* Happy birthday, Phil Niekro

April 1, 2008

“Knucksie” turns 69 today. The Hall of Famer defied time by pitching until he was 48, amassing a record of 311-274 while playing for some pretty bad teams.

One stat I found particularly “enjoyable”: In 1979 Niekro won 21, lost 21, started 44 games, completed 23 (more than entire leagues these days), threw 311 innings, and struck out 208 while walking 113, which means that 521 of the 1,436 batters he faced (36 percent) didn’t put the ball into play.

The Amazon Report on Phil Niekro:

Knuckle Balls

Niekro Files

visitor stats

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