The most starts he could get against Pittsburgh in a season is 6. Keep in mind that he did it pretty much all season.

Wasn't the third strike it was 1-1

@@Hardballleather the 1-1 pitch is at 2:32

@@dustinstephens8659 The batter fouled off the pitch to the 3rd base side on a 1-2 count. The batter looked that way. No strikeout then. You can see the ump give a ball to the catcher after that to throw to the pitcher.

Yes! Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball. Fantastic

How do you hit a knuckle ball? You don't. Thank me for that one. ;)

Same date just in September

I wholeheartedly agree. Fastballs are so boring.

Bryan Kautz Dicky’s book is interesting. (I read the entire book in the bookstore! Ha!) It is a long and difficult road to learn it but more importantly to perfect it. This explains why there are so few k-ballers in MLB.

Jim Mulchinock thanks, kinda what I was thinking, "if it was easy everyone would do it!!LOL) Being in Toronto I got to see a lot of him during his yrs here and was always impressed we had a rare k baller on our team. Just personally depressing that his slowest knuckler is still faster than my best attempt at a 'Fastball"!! Ps Thanks for the tip on the book, if I can still find a brick & mortar bookstore I'll go in and read it (sounds like it's not too long if you can read the whole thing in the store!!!Lol definitely not war & peace!!) 😂👍

It's VERY easy in theory. The grip, the position, everything is great....until you get to the release and that's when things just make you so very mad and have you saying "STOP SPINNING BALL DAMMIT". It's such a touchy feely pitch and how you sort of push the ball, your wrist and everything has to be *just* right. Biggest problem for most/all is the release. All the fingers / thumb have to release and in the right area or one catches a seam, cover and it starts spinning. Velocity is important too, as it's not a fast pitch but around 50-75ish which is slow compared to a fastball, but fast enough to break.

N G thanks, always knew about the "pushing" with the fingers part, I'm not a pitcher myself but would always try it when playing catch with friends just to see if I could pull it off but they always managed to catch it so I guess I didn't fool them!LOL Still impressed that his slowest knuckler is faster than my best attempt at a "fastball"!!!😂

In general, it's hard to pitch at an All-Star level throwing primarily knuckleballs. RA Dickey had one Cy Young season, but that's also his lone All-Star appearance. Wakefield had one All-Star season. If you have the ability to throw hard, change speeds, and generate a ton of spin, electing to throw a knuckleball is almost a waste of your ability and would probably worsen your effectiveness. So if you're a top pitching prospect and you're trying to get into the big leagues, you probably won't be working on your knuckleball because scouts are looking for future franchise players, and a knuckleballer isn't going to be that guy. On the other hand, if you've been drafted and your career isn't panning out, you might want to consider the knuckleball to prolong your career. That's what Wakefield and Dickey both did, as Wakefield was drafted as a first baseman and Dickey didn't pick up the knuckleball until his 30s. But like any pitch, the knuckleball is hard to master. If you're just learning it for the first time well into your twenties or later, you may not have the time to master it before organizations cut you loose.

Many knuckleball pitchers have had specific catcher counterparts on their team's roster just for them.

Yessir

some umps wont call a strike when the catcher drops it. Doesn't make it right- but just the way it is.

As a catcher through college I can vouch for this, it happened more than once but the one I clearly recall was supposed to be up and away heat and he threw a knee high curve that caught "all" the plate but due to where I was setup I caught it kinda like a basket catch and "Blue" said If it's a strike the catcher won't have to "look so awkward. Freshman year my father got me a new mitt, my last one was his originally and felt like it was part of my body, the new mitt didn't take long to break in but I would occasionally catch one in the "palm" area of the glove and they would bounce out (especially when framing an inside pitch) and found that telling the ump I had a new mitt after the 2nd drop made him pay better attention. With knuckleballs it's nuts! I only caught a couple mediocre guys that could throw it but even the best guy was still only really getting movement on 20% or less of there throws. Other wobbled but were clobbered because they didn't deviate far enough off their "trajectory" but I guarantee catching RA would have felt like the laws of physics had disappeared. It's amazing that balls and strikes are still done by eye.

I love R.A. on a personal level, but the trade netted the Mets both d'Arnaud and Syndergaard while his career fizzled out so I'd say we came up on top.

Terry, thank you for commenting. However, you are mistaken. The Mets were WINNING 9-0 at this point in the game.

KnuckleballAlley ah crap! I'm getting to old I misread the wrong teams score haha, well then go dickey!!

Nom de Plume Not doubting your post, but if you go back and watch clips of Dicky vs top teams (esp as a Met) you will see he was simply remarkable. It’s almost like watching Bobby Orr highlight reels and he’s waltzing through expansion teams like St. Louis who at the time stunk. But he was also a powerhouse against the Habs; just wasn’t as glaring.

I don't call that a perfect knuckleball inning. 9 knuckle balls for strikes, 3 up, all strikeout outs. More perfect, no batter hits the ball foul.

chris gipson No he didn't. The 2nd pitch was called a ball, though it could have went either way.

What you thought was the 3rd strike, was actually a foul ball on strike 2, you can see the ump handing a ball to the catcher.

tubenachos No. your hands may have a Calais phase but it is probably the least painful throw in the books for your arm a shoulder. Knuckleball pictures can generally play for 5 to 6 years longer than a fastball pitcher.

Calais??? Lol its callous man.