Beware the knuckleball
While Mariners manager John McLaren will not agree, the injury that has sent Erik Bedard to the 15-day DL this week has been reason to rejoice for some baseball fans. That’s not through any lack of sympathy or respect for the former Oriole, it’s because the injury has created a spot in the Seattle rotation for a unique talent: R.A. Dickey.
Dickey doesn’t just have a great name, he has a great knuckleball and there aren’t enough good knucklers around these days. Tim Wakefield is still taking the mound every fifth day for the Red Sox, and Charlie Haeger is trying to pitch his way back on to the White Sox’s roster, but apart from them you will be hard pressed to find many exponents of the knuckling art.
And that’s a real shame. Immortalized in the Hall of Fame by Phil Niekro and immortalized in Ball Four by Jim Bouton, the knuckleball is a pitch with a certain mystique and charm. Unless you are trying to hit it. Or even catch it.
Dickey’s story is a typical knuckler’s tale. Struggling to stick in the Majors as a conventional pitcher, he turned to the butterfly pitch in an attempt to keep his dream alive. The knuckleball has resurrected the careers of several pitchers and it raises the question as to why more don’t go down that route. The answer, of course, is that being a knuckleball pitcher in the Majors is not nearly as easy as it looks.
In many ways, you can compare the knuckleballer to a spin bowler in cricket. Everyone on the local village green thinks that they can bowl a few overs of spin and plenty of professional cricketers try to do so to add another string to their bow. The problem they face is that, while they can amble up to the crease and turn their arm over, they can’t actually bowl the delivery well enough to be effective.
Spin bowling is predominantly about putting the batsman under pressure by consistently bowling good deliveries. Just like a batter sizing up a pesky knuckler, the batsman sees these slow offerings and feels a compulsion to start whacking them into the stands. The crafty spin bowler preys on the batsmans’ aggressiveness in the same way that a knuckleball pitcher does, almost goading them into taking wild, unbalanced swings.
The most common reason why a part-time spinner comes unstuck is that they cannot apply the same level of pressure on the batsman as a full-time spinner can. Their four good deliveries in an over are accompanied by two long hops or full tosses, so the batsman can simply wait for the inevitable bad balls and put them away. Two overs for 20 runs (or more) will soon see you being relegated back to fielding duty.
The same principle applies for the knuckler. Throwing a knuckleball is one thing; consistently throwing it for strikes, or at least in a location that tempts the batter into swinging at it, is quite another. Without that consistency, the batter can simply wait for the walk or the mediocre 2-0 75MPH ‘fastball’ to hammer into the seats.
It wasn’t a fairy tale start for R.A. Dickey as he took the loss for Seattle on Friday night against the Angels. There were some positive signs in his performance though. The Angels took advantage of a shaky first inning by Dickey, scoring three runs in the first frame, but he settled down after that and retired fifteen of the next seventeen batters he faced. Knuckleballers have to accept that if it’s not their day, things can look fairly ugly. The way Dickey battled back and put in a decent showing overall should be enough for him to get a second start next Thursday against the Orioles at least.
If he does get that chance, many baseball fans (except those in Baltimore) will be hoping that he pitches a gem. It takes a lot for a knuckleball pitcher to earn the trust of his manager and MLB will be a better place if Dickey can be an effective Big League starter. One of the great things about baseball is that players of all different shapes, sizes and skill-sets can play (and have success) at the highest level. Witnessing star sluggers being made to look silly by a knuckler every now and then is an enjoyable example of this appealing trait.
Week Three wrap-up
The Rockies have won four in a row, including a 6 hour 16 minutes, twenty-two inning marathon against the Padres, but they were unable to gain ground on Arizona in the NL West. The D-Backs (13-4) matched Colorado’s winning streak and retain the best record in the Majors. The Cardinals’ (9-4) hold on first place in the Central is coming under threat from the Brewers and the Cubs (both are just 0.5 games back), while the Mets (10-6) have won five straight to jump to the top of the East.
In the American League, the Red Sox (12-7) have moved to the top of the East, winning eight of their last ten games, although the Orioles are clinging on to their coat tails. The White Sox (10-7) stay in first place in the Central as the Indians and Tigers remain mired in mediocrity, while the Angels (12-7) have edged ahead of the A’s in the West thanks to a three-game winning streak.