Post by starbrand on Dec 20, 2008 10:32:35 GMT -5
I remember Phil and Joe Niekro the knuckleballing brothers very well. Now Joe's son Lance is trying a comeback by changing from 1st baseman to knuckleballing pitcher. I'm sure he's had plenty of good coaching on how to throw the knuckleball.
To wit:
Twenty years have passed since a Niekro threw a knuckleball in a major-league game. Lance Niekro, the longtime Giants infield prospect, now hopes to become the next to keep the family craft alive. Niekro, who as recently as 2006 was vying to become the Giants' everyday first baseman, is exiting a brief retirement from baseball and will attempt a comeback at age 30 as a right-handed knuckleball pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves have signed Niekro to a minor-league contract and will bring him to spring training to see if he can extend the legacy of his late father, Joe, and his uncle Phil and make his living floating baseballs to major-league hitters. "It's going to be an adventure," Lance Niekro said Thursday from his home in Lakeland, Fla., "but it's going to be a fun one." -- SF Chronicle
To wit:
Twenty years have passed since a Niekro threw a knuckleball in a major-league game. Lance Niekro, the longtime Giants infield prospect, now hopes to become the next to keep the family craft alive. Niekro, who as recently as 2006 was vying to become the Giants' everyday first baseman, is exiting a brief retirement from baseball and will attempt a comeback at age 30 as a right-handed knuckleball pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves have signed Niekro to a minor-league contract and will bring him to spring training to see if he can extend the legacy of his late father, Joe, and his uncle Phil and make his living floating baseballs to major-league hitters. "It's going to be an adventure," Lance Niekro said Thursday from his home in Lakeland, Fla., "but it's going to be a fun one." -- SF Chronicle
