Re: Why aren't there more guys that throw the knuckleball???
Some posts I made about Wilbur Wood from a couple years ago...good read
Wilbur Wood- lefthanded knuckleballer, that alone is a bit of an oddity, how many lefthanded knuckleballers can you recall?
I hope to use this column to introduce and/or reacquaint readers with some of these lesser known characters. Though their statistics may not be Hall of Fame caliber, their stories are often worth telling.
Wilbur Wood broke in to MLB at age 19, he never started more than 8 games until he was 29 years old, another peculiar quirk in his very unique career...
From 1971-74 Wood won 90 games,he also lost 69 over that period,but did win 20 or more games in all four seasons.... he was the ultimate rubber-armed pitcher..... in the same four year period he completed 87 games...
A knuckleballer with exceptional control, Wood posted a better than two-to-one strikeouts to walks ratio for those four campaigns. This is the story of one of the most underrated players of the last thirty years.
Wood made history in other ways in 1973. On Monday night, May 28, he took the mound against Cleveland in the completion of a game suspended two nights earlier after 16 innings. He threw five innings, and although allowing an unearned run to the Indians in the top of the 21st inning, Chicago rallied for four in the bottom of the frame, Wood receiving the win.
In the evening's regularly-scheduled game, Wilbur hurled a complete game, four-hit shutout, thus winning two games in the same day. His line for the night: 14 innings pitched, six hits, one unearned run, three walks, nine strikeouts.
All of this my have never happened had Wood not been introduced to famous Knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm who transformed him from a below average pitccher who threw an average fastball and curve into a wicked knuckleballer with incredible control....
Wood had one of the more unique careers in MLB history...
In the 97 starts , he had 85 decisions !!!
