RA Dickey’s effort-face gets glammed up with fan art
Like many of you, I started throwing the knuckleball fairly lightly. I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, where Tim Wakefield spent the better part of two decades honing his knuckle ball. On TV, Tim looked like he kind of just lobbed the ball in there. But that is actually pretty deceiving.
MLB pitchers AVERAGE 91 miles per hour. That is an average velocity. And I don’t know how many of you have actually stood-in on a 91 mile-per-hour fastball, but it is fast. I think the average baseball fan, especially those fans who never really played the game, would be amazed at the sheer power and speed of a 91 mile-per-hour fastball.
But it is these fastballs that skew our perception of fast, because 65 miles per hour is, in fact, fast. I know, it is not relatively fast in the game of professional baseball seeing as guys average 91 miles per hour, but it is ACTUALLY fast. A knuckleball won’t really do what it is supposed to do unless it is hissing out of your hand.
My perception of a knuckleball’s velocity had always been dependent on Tim Wakefield’s televised games. His ball looked slow in comparison to other big league pitchers. So, I thought the knuckleball was supposed to be slow. That is why I was shocked to hear from both Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough that I should drive; throw hard; jump at the hitter.
But it has paid off. A knuckleball with effort actually feels heavier to catch. And a heavy ball is very valuable on that mound. That is why I tell people that it is the grip of the knuckleball that makes the pitch “slow”, not the effort. You want to drive at the target with enough effort to change your facial expression.
Without the effort, the ball feels light. And light pitches get hit hard over fences that are very far away.
Put the pedal to the metal, get in shape, become an athlete, use your whole body to drive at the target and throw a heavy, hard-to-hit baseball. Get after it.