Remembering Knucksie and the Hammer

In my youth, I watched (or listened via radio to) Phil Niekro and Hank Aaron play a lot of baseball games.  When the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, my dad took me to my first game.  I was seven years old and can barely remember it.  But my mom was actually the bigger sports fan.  She really sparked my interest in baseball (and insisted that we go as a family to games).  

All the way through my years into high school, my parents usually took me to a couple of games each season, sometimes with my friends from school.  Back then not many games were televised so I mostly listened to them play on my radio at night while lying in bed.  A select few games were usually televised on Sunday afternoons.  So I watched the team play then whenever I could.  This was long before Ted Turner bought the team and put their games on Channel 17 every night.

When I became old enough to drive, I went to games more frequently with family and friends.  Particularly during my college years and life in Athens, I drove to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to catch a game, still following the Braves daily during the season, usually on radio.  By 1980 Aaron had retired but Niekro was still throwing his famous knuckball, a pitch that almost does not exist in today's game.

Even though, from my life's perspective, Niekro lasted more seasons that Aaron, I can remember seeing Aaron take a lot of at-bats.  I don't recall ever watching Niekro pitch one of the many games I personally attended.  Odds are I probably did see him at some point, I just have no memory of it.  But with Aaron I can see in my mind's eye making running catches, great throws, and big time hitting.  At age 14, I saw him pass the Babe with number 715 in April 1974.  That was on national television.  The Braves had funny looking uniforms back then.

My mother's chief complaint about Hank back in the day was that he struck out at bad times.  As it turns out, the two worst seasons of his career in terms of K's were his first two years in Atlanta, 1966 (96 K's) and 1967 (97).  So, maybe she had a point at the time.  I do remember him striking out a lot with runners in scoring position, which made me grit my teeth in disgust.  But, when you check the stats, it is amazing how infrequently he was fanned.  Though he led the league several times in home runs he never led it in strikeouts. 

The Hammer was a power hitter, obviously, so you would expect him to walk a lot since opposing pitchers tried not to give him anything to hit.  But he never walked very much either, not even coming close to leading the league. Hank made contact.   When I followed him in 1969, he only struck out 47 times in 547 AB's.  The Braves won their first division championship that season.

Not striking out or walking much means you put the ball in play.  Aaron was perhaps the most consistent player ever to play baseball and he consistently hit for high average.  He led the league twice in batting average, 1956 (.328) and 1959 (.355).  From 1955 to 1969 he hit under .300 in only three seasons.  He led all of baseball in home runs four seasons but he led it in doubles four (different) times as well.  Overall, he had three 200+ hit seasons, leading baseball with 223 in 1959.

I was fortunate to follow him as he played one of his best seasons overall in 1971.  That year he led the league in slugging percentage (.669) and in intentional walks (21).  Pitchers didn't want to pitch to him if the Braves had runners on and it was late in the ball game.  He hit 47 home runs and drove in 188 runs in '71.  Those 47 homers were the most he ever hit in a single season during his career.

Henry Aaron made a lot of memories for me but his greatest seasons were played before I was born.  The Milwaukee Braves won the World Series in 1957.  That year Aaron led the league in runs scored (118), home runs (44), and RBIs (132), a monster year.  Personally, I think his best season was 1963 when his numbers were, respectively, 121, 44, 130.  Back in the 1957 championship season Hank stole one base all year.  But, in 1963 he stole a career high 31 bases.  '63 demonstrated that Aaron was a complete ball player.  He played a solid 161 games in right field while logging more innings (1446) than any other player that year.

Compared with Hank, I have far more memories of Knucksie from radio and television.  I can recall that deceptively easy arm motion delivering the knuckleball or one of his secondary pitches and striking out a ton of batters.  He walked plenty too.  And he allowed a lot of wild pitches.  That all comes with the unpredictable nature of the knuckleball.  But Niekro controlled it better than anyone else and used that easy shoulder delivery to throw an enormous number of innings.  Only three other pitchers have ever thrown as many innings of baseball and all of them were from the game's beginning era. 

Though he would pitch in play-offs for the Braves in the 1969 (with Aaron as a teammate) and 1982, the team did not win for him.  They were eliminated three straight games both times.  I would have to wait until 1991 for the Braves to win a postseason series.  Mostly, however, the Braves sucked during the Niekro years.  Their overall pitching was amongst the worst in baseball, their defense was often shaky, and, loaded with mediocre talent, they often did not score many runs.  He lost a lot of low-scoring ball games.

Still, Knucksie managed to win 318 games and become a member of baseball's elite 300+ win club.  With pitching managed the way it is in this era, there may never be a 300+ win pitcher.  One thing that has become super-rare which used to be commonplace is the "complete game," when the pitcher finishes the game he starts.  That used to be expected all the time, then most of the time, then some of the time.  Now, it is never really expected.

But Niekro led all of the baseball in complete games in 1974 (18), 1977 (20), 1978 (22), and 1979 (23).   In those last three seasons he actually completed more games than he won!  He pitched a number of complete game losses.  An astonishing fact in the modern era.  His most remarkable season during these years when the Braves were awful was 1979.  That was Bobby Cox's first year as a manager.  Bobby knew he had no decent starting pitching and his bad bullpen was going to see a lot of action.  

Niekro was the only pitcher Cox could count on to give the rest of the team's staff some rest.  So, Bobby left him out there start after start.  It was the last time and a rare time in modern baseball history that a pitcher has won 20 and lost 20 games in a single season.  He actually won 21.  In 1979 Niekro started a league-leading 44 games (like Aaron, Niekro was rarely injured, a durable player). He pitched a league-leading 342 innings, a phenomenal amount by today's standards.  He still managed to post a respectable 3.38 ERA.  He managed that while giving up a league-leading 41 home runs, a career high.  Ouch.  Great pitching ain't always pretty.

Perhaps the season he worked the hardest was in 1977.  He lead the league in starts (43), innings pitched (330), hits allowed (315), batters faced (1,428), earned runs allowed (148), walks allowed (164), strikeouts (262) and wild pitches (17).  He finished the year 16-20 with a 4.03 ERA.  That knuckleball was dancing all over the place.

At the other end of the ERA spectrum, he led the league in ERA (1.87) in his rookie year (1967).  But, perhaps his best season was 1969 when he finished 23-13 with a 2.56 ERA for the first-place Braves.  1974 was also an outstanding year with a league-leading 18 complete games, a career high 6 shutouts, en route to a 20-13 record and a sparkling 2.38 ERA on a good team that still finished way out of the race.  

But it may well have been the 1982 season that he cherished most.  The Braves won the division again that year and Niekro was still there ace.  I remember the tears of joy in his eyes as he was interviewed on TV upon winning the division again after such a long time with the team.  He posted an outstanding 17-4 record that year with a 3.61 ERA.

Knucksie and the Hammer are gone now.  The way the game of baseball was played during their careers faded long before they passed.  Intimately, what is professional sports if not a series of memories stitched together in the mind's eye of the fan?  It is in the fabric of things that greatness comes forth and flourishes for a time before fading in performance and, at length, in life.  I am lucky to personally touch the memory of their play as I nod to their passing.  Now many years have passed since I listened to and watched you play. I rooted for you.  The truth is I rooted for you for all my youth.  But that was long ago, time and habit being what they are. And now that you are gone I miss it.