the Yankees minor league system in the early 1990s. It was during their tenure with the Oneonta Yankees of the Class A-Short Season New York-Penn League in 1991 that Posada, initially an infielder, began catching for his future major league batterymate Pettitte. The latter threw a knuckleball at the time, which Posada struggled to catch (hitting him mostly on the knee), prompting Pettitte to abandon the pitch. Promoted to the Greensboro Hornets of the Class A South Atlantic League in 1992, Posada and Pettitte met Jeter, a highly regarded prospect, who had been assigned to the team.
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The knuckleball is also employed by cricket fast bowlers Zaheer Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Andrew Tye as their slower delivery. The physics of the operation are largely the same. However, the seam on a cricket ball is equatorial, and thus the extent of erratic movement is reduced due to the symmetry (at least in the conventional release position where the planes of the ball's trajectory and the seam are nearly co- planar). In addition, the lack of backspin does shorten the length of the delivery, and also tends to make the ball skid off the pitch—faster than it would come off a normal delivery.
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Many Japanese pitchers utilize the pitching style of the shot due to the varying results of the ball twisting or sinking in flight. This is done in an attempt to outwit the batter and cause them to either miss the ball when swinging or increase the chance of a foul ball or easily fielded ball. A shot is more difficult to hit compared to a straight pitch because the batter must compensate for the eccentric movement of the ball between the time the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand and crosses home plate. American baseball utilizes terms such as slider, screwball, breaking ball, changeup or knuckleball instead of the Japanese term.
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Celtic exited the Europa League after a 3–1 aggregate defeat to Zenit; the Russians' second goal, described by De Vries as a "knuckleball", deceived him, and it is his belief that his side never recovered from that concession. De Vries was injured in training on 9 March and replaced by Scott Bain in the match with Rangers two days later, and made no further appearances in the 2017–18 season, finishing with 10 appearances: two in the Scottish Cup, two in the Europa League, and six in the League. De Vries left Celtic at the end of the 2018-19 season, and then announced his retirement from football.
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In the sport of cricket, a knuckle ball (or knuckleball) is a type of delivery employed by a fast bowler, and a type of slower ball. As similar to a slower ball, the bowler's intention is to deceive the batter into playing too early so that they either miss the ball completely or hit it high up in the air to offer an easy catch. The ball is bowled by the bowler positioning the ball on the knuckles of their index and middle finger, instead of in the fingers themselves. The delivery deceives the batsman as from a batter's perspective, the ball appears to be a stock delivery.
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He caught the majority of the Athletics' games in 1935 before being traded to the Atlanta Crackers for pitcher Al Williams in November.1935 Philadelphia Athletics season at Baseball Reference Richards was already showing a keen baseball mind as Atlanta's catcher in when he helped turn around pitcher Dutch Leonard's career. After three seasons in the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Leonard had been sent back to the minor leagues where he played with Richards in Atlanta. Richards encouraged him to throw a knuckleball and, within two years, Leonard was back in the major leagues with the Washington Senators, where he became a 20-game winner in 1939.
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He led the American League in games started in each year from 1972 through 1975, and he was the league leader in both wins and innings pitched in 1972 and 1973. Wood finished second in the voting for the American League Cy Young Award, losing a close vote to Gaylord Perry. Wood's resilience, which was attributed to the less stressful nature of the knuckleball delivery, led to some unusual feats of endurance. On May 28, 1973, while pitching for the White Sox against the Cleveland Indians, Wood pitched the remainder of a 21-inning carryover game that had been suspended two nights earlier, allowing only two hits in five innings to earn the victory.
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Although Ferrell led the league in passed balls due to the unpredictability of the knuckleball, he was still named to his seventh All-Star Game. The Senators ended the season in last place while Ferrell's former team, the St. Louis Browns won the 1944 American League pennant. Ferrell shared catching duties with Al Evans in 1945 as the Senators started to win regularly. On July 6, 1945, Ferrell broke Ray Schalk's American League record for most games caught with 1,721. The 1945 All-Star Game which was supposed to be played on July 10 was cancelled on April 24 due to wartime travel restrictions, and no All-Stars were officially named that season.
