Why I Don't Teach The Knuckle-Ball Pitch

A lot of baseball people ask me why I don't have a picture and description of the knuckle-ball pitch on my main website's "Pitching Grips" page. The reason is simple: I don't recommend or teach the pitch. And no, it's not because it's a dangerous or an altogether stressful pitch. (As a matter of fact, the knuckle ball is perhaps one of the least stressful of all baseball pitches.)

No, the reason I don't teach the knuckle ball (above right) is because it's a junk pitch. Guys don't get drafted on it. Guys don't get college scholarships on it. Instead, it's a last resort pitch. In the major leagues, for example, the knuckle ball is usually used as a last-resort option for a pitcher who's about to be released. The big-league club will give a guy a few weeks to see if he can get the pitch to work. If not, he's usually let go, or turned into a coach.

Now I know there are some knuckle-ball pitchers in the game. Tim Wakefield is a great knuckle-ball pitcher. But Wake was a position player first. He was on his way out the door before being converted into a knuckle-ball pitcher. For Wake, it worked. But he's the exception to the rule.

For Mark Lemke, former Atlanta Braves second baseman in the 1990s, it didn't work out. (And there are much more of these stories than Wakefield's story.) Lemke was released, tried to come back as a knuckle-ball pitcher, but never quite made it back to the Majors.

If you don't take my advice and do decide to throw it, it should be thrown at about 65-68 mph. Any harder and it doesn't knuckle. Any slower and it basically doesn't reach the plate.