Being the son of a 221-win knuckleballer, and the nephew of a 318-win one, you'd think that Lance Niekro would survey the genetic evidence and think that he, too, could blaze a straight trail to major league stardom via the meandering knuckleball.
But you would think wrong. The young Niekro became a first baseman. The Giants picked him in the second round of the 2000 draft, and he made the majors three years later.
He never stuck. Niekro's 28 now, and he has only 17 major league home runs. He started the year with the Giants, went 3-17, got hurt, and went to AAA Fresno, where's he's been a platoon player. His prospects for major league stardom as a hitter seem bleak.
So he's started experimenting with the knuckleball he last threw in competition as a junior in high school.
During last night's game against Tacoma, Niekro was warming up in the pen, but didn't have a chance to get in the game. “He’s got a good knuckleball,” Fresno manager Dan Rohn told the Fresno Bee. “We’ll see if we can get something out of it.”
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Lance Niekro Will Give Knuckleballing a Shot
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4 comments:
Tim Wakefield redux.
Nice find. Personally, I don't think the Giants gave him enough of a shot as a first baseman. He certainly wouldn't have been a star, but I think he could have been a very serviceable player. No worse, in my opinion, than Mark Sweeney or Ryan Klesko.
So he went to the dark side (ya know, wanting to hit home runs and get all the glory from that) and now he must become one with the ball, and switch back over to being a jedi.
...i think?
Thank you very much for this useful article. I like it.
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