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In June 1991, Toronto acquired him from Cleveland in a trade to help their playoff run. Candiotti led the Blue Jays' pitching staff with three complete games and a 2.98 ERA in 19 starts for a ballclub that had lost ace right-hander Dave Stieb to a season-ending injury. He was positioned to win the ERA title, as he had a major league-best 2.23 ERA on September 23, but gave up seven earned runs that night in California. In his first 16 starts with Toronto, his ERA was 2.21, a remarkable feat given the fact he threw the knuckleball and was working with two catchers, (Pat Borders and Greg Myers), who had never caught that pitch before.
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Each pitcher's entry includes a header stating both the pitcher's physical data (height, weight, and handedness) and a listing of a few of his career statistics (won- lost record, earned run average, and saves). Below this header, Neyer and James have compiled a list of pitches known to have been thrown by that pitcher, along with one or more citations from scouting guides or media sources of the period. Some pitchers' entries also include quotes from contemporary observers and/or descriptions of the pitcher's throwing motion or career. The second section concludes with two lists: one containing all pitchers known to have thrown a knuckleball, and another for all pitchers who used a sidearm or underhand delivery.
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Lawrence Herbert French (November 1, 1907 – February 9, 1987) was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1929–1934), Chicago Cubs (1935–1941) and Brooklyn Dodgers (1941). A knuckleball specialist, French batted right-handed and threw left-handed. He was born in Visalia, California. One author has described French as the best pitcher not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In a 14-season career, French posted a 197–171 record with 1,187 strikeouts and a 3.44 ERA in 3,152 innings pitched, including 40 shutouts and 198 complete games. French had at least 10 starts and 5 games in relief for all 14 seasons of his career.
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James Hoyt Wilhelm (July 26, 1922 – August 23, 2002), nicknamed "Old Sarge", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, California Angels, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers between 1952 and 1972. Wilhelm was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985, and is one of 83 pitchers enshrined in the Hall. Wilhelm grew up in North Carolina, fought in World War II, and then spent several years in the minor leagues before starting his major league career at the age of 29. He was best known for his knuckleball, which enabled him to have great longevity.
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Though Wilhelm was primarily a starting pitcher in the minor leagues, he had been called up to a Giants team whose strong starting pitchers had led them to a National League (NL) pennant the year before. Giants manager Leo Durocher did not think that Wilhelm's knuckleball approach would be effective for more than a few innings at a time. He assigned Wilhelm to the team's bullpen. Wilhelm made his MLB debut with the Giants on April 18, 1952 at age 29, giving up a hit and two walks while only recording one out. On April 23, 1952, in his third game with the New York Giants, Wilhelm batted for the first time in the majors.
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On September 20 of that year, Wilhelm no-hit the eventual World Champion New York Yankees 1-0 at Memorial Stadium, in only his ninth career start. He allowed two baserunners on walks and struck out eight. The no-hitter had been threatened at one point in the ninth inning when Hank Bauer bunted along the baseline, but Robinson allowed the ball to roll and it veered foul. The no-hitter was the first in the franchise's Baltimore history; the Orioles had moved from St. Louis after the 1953 season. Wilhelm in 1959 Orioles catchers had difficulty catching the Wilhelm knuckleball again in 1959 and they set an MLB record with 49 passed balls.
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387 on-base percentage while appearing in 88 games. During spring training in 1949, Lindell developed a knuckleball and new Yankees manager Casey Stengel experimented with using him as a relief pitcher. On October 1, , during a late-season pennant race, he hit an eighth-inning, game-winning, home run against the Boston Red Sox, putting the Yankees into a tie with their Boston arch-rivals with one game left to play. The Yankees went on to win the final game to clinch the American League pennant then defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1949 World Series. In May 1950, Lindell's contract was purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals from the Yankees.
