Sportive Thoughts

A reader requested that I re-post this entry from September 9, 2006. I also corrected the link to my old blogger site.

The knuckleball is one of the few pure things left in baseball. The knuckleball is a pitch of finesse, not strength. To throw a knuckleball, the only thing that changes is your grip. For the 2-fingered k-ball, place the tips of the index and middle finger on one seam and curl the two fingers to rest on the following seam. Your throw ought to be the same as a normal fastball, just extend your fingers as you follow through. The only difference between a 2-fingered and a 3-fingered k-ball is that, obviously, the 3-fingered k-ball uses the ring finger.



The knuckleball is unlike any other pitch. It doesn't spin. This creates the physics problem shown above, where lift is virtually zero and the lateral effects of drag virtually unknowable. In addition to this, the lack of spin causes confusion for the batter. Unlike fastballs or curveballs, a batter cannot practice hitting a knuckleball due to its unpredictablity. Just seeing the spinless pitch is enough to cause hesitation, taking precious time away from the batter's swing. Thrown too fast, the k-ball is likely to spin, making it act more like a hanging curve--good news for the batter. Thrown too slow, and the k-ball might not even make it to the plate.

The way I see it, pitching is much like an argument, baseball like philosophy. The variety of pitches, the effect of your spin on curves, speed on fastballs, the inclusion of change-ups will make your game more effective. Throwing the knuckleball is to be in a different categories of pitchers altogether. The knuckleballer is unpredictable, annoying, fun. He changes the rules; he turns the offense into a defense. He uses an argument that is essentially, "a curveball that doesn't give a damn."

Why be a knuckleballer? Because you care enough about the game to make it interesting. You don't break the rules, you expose their limits. The batter won't hit anything that's not over the plate? Show him something that will shift his attention to the ball. Other pitchers are throwing faster, harder? Show them you can play the game just as well, using creativity, not just power. Does power matter? Yes, of course. But the advantage of a 100 mph fastball is limited, and very few have that power at their disposal. The knuckleball, too, is a difficult pitch. But unlike any other pitcher, the knuckleballer exposes what the game of baseball is, and is not.