Has there been any other active knuckleballer in MLB since? I guess RA Dickey might qualify but even he didn’t seem to be a knuckleball major pitcher.
Steven Wright? On the Red Sox?Has there been any other active knuckleballer in MLB since? I guess RA Dickey might qualify but even he didn’t seem to be a knuckleball major pitcher.
Pinch-runner extraordinaire and husband of the year.Steven Wright? On the Red Sox?
Dickey started throwing the knuckleball as his primary pitch in 2006. Others in the majors (not counting position players like Alex Blandino) since Wakefield retired (I might be forgetting someone):Has there been any other active knuckleballer in MLB since? I guess RA Dickey might qualify but even he didn’t seem to be a knuckleball major pitcher.
Padres had a knuckleballer this year, Matt Waldron.Dickey started throwing the knuckleball as his primary pitch in 2006. Others in the majors since Wakefield retired:
- Mickey Jannis (Orioles, 2021). This season, he was in the starting rotation of the High Point Rockers of the Atlantic League.
At 2:59:00 or so you get a replay of the famous Mariano Rivera "catch the ball!" moment, so as of right now that's the best part of this thread.It's on video here (the full MLB international broadcast), starting at 3:15:45.
ETA: A different view is in the FOX broadcast embedded above, at 2:55 or so.
This.Tim Wakefield is uniquely a multi-generational Red Sox, from 1995-2011 playing a significant part of every single season. From the heartache to beyond the realm of reality(2 titles!) and into the downturn again. So many fans from an age of memory/relevance, roughly 35-65 year old and beyond, remember vividly, of the mastery of Tim Wakefield.
I have a friend of a friend that confirmed the org has been aware of this for several weeks. The fact that this type of thing remained quiet this long says so much about those closest to him in the organization, and so much more about the individual that couldn't be bothered to find out if this should be shared.
I hope Tim sees the messages here if/when he wants to. He is loved by so many, for his on field and off field life.
I just watched 80% of games 5 and 7 of the ALCS. So incredible to re-live. I want to hug #49.I could watch these 2004 clips all day long for the rest of my life.
I think this speaks to (1) how hard of a pitch the knuckleball is to master and (2) how great Wakefield was at it.Dickey started throwing the knuckleball as his primary pitch in 2006. Others in the majors (not counting position players like Alex Blandino) since Wakefield retired (I might be forgetting someone):
Bonus: Tomo Ohka was in spring training with the Blue Jays in 2014 but was cut before the start of the regular season. He had developed a knuckleball in hopes of making it back to the major leagues, and the Blue Jays figured to get at least some practice for their catches in preparation for RA Dickey's starts. Instead, he pitched that year for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League. (He also was in spring training with the Orioles in 2016.)
- Eddie Gamboa (Orioles, 2016). The Orioles had a number of minor-league knuckleball picthers in the mid-2010s, but only Gamboa made it to the majors.
- Ryan Feierabend (Blue Jays, 2019). He started throwing the knuckleball overseas in 2015, after washing out of the Rangers organization in 2014.
- Mickey Jannis (Orioles, 2021). This season, he was in the starting rotation of the High Point Rockers of the Atlantic League.
- Matt Waldron (Padres, 2023). He is the last true pitcher to throw knuckleballs in the majors, but it's really his third or fourth pitch (in other words, he uses it like dozens of pitchers used it before the circlechange became common).
Edit: never could figure out that Enter key thing
The first year I really followed the Red Sox was 1995. I was 13. Before that, I was a baseball fan, but more a fan of individual players - and collected baseball cards like crazy. I liked guys like Griffey and Bagwell. Greg Maddux. I thought the Red Sox stunk. I owned two baseball caps. A Rockies cap, and an Astros cap.
That changed on December 9th, 1994. I was outside with a baseball glove and ball, waiting on a friend. Chad. Chad didn't merely show up. He came running down the street, frantically waving his arms yelling "OH MY GOD! DUDE! DUDE! YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT!!!"
