Word: phil
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...Phil King netted both goals for the visitors, with his second tally providing the winning margin at the 32:45 mark of the second half...
...Phil has been throwing the knuckler ever since he came up with the Braves in 1964, a rarity since the pitch is usually mastered in desperation by aging veterans. Joe started as a fireballer who played with the Chicago Cubs in 1967, then bounced around from club to club as his fastball faded. In 1972, when he was sent to the minors, those backyard sessions finally asserted their hold: Joe perfected the knuckleball. In 1975 he joined the Astros, who now have a flutter at the pennant...
...Phil is as astonished as his kid brother: "I've seen it start in toward the plate, a batter would swing at it, and the ball ended up going behind him." Umpire Doug Harvey recalls: "Once Phil's catcher dived full length to his right to catch a ball that looked like it was going into the dirt, and the thing came back up across the strike zone for a called third strike, then hit me in the left shoulder...
...knuckleball can be torture. Passed balls and wild pitches are common; stealing is easy because the catcher is busy netting a butterfly. Rare indeed is the knuckleball catcher who makes it through a season without injury: last month Braves Catcher Bruce Benedict dislocated a finger pursuing one of Phil's pitches and Houston's Alan Ashby is now out of the lineup with a finger fractured by one of Joe's floaters. Ashby's catching technique when Niekro is on the mound: "You just get in front of the ball and pray. It's like...
Atlanta's Phil Niekro, who helped his brother master the knuckler, now watches his success with wistful pleasure: "It's great that we're both having good years, but I'd like to play on a contending club, feel what it's like to go into a clubhouse every day and know you're going to be in the thick of a pennant race." The experience, Joe says, is so good it's almost like the old days in the backyard. "Pitching for me now," says Joe Niekro, "is just like going...