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However, he went on to learn fluent Japanese, and became respected by teammates as one of the best non-Japanese players ever to play on the Tigers. He learned a slider from Japanese Hall of Famer Masaaki Koyama,Fitts, Robert K. "Gene Bacque," Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), p. 77. and improved his knuckleball to enter the starting rotation. He and Minoru Murayama became the crux of the Tigers pitching staff during the 1960s. Bacque marked a 29–9 record with a 1.89 ERA in 1964, leading the league in wins and ERA to become the first non-Japanese player to receive the Eiji Sawamura Award.
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Just as they had done 12 years earlier, the Reds swept the Dodgers in a doubleheader to jumpstart their pennant hopes. In Game 1, Cincinnati's third-string catcher, Hal King, belted a game-winning, three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning off Don Sutton to give the Reds a 4–3 victory. In Game 2, Tony Pérez singled in the game-winner off knuckleball specialist Charlie Hough in the bottom of the 10th as the Reds won 3–2. The doubleheader sweep was part of a stretch where Cincinnati won 10 of 11 games and by July 10, had cut the Dodgers' lead to 4½ games.
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Cicotte was a starting pitcher and a knuckleball specialist who won 208 games and lost 149 over the course of a 14-year career pitching for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago White Sox. At the time of his lifetime ban, he was considered one of the premier pitchers in the American League. A Detroit native, Cicotte played minor league baseball for the Augusta Tourists in Georgia in 1905, where he was a teammate of Ty Cobb. Both players were purchased by the Tigers, and Cicotte made his big-league debut on September 3, 1905. Pitching in three games for Detroit, Cicotte compiled a 1–1 record with a 3.50 earned run average.
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He acted as the personal catcher for knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield after Mirabelli left the Sox. Cash made his only postseason appearances as a player with the 2008 Red Sox: in the Division Series, he caught two innings in one game without batting, and in the League Championship Series he appeared in three games (one start) and was 1-for-3 at the plate; his one hit was a home run. On December 12, 2008, Cash was non- tendered by the Red Sox, officially making him a free agent. In Boston, Cash wore the uniform number 36, except from August 16, 2008, to the end of that season, due to Paul Byrd joining the Red Sox and wearing 36, his customary number.
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Born in San Francisco, California, Triandos attended Mission High School and was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1948.Gus Triandos Trades and Transactions at Baseball Almanac He joined the Yankees' major league roster briefly as a 22-year-old in 1953, but was sent back to the minor leagues in 1954. Triandos was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1954 where he played mostly as a first baseman for his first two years with the team, before becoming the Orioles' regular catcher in 1957. As the Orioles' catcher, he used an outsized catcher's mitt designed by manager Paul Richards to handle the unpredictable knuckleball of Hoyt Wilhelm."Gus Triandos Looks Back on his Catching Career", Baseball Digest, June 1997, Vol.
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Griffith continued to have faith in Neuer during the exhibition season, and said he could potentially be "one of the greatest ever in the twirling line." Instead of working on his control during that time, which was considered the main thing he needed to work on, he practiced throwing the knuckleball and spitball. Griffith encouraged him to do so, believing that developing these trick pitches would allow him to become a great pitcher, and as a result, he practiced these pitches until, according to one sportswriter, "he was so wild he couldn’t hit the grand stand." In one exhibition game against Atlanta, he appeared in relief of Jack Chesbro, and allowed four runs in less than an inning due to his lack of control.
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In his first off-season, he traded aging White Sox stars Billy Pierce, Minnie Miñoso and Roy Sievers to the National League for younger players. After the campaign, Short swung one of the biggest deals of the off-season, sending future Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio and outfielder Al Smith to the Baltimore Orioles for Aparicio's Baltimore counterpart, Ron Hansen, young third baseman Pete Ward, power-hitting outfielder Dave Nicholson and future Hall of Fame knuckleball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. Hansen, Ward and Nicholson became regulars in 1963. Wilhelm would be Chicago's bullpen ace for six seasons (1963–68) and compile an earned run average of 1.92 in 361 games and 675⅔ innings pitched in a White Sox uniform.
