Saturday, October 23, 2004

Knuckling Under

Knuckleball pitchers scare me. A lot. They always have. Yes, the can be completely frustrating to hitters. Get even seven or eight innings out of one, then bring in a power closer and it's generally over. Hitters just can't adjust to the change quickly enough. It can even hurt hitters' timing in the next game, or so I am told.

However, the knuckleball guys also can look like glorified batting practice pitchers, too. Call me crazy, but I get nervous when my pitcher offers up big league hitters something that closely resembles slow pitch softball tosses.

I say this, of course, because Tim Wakefield is pitching tonight for the Red Sox in Game 1 of the World Series. The thought of Wake flinging those lollipops up to Larry Walker, Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and friends is not reassuring.

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