The second and third greatest knuckleball pitchers of all time?

[Balticfox]

It's a little known fact that Warren Spahn rejuvenated his career at the age of 42 in 1963 by adding a knuckleball to his bag of tricks. Spahn went 23-7 for the Milwaukee Braves that year thus matching his career best W-L mark. He posted an ERA of only 2.60 in 33 starts with 22 complete games! The 259 2/3 innings he pitched work out to an average of nearly 8 per game.

Here are scans of my two Warren Spahn cards:





I also have his 1963 Salada Baseball Coin and his 1964 Topps Baseball Coins.

[Balticfox]

Sadly R.A. Dickey isn't getting any love in this thread. But he's the only knuckleballer to have won the Cy Young Award when he went 20-6 with an E.R.A. of 2.73 for the New York Mets in 2012. He pitched 233 2/3 innings that year in 33 starts with 5 complete games and one other appearance where he closed out the game which means he pitched about 7 innings per start.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Sadly R.A. Dickey isn't getting any love in this thread. But he's the only knuckleballer to have won the Cy Young Award when he went 20-6 with an E.R.A. of 2.73 for the New York Mets in 2012. He pitched 233 2/3 innings that year in 33 starts with 5 complete games and one other appearance where he closed out the game which means he pitched about 7 innings per start.

Kershaw was robbed

[Balticfox]

Well Clayton Kershaw did post a glowing E.R.A. of 2.53 in 2012. But he went only 14-9 and was too lazy to complete any more than 2 of the 33 games in which he started. I mean what's with that? And how was his knuckleball anyway?

Incidentally, you're not a Dodgers über alles type are you?

[Balticfox]

The legendary Satchel Paige expanded his pitching repertoire in 1939-40 by adding a knuckleball which he learned from fabled base path speedster Cool Papa Bell. I don't know how often Paige used his knuckleball but he caught on with the Cleveland Indians in 1948 at the age of 41 and after playing for the Indians for two seasons returned to the American League in 1951 with the St. Louis Browns for whom he pitched for three seasons:

[Peter_Spaeth]

And he was not in 50 Bowman, 51 Bowman, 52 Bowman, 53 Bowman or -- tragically -- 52 Topps.

[Balticfox]

I guess Satchel Paige's rookie cards would have been the 1949 Leaf and the 1949 Bowman cards. Never know it though given how much some sellers ask for his 1953 Topps card. I don't like the design of the 1953 Topps Baseball cards anyway which is a real pity since that's the last year for both Satchel Paige and the St. Louis Browns.

(Not mine.)