Unpredictable on the Mound, Less So on the Links
By DAVID WALDSTEIN
Four knuckleballers were playing golf.
The punch line is that the balls they hit all traveled hard, fast and, for the most part, straight down the fairway – unlike the wobbly and unpredictable pitches that defined their baseball careers.
The foursome consisted of Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield, R.A. Dickey and the Hall of Famer Phil Niekro. They gathered last week at Lake Lanier Golf Club Northeast of Atlanta, where they ate, drank and played 18 holes while discussing their craft.
“There are 700 wins combined with those guys,” said the Mets’ Dickey, the most recent adherent to the community of knucklers. “Add me, and it’s 741.”
Actually, Dickey’s 41 victories made the combined total 775, with Niekro’s 318 leading the pack, followed by 216 for Hough and an even 200 for Wakefield. Their golf scores were considerably lower.
The gathering was an offshoot of a documentary about the knuckleball that is being produced by Break Thru Films, DMC Films and M.L.B Productions, and a film crew was on hand to record the action.
They met last Wednesday evening and discussed the nuances of their shared pitch over dinner. Wakefield talked about his pursuit of 200 victories last summer with the Boston Red Sox. Hough regaled the group with humorous stories of Geno Petralli, his catcher with Texas Rangers, setting records for passed balls as he tried in vain to catch Hough’s impulsive knuckleball in 1987, which was as maddening to Petralli as it was to hitters.
Niekro, the comedian of the group, livened things up with his magic tricks and other accessories, like his large-eyed practical joke glasses. And Dickey got a chance to express his gratitude to three of his mentors.
“It was incredible to have them all there together at one time, and to be able to thank them all,” Dickey said.
Thursday morning they met on the course and, at the suggestion of Niekro, 72, and Hough, 63, divided into teams pitting the older knucklers against the younger ones. While Niekro was the best pitcher of the group, Wakefield, 45, is the best golfer, and he and Dickey, 37, won by a couple of holes in their best-ball competition.
In their profession, they all sought to take spin and predictability off the baseball, but on the golf course they were as conventional as a fastball pitcher. Of the four, Wakefield’s drives had a little more spin than those of the others.
“Tim has a little slider, from left to right,” Dickey said.
No one used any bizarre or unconventional clubs, although Dickey was taunted by Hough for using an oversize driver.
At one point Hough related to Dickey how the mechanics of the golf swing are similar to a pitching motion, with the rotation of the hips and the placement of the hands in relation to the ball.
All four played well, but, as might be expected from a collection of knucklers, not every ball landed in the exact location toward which it was aimed.
“There was definitely some filming done in the woods,” said Ricki Stern, one of the co-directors.
After the first nine holes, the film crew left and the knucklers were on their own.
“It was a blast all around, a really unique experience,” Dickey said. “The telling thing is the kind of people who end up throwing that pitch. They are all so laid-back and down to earth.”
