{"id":71189,"date":"2013-10-02T08:02:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T12:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=71189"},"modified":"2015-11-07T07:58:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T12:58:38","slug":"the-books-the-only-game-in-town-sportswriting-from-the-new-yorker-edited-by-david-remnick-project-knuckleball-by-ben-mcgrath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=71189","title":{"rendered":"The Books: The Only Game In Town: Sportswriting from The New Yorker<\/i>; edited by David Remnick; \u2018Project Knuckleball\u2019, by Ben McGrath"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Next up on the essays shelf<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Only Game in Town: Sportswriting from The New Yorker<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, edited by David Remnick<\/p>\n

\nThe Only Game in Town<\/i> is a collection of sports writing from The New Yorker<\/i>. So far, I have excerpted from the following collections: Life Stories<\/i><\/a> (profiles), The Fun of It<\/i><\/a> (Talk of the Town pieces), and The New Gilded Age<\/i><\/a> (financial writing), and Secret Ingredients<\/i><\/a> (food writing). <\/p>\n

This piece is from 2004, and it starts as a profile of Red Sox knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield and then becomes a study of the knuckleball itself. That weird-looking pitch which baffles pitchers and catchers alike. Most knuckleballers have their own designated catcher who know how to track that thing down. I love a good knuckleball. I love that it goes so slow, and I love that people can’t hit it. Charlie Lau, famous hitting coach, is quoted in the piece: “There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them works.” Watching Tim Wakefield in action (and I’ve seen him pitch live a couple of times) is to understand just how bizarre a thing it is. It’s so against the grain of what a pitcher “should” look like that it is a wonder that it was developed at all. It is a rare skill, a bizarre skill. Ben McGrath’s piece describes how there are only a handful of really good knuckleball pitchers at any given time, and they all know each other, and keep an eye on each other, even if they’re on different teams. It’s a small elite fraternity. Knuckleballers are used to having people look at them pitch and say, “What the hell was THAT?” as opposed to a more admiring, “Oh my God, look at how fast that ball was.” So they are used to being underestimated and not taken seriously. Ben McGrath goes and hangs out with a high school knuckleballer and the kid says that it makes him upset that knuckleball pitchers aren’t seen as athletes, somehow. Because he’s 17 and he’s an athlete, so why do people not understand why he wants to throw THIS pitch? <\/p>\n

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\nThere are many great quotes from hitters who fear Tim Wakefield. They can’t hit what he throws. These are major power hitters. AND, not only does he strike them out with a ball going only 69 mph, but they hurt themselves sometimes trying to hit it. They strain their back, they pull muscles. It’s one thing to swing and miss, it’s another thing to swing and miss and LOOK like you don’t even know what you’re doing. Players trying to hit a knuckleball lose all that grace that they mostly have, and they suddenly look like they’re flailing, reaching. It is very frustrating for them. <\/p>\n

You can see Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball in slow motion here (starts around the .54 mark.)<\/p>\n