What do you think?
Rate this book
Knuckler: My Life With Baseball's Most Confounding Pitch
At forty-four years old, Tim Wakefield is the longest-serving member of one of baseball’s most popular franchises. He is close to eclipsing the winning records of two of the greatest pitchers to have played the game, yet few realize the full measure of his success. That his career can be characterized by such words as dependability and consistency defies all odds because he has achieved this with baseball’s most mercurial weapon—the knuckleball.
Knuckler is the story of how a struggling position player bet his future on a fickle pitch that would define his career. The pitch may drive hitters crazy, but how does the pitcher stay sane? The moment Wakefield adopted the knuckleball, his career sought to answer that question. With the Red Sox, Wakefield began to master his pitch only to find himself on the mound in 2003 for one of the worst post-season losses in history, followed the next year by one of the most vindicating of championships. Even now, as Wakefield battles, we see the twists and turns of a major league career pushed to its ultimate extreme.
A remarkable story of one player’s success despite being the exception to every rule, Knuckler is also a lively meditation on the dancing pitch, its history, its mystique, and all the ironies it brings to bear.
Knuckler is the story of how a struggling position player bet his future on a fickle pitch that would define his career. The pitch may drive hitters crazy, but how does the pitcher stay sane? The moment Wakefield adopted the knuckleball, his career sought to answer that question. With the Red Sox, Wakefield began to master his pitch only to find himself on the mound in 2003 for one of the worst post-season losses in history, followed the next year by one of the most vindicating of championships. Even now, as Wakefield battles, we see the twists and turns of a major league career pushed to its ultimate extreme.
A remarkable story of one player’s success despite being the exception to every rule, Knuckler is also a lively meditation on the dancing pitch, its history, its mystique, and all the ironies it brings to bear.
274 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
36 people are currently reading
320 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
May 10, 2011
As a die-hard Red Sox fan, this book was disappointing. It's written in the third person by Massarotti, and it reads like a rote history of the last fifteen years of the Sox sprinkled with very shallow interview notes.
I learned very little about Wake, which was a bummer. He's always been one of my favorites, he seems like a great guy and (like the book states, over and over and OVER―—awkward considering the book's "author" is Wakefield) a true team player. I didn't need details about his personal life—―and there are very, very few―—but it's so dry emotionally. Other than some details about professional frustrations and the joy of winning the WS, there's very little coming from Wake. I get that he wants to be classy, but you don't have to spill major dirt to be interesting. The unknown anecdotes are few and far between, I found myself craving more.
There's a lot of on harping in particular on the knuckleball, how it's difficult and misunderstood, and it becomes repetitive quickly. I'm not an expert when it comes to pitching, to be honest, and walking away from this book I am still no expert when it comes to the knuckleball. I learned more about it skimming pages on Wikipedia, to be honest. I was bummed by that, too.
One unexpected good thing, however, is that this book re-ignited my Pedro Fever after all this time. I've been watching old clips of Pedro back in his prime, hot damn. This is probably completely reinforcing Massarotti's point about Wake as perpetual last-chosen bridesmaid, but whatever, PEDRO PEDRO PEDRO, I miss you. That is all.
I learned very little about Wake, which was a bummer. He's always been one of my favorites, he seems like a great guy and (like the book states, over and over and OVER―—awkward considering the book's "author" is Wakefield) a true team player. I didn't need details about his personal life—―and there are very, very few―—but it's so dry emotionally. Other than some details about professional frustrations and the joy of winning the WS, there's very little coming from Wake. I get that he wants to be classy, but you don't have to spill major dirt to be interesting. The unknown anecdotes are few and far between, I found myself craving more.
There's a lot of on harping in particular on the knuckleball, how it's difficult and misunderstood, and it becomes repetitive quickly. I'm not an expert when it comes to pitching, to be honest, and walking away from this book I am still no expert when it comes to the knuckleball. I learned more about it skimming pages on Wikipedia, to be honest. I was bummed by that, too.
