Seems like a useful pitch to have on hand.
Mark Waldron is pitching poorly for San Diego.
He’s the only one currently. Oops, he’s with the Nats now.
It is a fairly tough pitch to control and it seems like most catchers struggle with it.
Matt Waldron. And, yeah, a 7.15 ERA across three teams this season, after a 7.71 ERA last season. I suspect he won’t be a major league pitcher for much longer at this rate.
As noted, it’s a very difficult pitch to master and control (and takes a long time to learn), and in recent decades, the few pitchers who have thrown it have typically resorted to learning it out of desperation, due to lack of success throwing traditional pitches.
Because there are so few current or former practitioners of the pitch available to teach it to a student, I suspect that it’ll continue to fade away.
The last two knuckleballers of any longevity were
- Tim Wakefield 627 games, retired in 2011
- R. A. Dickey 400 games, retired in 2017
And Phil Niekro was the best
And Wakefield tragically died from cancer in 2023. Of the previous generation of successful practitioners of the pitch, Phil Niekro, Joe Niekro, and Wilbur Wood are all also dead, and Charlie Hough is now 78 years old (and apparently retired from coaching in 2010). There are few skilled knuckleballers still around to pass on the knowledge.
Too late to edit: i should have included Tom Candiotti on the above list. He’s still alive (age 69), and is an announcer for the Diamondbacks.
Not the same thing exactly but Jose Soriano of the Blue Jays throws a knuckle curve.
Really not the same, but MooseMike Mussina had a great one.
If anyone ever does master the knuckleball again, the other big advantage is that it is easy on the arm. 200+ innings would be easy in a season.
but from what I understand, it’s hard to catch, so maybe more wild pitches/passed balls
No maybe about it.
Literally already mentioned that. I mean, it was the 1st reply.
As Bob Uecker, who caught for Phil Niekro, famously said, “The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and pick it up.”