"What?! What happened?"
"The Red Sox just got JOSE CANSECO! THE RED SOX JUST GOT JOSE CANSECO!"
And we were both stoked. I was hooked.
I'm glad I got in when we did. That 1995 team was a lot of fun, and I can easily name more 1995 players than I could 2023 players. I even remember the obscure guys like Tuffy Rhodes and Alejandro Pena. Mo Vaughn won an MVP. John Valentin had a season for the ages. We won the AL East and just had quite the cast of role players. Some guy named Dwayne Hosey was Willie Mays for about a month or two.
But nothing that season was as magical as Tim Wakefield coming out of nowhere and dominating the entire league. It was unreal, the numbers he put up.
He pitched through 2011. I was 29. It's not the longest career ever, but it always felt surreal to me... to be almost 30, and still having this guy on the team that was pitching when I was a kid. Still doing his thing, still getting outs.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with this - other than to say I respect the hell out of Tim Wakefield, as a ballplayer and as a person. I'll be pulling for him and his family.
I'm sure I'm misreading your intent, but I thought I'd comment on the above. It's worth remembering that Tim seems to have lived a wonderful life and made an overwhelmingly positive impact on other people. From that perspective, everyone should be so fortunate, no matter how long our lives last. (But of course, let's also hope Tim and his loved ones have many more years of the same ahead of him.)Reading this thread and stories about how great of a guy he is off the field just reminds me of how unfair life can be sometimes.
I understand what you are saying and I agree with it wholeheartedly. That line is more “why do bad things happen to good people” than anything else.I'm sure I'm misreading your intent, but I thought I'd comment on the above. It's worth remembering that Tim seems to have lived a wonderful life and made an overwhelmingly positive impact on other people. From that perspective, everyone should be so fortunate, no matter how long our lives last. (But of course, let's also hope Tim and his loved ones have many more years of the same ahead of him.)
This is a great description of how I think a lot of fans resonated with Tim Wakefield. He felt like just a normal dude who wasn't blessed with obscene athletic ability....though I suspect Wakefield was 100% more athletic than he "seemed"...they used to always comment on how he was a great fielding pitcher since he had played infield prior to switching to pitcher full time. But it wasn't just the appearance of being a normal guy....like you said, he acted like it in all his interviews and his interactions with the fans. He talked normal. To use an old cliche, he truly was "the guy you could drink a beer with".Hate to read about this anywhere, let alone here. Whatever's going on is Wake's story to tell. But since this is an appreciation thread, I'll add mine to the pile.
Summer of 1995 was a transition year in my life, and Wake was appointment viewing. I'll always be grateful for what he brought that year.
In subsequent years we watched him have highs and lows, particularly struggling through the lows to find it. He'd turn over every rock, talking to other knuckleballers, mostly retired. He fought through it back to the highs. It was like he could be any one of us, trying to figure out life and career. Having good days and bad days, working through it. Not some Adonis with an arm touched by God. He felt like one of us. Of course, watching his interviews, public appearances, and hearing the stories from anyone who knew someone who knew someone who met him, he seemed like salt of the earth. The kind of guy who could be your next door neighbor.
Then in 2003, he had the indignity of having to take the fall at the end. Not from mental error or lack of judgment. The ball's fluttering just happened at the wrong time. I remember him giving an interview after that and saying that he was hoping that folks here wouldn't hold it against him, like the failed heroes and sometimes ghosts of the past. What he didn't know was that he was one of us by then. We knew what it felt like to have victory snatched away. We had watched him rise and fall and bust his buns every night. Nobody was going to shun the man, and we didn't.
Then those days of 2004, it was so great watching him help deliver what nobody ever had in even our parents' lifetimes. And he kept being great, long after those of us who fell in love with his game in 95 would have ever expected.
One of the 25, but also just Tim from Boston. Best of luck with all of this.