One unexpected good thing, however, is that this book re-ignited my Pedro Fever after all this time. I've been watching old clips of Pedro back in his prime, hot damn. This is probably completely reinforcing Massarotti's point about Wake as perpetual last-chosen bridesmaid, but whatever, PEDRO PEDRO PEDRO, I miss you. That is all.
May 28, 2011
I love Tim Wakefield SO MUCH. Baseball without him would be so weird.
***
Okay, so I still love Wake. However....Tony Maz, not so much. I would have been less of a hater had there been fewer em dashes and one-line sentences. On the latter: it's the biggest symptom of newspaper-ish writing (as opposed to book-writing), along with hyperbole and too-conversational English in spots. But the one-line sentences kill me; we're not reading this for your reactionary opinions in the Herald! You don't need to keep us on the edge of our seats as if this were a play-by-play!
Other things: I loved reliving 1998-2007, the peak of my Sox fandom, and some of Wake's perspectives on events I knew about were great. (As others have said, it's strange how little insight the book does give; mentions of other players are pretty scarce, and I disliked that Manny, of all people, got the most ink of all of Wake's teammates. I mean, really? You could have written a whole chapter on Pedro! <3) I got a little teary at Torre's phone call after the ALCS. Otherwise, though, the book is more of a career summary than an actual autobiography, and the third-person voice and awkward structuring (see previous paragraph) made that even more apparent.
***
Okay, so I still love Wake. However....Tony Maz, not so much. I would have been less of a hater had there been fewer em dashes and one-line sentences. On the latter: it's the biggest symptom of newspaper-ish writing (as opposed to book-writing), along with hyperbole and too-conversational English in spots. But the one-line sentences kill me; we're not reading this for your reactionary opinions in the Herald! You don't need to keep us on the edge of our seats as if this were a play-by-play!
Other things: I loved reliving 1998-2007, the peak of my Sox fandom, and some of Wake's perspectives on events I knew about were great. (As others have said, it's strange how little insight the book does give; mentions of other players are pretty scarce, and I disliked that Manny, of all people, got the most ink of all of Wake's teammates. I mean, really? You could have written a whole chapter on Pedro! <3) I got a little teary at Torre's phone call after the ALCS. Otherwise, though, the book is more of a career summary than an actual autobiography, and the third-person voice and awkward structuring (see previous paragraph) made that even more apparent.
November 6, 2013
Rating:
2 1/2 of 5 stars (just okay)
Review:
At first I was very happy to see that there was a book written about Tim Wakefield, a player whose career defines perseverance. Having set many of the team pitching records for the Boston Red Sox, I expected his autobiography to be rich with many stories about his ups and downs, the various roles he has played in his pitching career and maybe even a few personal insights.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. There were two glaring issues I had with the book while reading it. One was that it wasn’t written in the first person. While autobiographies of celebrities are almost always written by a ghostwriter, they are at least told in the first person. This book doesn’t do that – the pitcher is always “Tim” or “Wakefield”, never “I” or “me.” So that was problem number one.
Problem number two, at least for me, was a trivial mistake, but one big enough that had me wondering where else I would find gaffes like this. Wakefield was a member of the 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates team that lost a heartbreaking game 7 to the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series. It is a highlight finish that was memorable for many reasons. The section describing that winning play is actually well written except for one detail: the batter who got the game winning hit was not “Fernando” Cabrerra as written in the book, but instead Francisco Cabrerra. While that may seem small, I had this thought: if the writer couldn’t get a memorable moment like that correct, what else could be wrong in this book? While I didn’t do a fact check on everything, it still seemed to take away from the book as a whole.
This isn’t to say there weren’t good parts to this book. I enjoyed the sections about the nuances of the pitch, whether it was about how to throw it, how to catch it or how it moves in a crazy fashion. I also liked some of the information on knuckle ball pitchers of the past such as Phil and Joe Niekro and Wilbur Wood. However, what would have made those even better would have been more stories about them, not just a recap of their playing days.
