. . . as KNUCKLEBALL! gives them extremely short shrift, relegating several backstops to a one-minute, sound-bite montage, with no helpful hints on how to catch these 58 to 78 m.p.h. freakish "whiffle balls." Even less time is devoted to the fact that Sabermetics have made the knuckleball obsolete. As this documentary confesses, the knuckleball's place is for the fill-in, "throwaway" innings, when a game already sports an unreachable run differential. During the 2014 season, for instance, the crowning knuckleballer achievement came at Detroit's Comerica Park, when rookie Tigers manager Brad Ausmus sent in a random Malibu utility infielder--Danny Worth--to pitch in a game for the first time since he was a seven-year-old against a Texas Rangers team which was ahead by 10 or 15 runs TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW! (MLB has no "mercy rule"). Sure, Worth got six outs, posting a 4.50 Earned Run Average in the process (which was BETTER than the Tigers regular bull pen's cumulative ERA year-to-date). But former Yankees manager Joe Torre (featured in KNUCKLEBALL!) never would have pulled a stunt like Ausmus', and apparently used his high office to rake the Tigers over the coals for using this "trick pitch" against such a respectable team as the Rangers. The Tigers were forced to send Worth packing back to Malibu the following week. The knuckleball is now DEAD, as far as MLB is concerned (and only R.A. Dickey doesn't know this).
Review of Knuckleball!
