Why We Love the Knuckleball

By Paulie Knep
Love of Sports Correspondent

“Not only can’t pitchers control it, hitters can’t hit it, catchers can’t catch it, coaches can’t coach it and most pitchers can’t learn it. It’s the perfect pitch.”

- Ron Luciano, former AL umpire

The knuckleball is a pitch thrown at a slow speed, without rotation, which darts, dips, dances, jingles and flutters in unpredictable directions, driving major league hitters mad.

Former Yankee Bobby Murcer said that trying to hit a knuckleball “is like trying to eat jello with chopsticks.”

Most pitches are effective because of the rotation the pitcher places on the ball, but the knuckleball’s designed to remove rotation. Devoid of rotation, the contrast between the smooth surface of the ball and its stitched seams creates an imbalanced drag, which causes the ball to ‘flutter’ in a random direction on its way to the plate.

Originally, pitchers threw a knuckleball by gripping the ball with their knuckles, hence the name. Over the years, though, pitchers have adapted to digging their fingertips and nails into the top of the ball.

Eddie Cicotte, a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox early in the 20th century, was the first to popularize the pitch. Hoyt Wilhelm parlayed it into a Hall of Fame career during the ‘50s and ‘60s, and the most famous knuckleballers in baseball history were actually brothers: Phil and Joe Niekro. The two won 539 games between them.

Everything about the knuckleball is unusual and unpredictable. When it works, the erratic flutter of the ball makes it virtually unhittable. But when it doesn’t, it’s a 65 mph duck, waiting to be smacked out of the ballpark. The pitchers have no control over the direction or degree of the movement, and they don’t know whether the ball is breaking well on a given day until they see the hitters swing.

Few pitchers are able to throw the knuckler, giving those who can a cult-like status. It generally requires very large fingers. As Hall of Famer Willie Stargell explained it, “Throwing a knuckleball for a strike is like throwing a butterfly with hiccups across the street into your neighbor’s mailbox”.

Yet there have been position players who have thrown it well. Mickey Mantle supposedly had a great knuckleball and Wade Boggs used it to retire three batters in his lone career pitching performance.

There are many advantages to being a knuckleball pitcher. Since they’re thrown at a much slower speed than other pitchers, they’re less taxing on the arm, enabling the pitcher to pitch more innings more frequently and for an extended period of time. Wilhelm, the Niekros, Charlie Hough and Tom Candiotti continued to benefit teams well into their 40s by eating up innings and preserving the bullpen.

However, due to a number of inherent problems with the pitch, there are never more than a handful of knuckleballers in the league at one time. There’s only one such established pitcher in the majors today: Tim Wakefield of the Red Sox.

The knuckleball’s very difficult to catch as well, resulting in many passed balls. Catchers use an oversized mitt to try and catch it, but according to former catcher and current Dodgers manager Joe Torre, “You don’t catch a knuckleball, you defend against it.” The slow delivery of the pitch also leaves defenses vulnerable to stolen bases.

Since so few pitchers throw it, there are very few coaches who can properly teach it. Pitchers typically begin throwing it by chance or out of necessity. Wakefield was a weak hitting minor league first baseman in the Pirates organization when his manager saw him throw a knuckleball in warmups. He had no future at first base, so the team gave him a shot as a pitcher. Nineteen years later, he ranks third on the Red Sox all-time wins list, behind Cy Young and Roger Clemens.

Over the years, batters have developed numerous different approaches to hitting a knuckleball, from moving up in the batter’s box, to “If it’s high, let it fly. If it’s low, let it go”, but no technique has proven effective. Some hitters have claimed that trying to adjust to it has screwed up their swing for weeks.

It’s the combination of the pitch’s rarity and complexity that makes it so hard to hit and fun to watch. Who doesn’t enjoy watching powerful sluggers salivate at the site of a slow meatball coming towards them, only to wildly flail and miss as it dances under their bat?

That’s Why We Love the Knuckleball!