That same reporting style of writing was evident in the rest of the book as a large portion of it is devoted to the ups and downs of the Red Sox franchise during Wakefield’s time as a pitcher for them. While it was somewhat fun to relive the historic comeback the Red Sox made against the New York Yankees in 2004, and uplifting to see Wakefield become such an iconic figure for the franchise, the book felt more like a Red Sox history lesson (and one that skims at that) than it did as a biography for Wakefield. A disappointing read for me, but Red Sox fans might enjoy it for a brief historical perspective of the recent team history.
Did I skim?
No.
Pace of the book:
It moved along fine. It never really dragged along or seemed too dry despite the lack of insight or personal stories.
Do I recommend?
No, unless the reader wants to learn more about the nuances of the knuckleball. That was the best part of the book. But if the reader wants to learn about the Red Sox or Wakefield’s career as a whole, those can be found in other sources.
2 1/2 of 5 stars (just okay)
Review:
At first I was very happy to see that there was a book written about Tim Wakefield, a player whose career defines perseverance. Having set many of the team pitching records for the Boston Red Sox, I expected his autobiography to be rich with many stories about his ups and downs, the various roles he has played in his pitching career and maybe even a few personal insights.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. There were two glaring issues I had with the book while reading it. One was that it wasn’t written in the first person. While autobiographies of celebrities are almost always written by a ghostwriter, they are at least told in the first person. This book doesn’t do that – the pitcher is always “Tim” or “Wakefield”, never “I” or “me.” So that was problem number one.
Problem number two, at least for me, was a trivial mistake, but one big enough that had me wondering where else I would find gaffes like this. Wakefield was a member of the 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates team that lost a heartbreaking game 7 to the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series. It is a highlight finish that was memorable for many reasons. The section describing that winning play is actually well written except for one detail: the batter who got the game winning hit was not “Fernando” Cabrerra as written in the book, but instead Francisco Cabrerra. While that may seem small, I had this thought: if the writer couldn’t get a memorable moment like that correct, what else could be wrong in this book? While I didn’t do a fact check on everything, it still seemed to take away from the book as a whole.
This isn’t to say there weren’t good parts to this book. I enjoyed the sections about the nuances of the pitch, whether it was about how to throw it, how to catch it or how it moves in a crazy fashion. I also liked some of the information on knuckle ball pitchers of the past such as Phil and Joe Niekro and Wilbur Wood. However, what would have made those even better would have been more stories about them, not just a recap of their playing days.
That same reporting style of writing was evident in the rest of the book as a large portion of it is devoted to the ups and downs of the Red Sox franchise during Wakefield’s time as a pitcher for them. While it was somewhat fun to relive the historic comeback the Red Sox made against the New York Yankees in 2004, and uplifting to see Wakefield become such an iconic figure for the franchise, the book felt more like a Red Sox history lesson (and one that skims at that) than it did as a biography for Wakefield. A disappointing read for me, but Red Sox fans might enjoy it for a brief historical perspective of the recent team history.
Did I skim?
No.
Pace of the book:
It moved along fine. It never really dragged along or seemed too dry despite the lack of insight or personal stories.
Do I recommend?
No, unless the reader wants to learn more about the nuances of the knuckleball. That was the best part of the book. But if the reader wants to learn about the Red Sox or Wakefield’s career as a whole, those can be found in other sources.
October 3, 2011
If this were billed as a book on pitching strategy and the knuckleball in particular, it would be all right. (It would also need more Phil Niekro, but what book doesn't?) Unfortunately, somewhere there was a fundamental disconnect between how the book was written and how the book was pitched to readers.
I don't know if it was marketing or the writer who screwed up. But this is presented as a memoir, and it's not. It's not even written in the first person. It covers Wakefield's career, and as mentioned it's a pretty good book about knuckleballs, but Wakefield the man is completely missing. His wife and kids get about two pages scattered through the entire book. His charity work gets almost nothing. If it's off the field, it apparently didn't happen. There's also a lot of regurgitating quotes from news stories of the time and not much sign of independent research and interviews.