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During his tenure with the Braves, Hogue learned to throw the knuckleball, which became an effective pitch in his repertoire. Three seasons later, Hogue bounced from the Braves to the second division St. Louis Browns of the American League to the powerhouse Yankees' Triple-A Kansas City Blues into mid-August. But on August 20, 1951, the Yankees recalled Hogue and another player from the Blues for the stretch run, and each contributed to New York's third straight AL pennant. (The other player was a 19-year-old rookie centerfielder named Mickey Mantle.) During the rest of the American League season, Hogue appeared in seven games in relief for the Yanks, allowing four hits and no runs in 7 innings pitched and winning his only decision.
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Wakefield throwing a knuckleball With the Boston Red Sox rotation struggling from injuries to top of the rotation starters Roger Clemens and Aaron Sele early in the 1995 season, Wakefield was called up from Triple A, and soon proved to be their most dependable starter.Wakefield Gets Twins To Knuckle Under The Washington Post via HighBeam Research He began the season with a 1.65 ERA and a 14–1 record through 17 games, 6 of which were complete games. He ended the year 16–8 with a 2.95 ERA, helping the Red Sox win the American League East division title, and capturing the Sporting News American League Comeback Player of the Year. He finished third in the AL Cy Young Award balloting.
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Created by the act of throwing a ball, the ball's trajectory is significantly affected by variations in airflow caused by differences between the smooth surface of the ball and the stitching of its seams. The asymmetric drag that results tends to deflect the trajectory toward the side with the stitches. Over the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate, the effect of these forces is that the knuckleball can "flutter," "dance," "jiggle," or curve in two different directions during its flight. A pitch thrown completely without spin is less desirable, however, than one with only a very slight spin (so that the ball completes between one-quarter and one-half a rotation on its way from the pitcher to the batter).
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After Brassington tore his labrum in half, he was told his pitching career may be over. However, instead of giving away his career, Brassington worked on his knuckleball to keep him in the sport and after tinkering with it in a year of local club ball with Tuggeranong Vikings in Canberra, Brassington was selected for the 2006 World Baseball Classic and pitched against Venezuela.Stockman, J. (27 February 2006) Australian Baseball Federation Classic provides Brassington a shot Brassington wasn't selected for the 2009 World Baseball Classic, however he played for Australia Provincial in Claxton Shield 2008 and South Australia in Claxton Shield 2009. Brassington played for the Canberra Cavalry in the 2011–12 ABL season and plays locally for the Tuggeranong Vikings in Canberra.
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Accessed 2013-01-06. Kirkpatrick has written about film, music, sports, and cultural issues for such online sites as The Huffington Post and PopMatters. In his most responded-to piece, he addressed comments on race and sports by ESPN commentators Rob Parker (sports journalist) and also Jalen Rose, whose comments Kirkpatrick placed within a larger social narrative of Uncle Tom-ism and the acting white slur.Rob Kirkpatrick, "The Racial Biases of Duke Hating," The Huffington Post, March 23, 2011. Accessed 2013-01-06. Other works include "Epiphany at Coogan's Bluff" in the Slow Trains Literary Journal (2007), The Quotable Sixties (as editor), Lyons, (2006), and "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Knuckleball" in Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature (East Tennessee State University Press, 2005).
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Los Angeles manager Tommy Lasorda brought in lefthander Doug Rau to face Chambliss, who grounded out to Garvey at first. Leading off the bottom of the eighth, Jackson strode to the plate, amid the chants of "REG-GIE, REG-GIE, REG-GIE!", and drove the first Charlie Hough knuckleball he saw into the center field "batter's eye" (empty blackened bleachers) for an 8–3 lead; he became the first to hit three home runs in a World Series game in 49 years, since Babe Ruth (in 1926 and 1928). With his Game 5 first-pitch homer (in the eighth) and his four-pitch walk in the second inning of Game 6, Jackson homered on his last four swings of the bat in the Series, each off a different Dodger pitcher.
