is throwing them consistently. you can throw 9 perfect ones that are swings and misses, but that 10th one that doesnt knuckle is a 60 mph, no movement, home run waiting to happen.

he could throw 85mph or so and his dad was a semi-pro pitcher that could paint the corner every pitch in practice…still have no clue why that dude never tried to make it through the minor leagues…I tried to convince him several times…maybe I teach my little girl to throw the knuckle and she will be the first woman MLBer!

...in the early 2000s, I think the Royals confused Knuckleballers with Knuckleheads. Most of their pitchers were of the latter category in that period.

But on your larger question, well, I think it has more to do with larger trends in baseball’s lower levels. There just aren’t enough old-school knuckleballers training the young guys, and no one’s sold the young guys on being interested. – TL

I can think of 3 KB pitchers in the major right now
Tim Wakefield
Charlie Haeger of the White Sox
RA Dickey for Seattle

but yeah, I often wonder why more pitcher do not throw the knuckler

It gives rise to lots of wild pitches, passed balls, walks and stolen bases.

Because no kid grows up wanting to become a knuckleballer. And even fringy guys probably think their stuff is good enough to make the big leagues. I think a guy who had an injury that cut his velocity down to 80-85 mph should tinker with the knuckleball. Or the outfielder who can’t cut it at the plate (that’s what Tim Wakefield was).

Sorry, I’ve disagreed in a couple of posts with unfortunately seemingly everyone but I’m going to have to do it again.

Everyone wants to have a knuckleball. We (pitchers) are always tweeking it and working on it on the side, and everyone is jealous of the guy on the team with the best one.

The truth is that VERY few coaches would let a primarily knuckleballer on the field. Getting playing time is the hardest part of breaking throw into the majors. How you are viewed, stats, speeds, times. You can’t calculate a knuckleballs flutter, but coaches can gun the guy with the fastest velocity.

Most knuckleballers don’t make it because a knuckleballer would have to..

Convince a high school coach to let him pitch.
have a catcher who can catch the ball
Actually pitch enough to have a high win total
Get noticed for the high win count or low era and go to college to play
start over and convince the coach to actually let him pitch
have a catcher
pitch often enough to gain stats
have good enough stats to get noticed by the pros

and the process starts over again everytime he joins a new team. Believe me if knuckleballers were anything but unpopular by coaches and GMs there would be a ton of them. So much of who is in the MLB right now was subjective. I bet for every man in the MLB two or three others at the minimum could be doing his job at the same level or higher if they had been given the PT.