Wakefield is by all reports a nice guy and he's been a rock for the Red Sox for over fifteen years. He deserves a better book about him than this.
I don't know if it was marketing or the writer who screwed up. But this is presented as a memoir, and it's not. It's not even written in the first person. It covers Wakefield's career, and as mentioned it's a pretty good book about knuckleballs, but Wakefield the man is completely missing. His wife and kids get about two pages scattered through the entire book. His charity work gets almost nothing. If it's off the field, it apparently didn't happen. There's also a lot of regurgitating quotes from news stories of the time and not much sign of independent research and interviews.
Wakefield is by all reports a nice guy and he's been a rock for the Red Sox for over fifteen years. He deserves a better book about him than this.
May 6, 2022
I usually race through books on baseball but struggled mightily to finish this one. Ostensibly written by former longtime Boston Red Sox knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield, with a co-author, it is nevertheless oddly told in third person, with everything that happened to him, and what he thought about it, told about him rather than by him. The pitcher comes off as a decent, workmanlike guy, like his knuckleball mentor Phil Niekro (my favorite major leaguer of all time), but I would have loved to have heard his story in his own "voice." Instead, the reader is given occasional unattributed italicized snippets like "Finally, I feel like I can stop worrying so much" in the midst of the third-person narrative. Just odd, and unnecessarily so.
September 9, 2012
I enjoyed this book a great deal. Tim always seemed to be such a down to earth person in any interview or article I read so I was interested in this book to learn more about him. Definitely worth reading.
March 10, 2013
Probably more like 3.5 but I couldn't give it 3. It was a little dry at time, but Wakey just seems like such a nice guy. Honest, occasionally vulnerable, determined even while disappointed.
December 8, 2023
"Knuckler" is the story of pitcher Tim Wakefield's long career as a pitcher throwing mainly knuckleballs. It is listed as by Tim Wakefield, but really written by Tony Massarotti, with comments from Tim included time to time. The book goes into Tim's interesting career, from his amazing debut with Pittsburgh to failure then to a return to glory with the Boston Red Sox and even then plenty of ups and downs along the way. The book surprised me in a number of ways. The book ends after his 2010 season, he would pitch for one more season. I assumed it would end with his retirement. The book has very little about his home life, it mentions his marriage and family in passing but goes into very little detail. It also barely mentions all the charity work he did, even the Roberto Clemente award which picks out one player for his philanthropic work and community service. I assumed the book would have had a lot on those two topics. Perhaps it was Wakefield's decision to avoid those topics as much as possible. Still, the book gives great insights into the workings of major league baseball, especially of the Boston Red Sox. I recommend it to baseball fans.
January 27, 2025
Enjoyable read for any baseball, Red Sox, or Tim Wakefield fan. Not sure why I was expecting more of a "traditional" biography, it's right there in the title, pretty much everything you'd want to know about a kunckleball/er.
A dense and slow read at times but otherwise an interesting look at a fantastic human being, and the inner workings of a non-superstar, career player. Oddly enough, Wakefield retired the year the book came out, which would seem like a more appropriate time to write something that mostly felt like a reflective memoir.
A dense and slow read at times but otherwise an interesting look at a fantastic human being, and the inner workings of a non-superstar, career player. Oddly enough, Wakefield retired the year the book came out, which would seem like a more appropriate time to write something that mostly felt like a reflective memoir.
October 4, 2024
I wanted to give this 5 stars so bad. Tim Wakefield was my favorite player as he went to my high school. His is one of the few jerseys I own. But this book is underwhelming. It chronicles his baseball career up to 2010 in the 3rd person. It's not "My Life", it's "Tim's life". No mention of his off-the-field charity work or community service.
It really needs an update. I hope a better biography is coming soon.