Steven Wright? He got rings for 2013 and 2018 even though he wasn’t on the playoff roster.Has there been any other active knuckleballer in MLB since? I guess RA Dickey might qualify but even he didn’t seem to be a knuckleball major pitcher.
He hasn't logged in here since 2014.And to think that Schilling once used to post on SOSH.
There's an irony here that will be lost on him. He first raised his "I am stupid" flag when he got all pissy because he said a post critical of sports media was "off the record," even though it was posted in a public spot, and then a reporter (Masserotti?) wrote about what he said. And now 20 years later, he really does violate an actual confidence, likely causing actual pain to real people. It really sucks that anger at that hateful moron gets even a sliver of the headspace that should be for the sadness (and hope) for the Wakes.He hasn't logged in here since 2014.
The 95 and 99 Red Sox teams, much like (and at the same time as) the Parcells Patriots teams, really set the table for what was to come. Let it be Wake or Mo Vaughn, Bledsoe or Ben Coates, I think people miss out on how most (not all, but most) dynasties need to walk before they can run, need to create the winning culture and get to the playoffs before they win it all. I think the players that get to play in both sides - the build up as well as the victories, both had it best and are remembered with the most fondness, and Wake is the posterboy of that effort. Combining what he did on the field with the appreciation that his teammates and managers and the community clearly had for him off the field - he should be about the epitome of what we want in an athlete we cheer for. I'm obviously very upset by the disclosure, as well as the diagnosis, and I will hope and pray for him and his family. They deserve better.At a time, 1995, when my interest in baseball was at an all time low, the Red Sox run that summer, and Wake’s prominent role in it, was the first spark of getting my passion for the game back. I’ll always appreciate him for that, and for being a great Red Sox, and by all accounts, a true gentleman. Brain cancer is tough one, I lost my dad to it in 1988. But, treatments have advanced considerably since then, so there’s reason for hope. All best wishes to Tim and his family for a full recovery.
Just wanted to say that I hope when you say you got lucky; you got the best news possible.I got lucky though, and it just sucks to read he didn’t.
Although it will do nothing to help Wake, could the dopes ban Schilling from SoSH just for good measure and human decency?He hasn't logged in here since 2014.
Tagging him probably isn’t a great idea, we all know his screen name.Although it will do nothing to help Wake, could the dopes ban Schilling from SoSH just for good measure and human decency?
Please don't. He'd find out and just use it as another stupid self-pitying grievance in his long list of bullshit nonsense.Although it will do nothing to help Wake, could the dopes ban Schilling from SoSH just for good measure and human decency?
I updated my GF on the news and got choked up while doing so. And that took me by surprise a little. As much as I've rooted for other players, and as much as I'd be sad to hear the same news about them, there's something really special about Wake.I’ve been reading this thread for a while, but haven’t posted because I’m just so sad at the news. Lots of beautiful sentiments about Wake and I share them, along with the great memories of a long and impressive career.
Here’s hoping that Tim and Stacy win their fight.
Tim Thomas is not one one thousandth of the awful evil human being than Curt is. How you can even compare the two is unreal.I guess being Boston centric, Tim Thomas comes to mind. But this Schilling hate is on a whole other (and well deserved) level.
The only remote comparable is Kyrie.Tim Thomas is not one one thousandth of the awful evil human being than Curt is. How you can even compare the two is unreal.
Anyway on a more positive note thoughts and prayers to the Wakefields. Of all the 2004 guys Tim was my favorite because of all he went through to get there. He is the textbook definition of "teammate" and "warrior" The word hero gets thrown around too much regarding sports and entertainment figures but in Tim Wakefield 's case it truly applies.
So why did you compare him to Schilling? The two should never ever be compared in the same sentence but do as you may.Same, 100 percent.
The question was about who fans turned on in a similar fashion after what they had accomplished for the team. And a lot of fans certainly turned on Thomas. Of course this has rightfully softened somewhat recently by learning what he has been through.So why did you compare him to Schilling? The two should never ever be compared in the same sentence but do as you may.