Word: knucklers
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...night, and nobody so much as muffed a fly. The trouble was trying to hit one. "The ball just doesn't carry here," complained Yankee John Blanchard, swinging mightily and watching the ball settle into the catcher's glove. "It must be mathematical." Pitchers were ecstatic. "My knuckler's never broken better," chortled Houston's Ken Johnson. "This is a pitcher's park...
...came up from Sox farms. In the bullpen, ex-Oriole Hoyt Wilhelm at 41 has brought his dancing knuckle ball into no fewer than 56 games this year. He has 17 official saves and an E.R.A. of 2.27. And then there is Eddie Fisher (ex-Giant), another knuckler, who has not lost a game in his last 17 appearances...
...couldn't throw some too." Hoyt Wilhelm's "junk" is the craziest knuckle ball in baseball today. It floats up to the plate, dances tantalizingly before batters' eyes like a butterfly, then breaks sharply and unpredictably. One night last week his knuckler broke all over the place, kept the bug-eyed New York Yankees flailing futilely. For Wilhelm it was a four-hit shutout, his seventh victory of the year without a loss, and brought his earned-run average down to 1.12-best in the major leagues. At 35, well-built (6 ft., 197 Ibs.) Hoyt Wilhelm...
...Giants gave up on Wilhelm after the 1956 season, when he temporarily lost the knack of getting men out in tight spots. His knuckler was missing the corners, and when he got behind the batters, Hoyt was forced to use a fast ball or slider, with disastrous results. "Hoyt began to worry and try different things, and the more he changed, the worse it got," says Wes Westrum, the Giants' catcher in those days...
Crimson coach Norm Shepard will send four-game winner Dave Brigham to the hill. Righthander Brigham's fast ball has been improving all season, and recently he has been toying with a curve and knuckler that had the Quaker batters swinging wildly in Friday's 8-7 triumph over Penn...