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Samuel "Sam" Crawford (born April 15, 1892, date of death unknown) was an American pitcher and manager in baseball's Negro Leagues. Born in Dallas, Texas, he played in the pre-Negro Leagues for the Chicago American Giants off and on from 1914 to 1917, and became a pitcher and eventually manager of the Kansas City Monarchs "Monarchs will play K. of C. this Afternoon", Kansas City Journal, Kansas City, MO, April 25, 1920 and J. L. Wilkinson's barnstorming farm-league team All Nations in 1923."SPENCER'S BALL TEAM STILL GOING STRONG" Spencer Reporter, Spencer, Iowa, Wednesday, August 15, 1923, Page 1, Columns 1 and 2 He was known for combining a strong fastball with a knuckleball. Crawford left Wilkinson's teams in February 1924 to manage the Birmingham Black Barons.
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The White Sox of the mid-1960s relied on pitching, speed and defense. In addition to Wilhelm, and, later, John, the team's pitchers also included starters Gary Peters, Juan Pizarro and Joel Horlen. Short also obtained left-handed knuckleball ace Wilbur Wood, who starred first in the bullpen and then, as a starting pitcher, won 20 games four times during his 12-season (1967–78) White Sox career. But after competing for the 1967 pennant into the last week of the season, the 1968 White Sox started poorly and signaled the beginning of three years of desperate struggle at the gate and on the field. In 1968 and 1969, the White Sox played one game against every other AL opponent at Milwaukee County Stadium, which was wooing an expansion or relocated MLB team —such as the White Sox — at the time.
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After that, she mostly played at first base and in the outfield, but also filled at second base and third base through the 1946 season.1944 Kenosha Comets In 1947 O'Hara was converted into a pitcher by then manager Ralph Shinners. In her repertoire she included a fastball, a curve and specially a knuckleball, which she loved to use. She turned in a 6–8 record with a 3.51 earned run average in 21 appearances. The next year she went 4–6 in 20 games while lowering her ERA to 3.20. Used sparingly in 1949, she had a 2–3 mark and a 4.65 ERA in 11 games.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League1947 Kenosha Comets In a seven-year career, O'Hara posted a 13–17 record and a 3.56 ERA in 55 games. As a hitter, she batted a .
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Despite primarily being a creative player, who was renowned for his passing, vision, and playmaking ability, Ronaldinho was an accurate finisher with either foot, both from inside and outside the penalty area, as well as being a free-kick and penalty kick specialist. Although he was primarily known for his ability to bend the ball from set pieces, he was also capable of striking the ball with power underneath the wall, and also occasionally used the knuckleball technique, which was popularised by his compatriot Juninho Pernambucano. His versatility and prowess from set pieces made him one of the most prolific free kick takers in history, and also influenced his former teammate Messi, who went on to become a free kick specialist himself. Throughout his career, Ronaldinho was praised by pundits in particular for his technical skills, flair, and creativity, as well as his exceptional first touch.
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Sutton's father is Hall of Fame pitcher and current Atlanta Braves broadcaster Don Sutton. Former Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs first baseman Mark Grace and former Major League knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti were the Diamondbacks primary color analysts for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Former Diamondbacks third baseman Matt Williams also did color commentary on occasion, as did former Cardinals and NBC broadcast legend Joe Garagiola, Sr., a longtime Phoenix-area resident and father of Joe Garagiola, Jr., the first GM of the Diamondbacks (as head of the Maricopa County Sports Authority in the early 1990s, Garagiola, Jr. was one of the primary people involved in Phoenix obtaining a Major League Baseball franchise). The Diamondbacks announced in July 2007 that for the 2008 season, all regionally broadcast Diamondbacks TV games will be shown exclusively on Fox Sports Arizona, and a few could possibly be shown on the national Fox MLB telecasts.
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Although he walked a batter in his first game, Hudson did not surrender a single hit or allow a single run in two innings pitched. The success he witnessed in his first game did not carry over to the rest of the season though, as he finished with a 5.11 ERA in 12 relief appearances. On February 1, 1973, he was traded with a player to be named later to the Rangers for a player to be named later. The Cardinals' player to be named later ended up being Mike Nagy, while the Rangers' player to be named later ended up being Mike Thompson. He developed the knuckleball in 1973, and it became his key pitch. Hudson appeared in 25 games in 1973, starting four of them. He posted an ERA of 4.62 and he struck out 34 batters in 62 innings of work. On April 24, 1974, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Ted Ford.
