When Tim Wakefield was winding down I was worried that we’d not have any knuckleballers. Then R.A. Dickey emerged from years of obscurity. Dickey, of course, will not last forever, so we’re faced again with the possible extinction of knuckleballers.
Thank goodness there are two of them on Dagobah right now, learning from the knuckleball Yoda:
They’re in the Orioles’ system and have been tasked by Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter to get crafty.
I still hope that one day the knuckler will re-emerge as just another pitch otherwise conventional pitchers have in their repertoire, as was the case for much of the 20th century. But having to live in a world where it is primarily seen as a means of salvaging otherwise stalled careers is better than nothing.
