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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.)
At 36, Hoyt Wilhelm’s best years were thought to be behind him. Moreover, his best pitch, the knuckleball, was a fluttery offering that drove catchers nuts, eluded their grasp and created havoc.
Eddie Cicotte is credited as the inventor of the knuckleball. Hoyt Wilhelm won 124 games in relief, the major league record, and was the first pitcher to reach 200 saves and the first to appear in 1,000 games. R. A. Dickey reinvented his career by developing a knuckleball. Phil Niekro is the only knuckleballer to win 300 games. [5]
This is a category of baseball pitchers that are notable for pitching the knuckleball or who made it to professional baseball based on their ability to throw a knuckleball. Individuals who were not primarily pitchers during their professional baseball career are excluded.
Pitching Ninja tweeted video of an apparent knuckleball that he threw during his scoreless inning for the Reds in 2018. That was his first big-league pitching appearance, and his only one that season.
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.
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. [1] It was released in theaters on September 20, 2012, and on DVD on April 2, 2013. [2] Wakefield won his 200th game in 2011 and Dickey won the 2012 Cy Young Award.
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.