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In September 1934, Caster made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Athletics. He compiled a 3–2 record for the A's in 1934 and returned to the team in 1935. He appeared in 25 games for the 1935 A's, all but one as a relief pitcher. He finished the season with a 1–4 record and 6.25 ERA. Caster was optioned by the Athletics to the Portland Beavers for the 1936 season, which proved to be the best of Caster's career. In 44 games for Portland, he compiled a 25–13 record and a 2.79 ERA – a career high in wins and a career low in ERA. He was the leader in the Pacific Coast League in 1936 in both wins and strikeouts (234). In a front page profile, The Sporting News credited Caster's turnaround to overcoming his lack of control and adding a slow knuckleball to his blazing fastball and sharp-breaking curve.
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Feldmann 2011: 31 After participating in the 1969 All-Star Game (his seventh selection), Gibson set another mark on August 16 when he became the third pitcher in Major League history to reach the 200-strikeout plateau in seven different seasons. Statue of Gibson outside Busch Stadium Gibson experienced an up-and-down 1970 season, marked at the low point by a July slump where he resorted to experimenting with a knuckleball for the first time in his career.Feldmann 2011: 80 Just as quickly, Gibson returned to form, starting a streak of seven wins on July 28, and pitching all 14 innings of a 5–4 win against the San Diego Padres on August 12. He would go on to win his fourth and final NL Player of the Month award for August (6-0, 2.31 ERA, 55 SO).Feldmann 2011: 81 Gibson won 23 games in 1970, and was once again named the NL Cy Young Award winner.
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In addition to Bobby Thomson and Willie Mays, other memorable New York Giants of the 1950s include Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher, coach Herman Franks, Hall of Fame outfielder Monte Irvin, outfielder and runner-up for the 1954 NL batting championship (won by Willie Mays) Don Mueller, Hall of Fame knuckleball relief pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm, starting pitchers Larry Jansen, Sal Maglie, Jim Hearn, Marv Grissom, Dave Koslo, Don Liddle, Max Lanier, Rubén Gómez, Al Worthington, and Johnny Antonelli, catcher Wes Westrum, catchers Ray Katt and Sal Yvars, shortstop Alvin Dark, third baseman Hank Thompson, first baseman Whitey Lockman, second basemen Davey Williams and Eddie Stanky, outfielder-pitcher Clint Hartung and utility men Johnny Mize, Bill Rigney, Daryl Spencer, Bobby Hofman, Joey Amalfitano, Tookie Gilbert, and 1954 Series hero Dusty Rhodes, among others. In the late 1950s and after the move to San Francisco two Hall of Fame first basemen, Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey, joined the team.
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In 1919, the Chicago White Sox are considered one of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled; however, the team's stingy owner, Charles Comiskey, gives little inclination to reward his players for a spectacular season. Gamblers "Sleepy" Bill Burns and Billy Maharg get wind of the players' discontent, asking shady player Chick Gandil to convince a select group of Sox—including star knuckleball pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who led the majors with a 29–7 win–loss record and an earned run average of 1.82—that they could earn more money by playing badly and throwing the series than they could earn by winning the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Cicotte was motivated because Comiskey refused him a promised $10,000 should he win 30 games for the season. Cicotte was nearing the milestone when Comiskey ordered team manager Kid Gleason to bench him for 2 weeks (missing 5 starts) with the excuse that the 35-year-old veteran's arm needed a rest before the series.
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In early May, Gibson was optioned to the Pittsfield Red Sox of the Eastern League (then at the Double-A level); he was recalled to Boston later in the month. On June 12, Gibson hit a two-run home run at Fenway Park off of Joe Verbanic to help defeat the Yankees, 3–1; it was his first major league homer. During the regular season, Gibson appeared in 49 major league games, batting .203 with one home run and 15 RBIs. A member of the pennant-winning 1967 Red Sox "Impossible Dream" team, Gibson caught the first game of that year's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals; he was 0-for-2 before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh inning. His only other appearance in the series was defensively in the ninth inning of Game 7, which the Cardinals won, 7–2. Gibson in 1969 ;1968 On June 23, 1968, Gibson went 4-for-4 against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. All four hits came against two of baseball's greatest knuckleball pitchers, Wilbur Wood and Hoyt Wilhelm.
