Sport: Knuckles Up

I realized when I was pitching high school ball, says James Hoyt Wilhelm, “that I wasn’t fast enough to get by. I had read about Dutch Leonard and the kind of junk he was throwing for the Senators, and I set out to see if I 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 is better than he has ever been before—and especially deadly against the Yankees. Since he went over to the American League in 1957, Wilhelm has allowed the Yankees just four earned runs in 59½ innings, shut them out three times— once with a no-hitter, fortnight ago with just one hit. Wilhelm’s knuckler is different from most. He actually throws it from the fingertips of his middle and index fingers, keeps the nails on those fingers cut short for a better grip. Out of high school in the North Carolina mill town of Cornelius, Pitcher Wilhelm moved up through the minor leagues slowly. His chief problem was that few catchers could hold on to his pitches. He was 28 before he reached the majors with the New York Giants in 1952. Giant Manager Leo Durocher immediately made him a relief pitcher. “The knuckler can fool ’em for four or five innings,” said Manager Durocher, “but Wilhelm hasn’t got the hard stuff, to go nine.”

The 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.

Wilhelm was sent to the Cardinals, then to Cleveland in the American League. The Indian batters gave him no support, their catchers could not hold his knuckle ball and despite a 2.46 earned run average, he had a 2-7 record.

Traded to Baltimore near the end of the season, Wilhelm was assured by Manager Paul Richards that he could be a starting pitcher. It seems to have made all the difference. As a starter, he did not have to throw so hard, could pace himself, concentrate more on control with softer pitches. Manager Richards figures that his knuckle-ball ace has four or five years of good pitching left: “He’s my best pitcher now, and he’s getting better.” On that statement, Richards will get no argument from the rest of the American League.