Why We Love The Knuckleball

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.

I may be a Yankee fan, but I’ve always liked watching Boston’s Tim Wakefield pitch (admittedly, I first saw him pitch when he was a Pirate, so I don’t feel too bad).  Waldo Jaquith caught this great shot of Wakefield in mid-pitch.  Not sure what I’m more jealous about, that he got to see Wakefield pitch live or that he got three free tickets seven rows up behind home plate.

Roger Clemens was totally at that bitchin’ party Jose Canseco threw and he is so busted.  Because, you know, the government doesn’t have better things to do.

Some rules and quirks in baseball:

Take the stolen base. Did you know that it used to be possible to steal first from second? Why would you want to do that? Well, if there is a runner on third stealing first from second could distract the catcher and allow the runner from third to score. The last recorded instance of this happening was on September 4, 1908 by Detroit’s Germany Schaefer in a game against Cleveland. Soon after the rules committee outlawed the practice as they thought it made a mockery of the game. I don’t know about you but it sounds kind of fun!

(h/t Kottke)

Pitcher Roger Clemens is supposedly one of the many players due to be outed by this afternoon’s Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball.  Andy Pettitte and “several” high profile Yankees might be named as well.  It’ll be interesting to see who all is in that report and what the fall out will be.  (Via VV)

11:36am UPDATE: From ESPN, Questions the Mitchell report should answer:

Will there be a Red Sox player named in the report?
Because of Mitchell’s affiliation with the team, that is a question being asked by more than a handful of executives around the game.

Maybe I’m just being a paranoid Yankee fan, but with Clemens being named already and the Boston.com article above focusing on Yankees, I think this is a good question and hopefully one that will get an answer.

2:51pm Update:  You can see a list of names cited in the report here or you can download the entire official report here.  I’m gonna try and look through it later tonight but right of the top: Brady Anderson?  Say it ain’t so…  I hope he’s just cited as a quote.

Andy Pettitte is putting off retirement for one more year, agreeing to a $16 million deal with the Yankees.

All of the Yankees’ major free agents have now decided to return, with Pettitte following Posada, third baseman Alex Rodriguez and closer Mariano Rivera. The only major change thus far as been replacing manager Joe Torre with Girardi.

Good news for the Yanks.  Glad to see there wasn’t a bunch of people leaving after Torre was replaced.