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With Cleveland, Wynn was a member of what historian David Fleitz called "one of the greatest pitching rotations of all time," along with Bob Feller, Mike Garcia, and Bob Lemon. Pitching coach Mel Harder taught him a curveball, slider, and knuckleball, which Wynn credited with helping him become a better pitcher in the 1950s. He won 20 or more games in four of his seasons with the Indians, helping them set an American League (AL) record with 111 total wins in 1954. He started Game 2 of the 1954 World Series, which the New York Giants won in four games. In 1955, he was selected to his first of eight straight All-Star Games. Traded to the White Sox after the 1957 season, Wynn won the 1959 Cy Young Award, leading the AL with 22 wins as the team won the AL pennant. In Game 1 of the 1959 World Series, Wynn struck out six in seven innings, allowing no runs as the White Sox won 11–0.
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John Arnold Niggeling (July 10, 1903 – September 16, 1963) was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in 184 games in Major League Baseball over all or parts of nine seasons (–) with the Boston Bees and Braves, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators. He was a right-handed knuckleball specialist who was listed as tall and . Born in Remsen, Iowa, Niggeling entered pro baseball in 1928 and promptly won 51 games over his first three minor leage seasons. But his major-league debut would have to wait until April 30, 1938, when he was 34 years old. He had two brief National League trials with the 1938 Bees and 1939 Reds, totaling 42 innings pitched, before he was acquired by the Browns in January 1940. In the American League over the next six seasons, Niggeling would exceed 150 innings pitched each year, win 56 games, and place in the Junior Circuit's top ten pitchers in earned run average three times (–), and strikeouts twice (1942 and 1944).
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In 1964, The Sporting News said his number one pitch was a slider. However, other sources say he threw a knuckleball. In the minor leagues, he won over 100 games, leading the Eastern League in wins in 1958, with 17, while playing for the Lancaster Red Roses. From 1960–1962, as a member of the Triple-A Denver Bears, he posted a combined won–lost record of 40–24. On November 27, 1962, Seyfried was traded with fellow hurler Ron Nischwitz to the Cleveland Indians for veteran third baseman Bubba Phillips.Baseball Reference After spending the 1963 minor league season at Triple-A, Seyfried made his MLB debut on September 13, 1963, against the Los Angeles Angels at Dodger Stadium, only a few miles up the freeway from his Long Beach home town. Relieving Early Wynn, Seyfried pitched one inning and allowed two hits and no runs before being lifted for a pinch hitter; Cleveland prevailed in 12 innings, 7–6, with Gary Bell getting the win.Retrosheet box score: 1963-09-13 In the third and final game of his 1963 late-season trial, Seyfried received his only big-league start.
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He was released by the White Sox organization following the season. On June 29, 2010, he returned to baseball after signing with the independent league St. Paul Saints and finished with a 1-2 record and a 4.58 ERA in 21 games before retiring from professional baseball. After failing tryouts with several major league teams, Viola was hired to be a studio analyst for Bright House Sports Network on their studio show and for their Florida State League broadcasts. He also started his own fishing show and also sold timeshares. Starting in 2012, Frank III worked with Toronto's R.A. Dickey, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield and Hall of Famer Phil Niekro on developing a knuckleball to resurrect his baseball career. On March 5, 2014, he was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays to a minor league contract, and was assigned to the Lansing Lugnuts, their Class-A affiliate, on June 6. On June 14, 2014, Viola earned his first affiliated professional baseball win since 2005 when the Lugnuts topped the Great Lakes Loons 3-0. Viola pitched 6 scoreless innings, allowed eight hits, struck out one and walked two batters on his way to the win.
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