Around the League

NY Times: A Veteran Retools as a Knuckleballer

Dan Johnson, 36, working on his knuckleball with the Bridgeport Bluefish pitching coach, Jesse Litsch
Credit Jessica Hill for The New York Times

By: Tyler Kepner

The jobs have kept coming for Dan Johnson. Eight organizations have employed him in the last five seasons. Every year, for at least a few days, he has been a major leaguer.

“You know what you’re going to get,” Johnson said. “I’m going to give you a quality at-bat. I’m going to work my way on base somehow, some way — and also, if you need some thump late, I’m going to give you that chance to tie it.”

That is what Johnson did in his most memorable moment, for the Tampa Bay Rays in the final game of the 2011 season. He came to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, down by a run against the Yankees’ Cory Wade, with two outs and the bases empty. A playoff berth hung in the balance. Johnson hit a home run.

“The higher powers took care of it, because 99 times out of 100, if I hit that changeup away down the line, I’m going to hook it foul,” Johnson said. “Somehow, that time, that ball stayed fair. All the stars aligned. I have no idea how it happened.”

It was the second monumental homer of Johnson’s career (the other had come in a 2008 pennant race), and a 12th-inning blast by Evan Longoria, coupled with a Boston loss, sent the Rays to the playoffs. Johnson rejoined them this March, with a different job in mind.

He still hoped to be a power threat off the bench, but lots of players can offer that. Johnson could list a bonus skill on his job application: the ability to throw a knuckleball.

The Rays were intrigued. They have other knuckleballers in their system, and a former knuckleballer, Charlie Haeger, is their minor league pitching coordinator. In the enclosed, humid space of their dome, the Rays believe, a knuckleballer has a better chance to succeed.

In spring training, though, Johnson found two problems: his arm and the calendar. He cut loose a fastball and strained an elbow ligament. The Rays recommended two months of rest, but Johnson, 36, was eager to begin his new career sooner.

That is how he ended up with the Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League. Johnson is the team’s first baseman, but he also throws regularly in the bullpen and plans to soon take his knuckler into games. He is scheduled to throw a simulated game during the team’s next homestand.

“He’s like a Little Leaguer — raw, trying to learn how to pitch, which is great,” said the Bridgeport pitching coach, Jesse Litsch, a former Toronto Blue Jays starter. “He’s not starting from zero, because he’s seen enough. He knows how to throw. Being able to get that mind-set of going toward the catcher, staying on your backside and getting the hands out of the glove has been a process for him. But he’s been around the game enough, and he’s climbing quick.”

Johnson has fiddled with the knuckleball since childhood. His father, Ron, would throw him a pitch he called the Dancing Dazzler, entrancing Johnson and his friends, who could rarely hit it. The more Johnson toyed with his own version, the better he became at removing the knuckleball’s enemy: spin.

In 2013, when Johnson played for the Yankees’ Class AAA team, a coach, Gil Patterson, said he had heard of Johnson’s trick and asked him to test it in the bullpen. Encouraged, Johnson hoped to show off the pitch to his next team, the Toronto Blue Jays, the next spring. Then he pulled on a stray cord wrapped around a stack of weights just before reporting.

“Of course I smash my knuckleball finger and my nail falls off,” Johnson said, referring to his index finger. “I show up to spring training and they want me to do it, and I can’t because I don’t have a fingernail yet.”

Johnson, a right-hander, did collect pointers on the knuckleball from the Blue Jays’ R. A. Dickey, and now he is putting some to use. He is learning to keep his pitching arm from pulling past his lead leg when he releases the pitch. A knuckleballer should try to come straight down in his follow-through, Johnson said, to kill spin.

For all of Dickey’s success in 2012, when he won the National League Cy Young Award for the Mets, only one other major leaguer — Boston’s Steven Wright — is a regular knuckleballer. Many hopefuls struggle to perfect the knuckleball, in part because most coaches have no idea how to teach it.

Litsch never threw it but has studied video of Tim Wakefield and others, searching for cues to help Johnson’s mechanics. There is no question he can make the pitch dance; as he played catch recently, Johnson said, it veered so late into teammates’ shins that two of them gave up.

“I had to remember: Why was it working so well right then?” Johnson said. “So then I’m thinking again, and then it takes time to figure it out again. I need to get to where it’s repeated every time. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Dickey visualizes himself throwing through a doorway and into a shoebox, and that makes sense to Litsch. At first, it seemed, Johnson was banging into the doorframe — or, Litsch said, switching the analogy, “running into the wall.”

Colliding with metaphorical walls is a job hazard for anyone learning the knuckleball. It is baseball’s most confounding pitch, but it also offers the most hope.

“What he’s trying to conquer, it could give him six more years in the big leagues,” Litsch said. “It’d be a great story. You never know unless you try.”

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/sports/baseball/a-veteran-retools-as-a-knuckleballer.html?mwrsm=Email&_r=0



Search Archive »




Browse by Year »

2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015

Browse by Month »

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015