It really needs an update. I hope a better biography is coming soon.
September 8, 2025
Tim and Stacy Wakefield will both be missed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And this audiobook on CD proves it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2021
The writing is too bad to get through the first chapter.
Referring to the knuckleball as schizophrenic is troublesome. Also pounding the point that the knuckleball is unpredictable into the ground is frustrating.
Disappointed I can't read this, but I'm so frustrated with it that I can't be bothered.
Referring to the knuckleball as schizophrenic is troublesome. Also pounding the point that the knuckleball is unpredictable into the ground is frustrating.
Disappointed I can't read this, but I'm so frustrated with it that I can't be bothered.
May 5, 2024
What a biography should always do. Give an insight into the subject, the time and people around. I know very little of baseball history and found this an entertaining read about Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox.
September 20, 2020
This book is probably great for superfans. For me it read more like a Stats textbook. I was hoping for more of Tim's voice in the story.
May 14, 2024
I miss you very much, Tim Wakefield!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2025
good read. one of my favorite players and humble people
August 8, 2011
I love the knuckleball.
I don’t know how any nerd could not love the knuckleball, or, as I prefer to call it, the “chaos pitch.” It’s thrown — at the velocity of a cheetah, mind you — with almost no rotation. Its path to, and hopefully over, the plate is determined, as much as anything else, by the eddies formed by the ball’s stitches as it shoves its way through the air.
And to me, the knuckleball is emblematic of baseball’s appeal. As much as fans love to describe the game with statistics, the game is interesting because statistics can’t accurately predict what happens next. And nothing embodies that like the knuckleball. As the pitch leaves Wake’s hand** he has scarcely a better idea of its trajectory than anyone else.
And no one personifies the knuckleball for me like Tim Wakefield, perhaps the last of baseball’s greats to throw the pitch. As I’ve earned about the game over the past 8 years or so, he’s been the constant inconstant: sometimes brilliant, sometimes terrible — sometimes both in the same game, or even the same frame. I dearly love to see him win, but I admire him most in the grim losses where he grinds through out after painful out, sabotaging his stats and saving the bullpen’s arms. There’s an equanimity to him in these innings, a grace and lack of ego that seems very rare in professional sports. Then again, it’s awe-inspiring to see a guy pitch one of the best games of his career in his forties.
Massarotti’s book opens with some historical context on the knuckleball, outlining the careers of pitchers whose careers ended before I became a fan of the game, and describing the pitch in relation to the rest of baseball’s arsenal. Then he dives into Wake’s career, wich mirrors many of his games: improbable comebacks against long odds, devastating setbacks. Longtime Boston Herald writer Massarotti offers some interesting insights throughout. His analysis of what it costs a team for a pitcher to record each out uses some suspect math, but still makes a convincing case that Wake has been quite a bargain for the Sox. It’s also fascinating to see well-documented history through Wake-colored-glasses; Schilling’s bloody sock performance in game 6 of the 2004 ALCS is a mere aside, primarily relevant to the state of the rotation and how many days of rest Wakefield has going into the World Series.
The book is marred by some copy editing gaffes, with a score going from 5-0 to 4-1 to 5-2 in the 2003 ALCS perhaps the worst. And it’s written as if Wake’s career was effectively over in 2010, with no opportunity to contribute significantly to the 2011 season. That’s not quite how it worked out, but of course, most folks had written him off in 1994, too.
Despite some flaws I found it both entertaining and illuminating.
I don’t know how any nerd could not love the knuckleball, or, as I prefer to call it, the “chaos pitch.” It’s thrown — at the velocity of a cheetah, mind you — with almost no rotation. Its path to, and hopefully over, the plate is determined, as much as anything else, by the eddies formed by the ball’s stitches as it shoves its way through the air.
And to me, the knuckleball is emblematic of baseball’s appeal. As much as fans love to describe the game with statistics, the game is interesting because statistics can’t accurately predict what happens next. And nothing embodies that like the knuckleball. As the pitch leaves Wake’s hand** he has scarcely a better idea of its trajectory than anyone else.
