gif of Dickey Knuckleball

[mini]

Enjoy spending the next few hours watching this...



It only moves in what... 4 directions. I also love how the catcher (Thole?) basically just closes his eyes and hopes for the best at the very end.

http://blogs.thescore.com/djf/2012/12/21/dickey-truly-has-a-mesmerizing-knuckleball/#more-11848



Mods... if you feel it doesn't deserve it's own thread, feel free to merge.

[dagger]

From media tweets, there seems to be a school of thought among BB executives that Dickey will be ven more dangerous in a dome and facing batters who haven't seen the Knucklet.

[Yuri Vaultin]

[Raptor_Guy]

Amazing, I don't understand the science of it at all, might look into it..

[Randle McMurphy]

With that pitch, he's the most entertaining pitcher in the game to watch today, IMO. Tried not to miss many of his starts last season, will obviously try to do more of the same now.

[SmoothTofu]

Here's his changeup (screwball?):

[Schad]

Best I can tell, 1.5 rotations horizontally, damned near nothing on the vertical. The craziness isn't that he has that little rotation, either...it's that he gets that late darting action to the left with a ball with considerable (for a knuckleball) clockwise spin.

[turtle_15]

I could watch that all day

[tecumseh18]

Already posted. But really, thread should be stickied.

I could watch that all day

I could make it my avatar.

[YogiStewart]

Amazing, I don't understand the science of it at all, might look into it..

watch the ball spin, or lack of spin. you throw other pitches and you're snapping the release, thus causing spin and the ball to dive.

the baseball seams allow for grip/spin. when Dickey throws it, the ball barely rotates. it then hits pockets of air, like an airplane hits turbulence, and appears to dance. that's why knuckleballers are more dependent on weather and air conditions.

at least, that's how i have come to understand the basics of it.

[Strav]

Oh my. The batter's face is so much wtf? As is the catcher's reaction too. That is a thing of beauty.

[CrookedJ]

My understanding is that when the ball is not spinning ( or barely spinning) the seams are in one orientation long enough that they create different resistance on the ball - so a seam being on the side of the ball as opposed to centred facing the batter will cause a certain type of movement.

A knuckler that has 1 or 1.5 rotation as opposed to 0 actually creates more wobble. The way the ball acts at the start of the pitch will cause flutter in one direction, and then a partial rotation will move the seams and cause the ball to flutter in a different direction.

I watched some pretty good you tube stuff on this last week...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiSucVCuc8g[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFVfsbSV4mw[/youtube]

[Viperstrike]

[Raps in 4]

Amazing, I don't understand the science of it at all, might look into it..

You won't find anything because it defies science.

[ikosuave]

I used to catch in College and we had a pitcher who threw a knuckle and knuckle-curve. It's not that it moves at all or dances, the fact of the matter is that it doesn't really move at all. It sort of is a bit at the mercy of whatever wind patter there is, having almost no vertical or or sideways inertia (if thrown right).

As a catcher, it's odd to have come at you, because the majority of pitches have a downward or sideways trajectory, so your tendency is to actually see a release point and judge the catch point to be lower than that. When a knuckler comes along, it kind of stays on plane or could just slightly rise a little it the conditions are right.

What we do as catchers is to wear a bigger mitt and have a really open stance, almost like you're getting ready to pick someone off, throw someone out, so that you're in the best position to move in any direction.

[Ado05]

Only way to that catchers can this is by practice and fast reactions. Its almost like you're just playing catch with someone who has a lot of movement on their throws. You gotta just wait for the last second and then swipe your glove at it.

[tiger7]

Good luck hitting a pitch with that much movement. He's going to freeze a lot of batters if he can throw that consistently.

[engageTHEmasses]

if that's Thole closing his eyes and hoping... just imagine how poorly JPA is gonna receive those ahhahaaha

honestly-- if JPA catches RAD i think RAD's numbers are gonna take a big hit lol

[s e n s i]

watching the pitch at 0:27 makes me slightly nauseous

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWdgyoYW6Es[/youtube]

[Fairview4Life]

watching the pitch at 0:27 makes me slightly nauseous

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWdgyoYW6Es[/youtube]

I liked how there were an awful lot of Yankees and Orioles striking out.