Art of the Knuckle Ball

Square-cut fingernail (allowing
more of your nail to be on the ball)

Normal fingernail

Most knuckle ball pitchers throw their knuckle ball of their fingernails, which they carefully cut into a square shape (Adair, 55). Having a square-shaped nail allows you to maximize the amount of surface area you can apply to the ball as you are throwing it. The most important thing a pitcher wants while he is pitching to a batter is control. Reconstructing their nails to have the maximum amount of control as possible can be a key difference between a successful knuckle ball and an easy target for the batter to swing at. Personally, I prefer to keep my fingernails at a fairly long length so I could flick the ball with more potential. But, this book believes maximizing your control is more important in pitching.

To counter my long-nailed tactic I use four
fingers to gain as much control as possible

When throwing a knuckle ball, the idea is that the ball spins only about 1-2 times from the moment it leaves the pitcher's hand to the time it hits the plate. This is one of the slowest types of pitches thrown in baseball but also one of the deadliest as well. Because of its lack of spin, the knuckle ball creates more drag on the seams and essentially generates more movement. In fact, it has so much movement that the catcher actually has difficulty catching this type of pitch. A catcher known to catch for knuckle ball pitchers states that "It was easy, I just wait until the ball stopped rolling and then I'd pick it up" (54). Ever since I was 6 years old, I played on some baseball team and practiced every year, making it my main hobby. But I haven't started to actually try to improve and become more competitive until the last few years or so. I practiced so much with my pitches, that I can successfully throw 7 different types of them, (Fastball, Change-Up, Slider, Knuckle, Knuckle Curve, Curve Ball, and Side-Arm) where professional pitchers have 2-3 pitches at the most. I've never been thrown a knuckle ball by someone who knows how to throw a good one, but I can see the catchers that struggle (even in the MLB) to catch one.

Eddie Cicotte was the great Chicago "Black Sox" pitcher, who threw his knuckle ball without using his fingertips/fingernails. On the other hand, the worst part about the knuckle ball is the lack of control while in the air. If it breaks sharply, it will be harder for the catcher to successfully catch the pitch and if it doesn't break, it will be no more than batting practice for the batter to easily hit it out of the park. These key differences make this pitch both amazing and risk-taking to use.

What do you think is more important, having more control (causing less movement) or having more unpredictable movement (with less control)?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.