And no one personifies the knuckleball for me like Tim Wakefield, perhaps the last of baseball’s greats to throw the pitch. As I’ve earned about the game over the past 8 years or so, he’s been the constant inconstant: sometimes brilliant, sometimes terrible — sometimes both in the same game, or even the same frame. I dearly love to see him win, but I admire him most in the grim losses where he grinds through out after painful out, sabotaging his stats and saving the bullpen’s arms. There’s an equanimity to him in these innings, a grace and lack of ego that seems very rare in professional sports. Then again, it’s awe-inspiring to see a guy pitch one of the best games of his career in his forties.
Massarotti’s book opens with some historical context on the knuckleball, outlining the careers of pitchers whose careers ended before I became a fan of the game, and describing the pitch in relation to the rest of baseball’s arsenal. Then he dives into Wake’s career, wich mirrors many of his games: improbable comebacks against long odds, devastating setbacks. Longtime Boston Herald writer Massarotti offers some interesting insights throughout. His analysis of what it costs a team for a pitcher to record each out uses some suspect math, but still makes a convincing case that Wake has been quite a bargain for the Sox. It’s also fascinating to see well-documented history through Wake-colored-glasses; Schilling’s bloody sock performance in game 6 of the 2004 ALCS is a mere aside, primarily relevant to the state of the rotation and how many days of rest Wakefield has going into the World Series.
The book is marred by some copy editing gaffes, with a score going from 5-0 to 4-1 to 5-2 in the 2003 ALCS perhaps the worst. And it’s written as if Wake’s career was effectively over in 2010, with no opportunity to contribute significantly to the 2011 season. That’s not quite how it worked out, but of course, most folks had written him off in 1994, too.
Despite some flaws I found it both entertaining and illuminating.
April 1, 2011
I didn't know what to expect when I started reading Knuckler. While I am a hardcore Red Sox fan, I have to admit, I know little about Tim Wakefield. I knew that he started his career in Pittsburgh and he was a knuckleballer. That's it.
Reading Knuckler gave me a whole new appreciation for Wakefield. For me, as a Sox fan, he was always there, for better or worse. He stuck it out and showed determination, but as I worked my way through Knuckler, I had no idea just how much.
In Knuckler we follow Tim from his college days to Pittsburgh's minor league system, where he was basically shuffled around. Wakefield was an infielder, he was a hitter. He only threw the knuckleball during practices, but never in seriousness. Turns out, the knuckleball was going to end up being the one thing that kept him in baseball. He was basically given a choice, focus on the knuckleball, or go home.
From his rise as a star on the Pirates, to winding up on the Red Sox, Wakefield shares, due to managers and pitching coaches not understanding the knuckleball, his struggles from being tossed around. From the starting rotation to the bullpen, sometimes managers undervalued the knuckleball, seeing it as the bottom of the totem pole as far as pitches went. Sometimes he was thrown in the bullpen only to clean up other people's messes. He often sacrificed his own ERA for the good of the team, going into games on short rest in order to rest the bullpen or to give the team some much needed pitching.
And after game seven in the 2003 ALCS, Wakefield thought he was going to be another Bill Buckner, but he soon learned that Boston and its fans valued him and were still rooting for him. He had his chance at redemption the following year, along with starting game one of the World Series and a World Series Championship. Another championship came in 2007 and in 2009 he made his first ever All Star Game Appearance at age 42. And just recently, he won the Roberto Clemente Award, being the first ever Red Sox to do so.
Throughout his years in baseball, Wakefield thought he was often overlooked because he was a knuckleballer, but it turned out that people took more notice than he thought. He's become a permanent staple on the Red Sox and is going to stick around until he's tossed out.
Reading Knuckler gave me a whole new appreciation for Wakefield. For me, as a Sox fan, he was always there, for better or worse. He stuck it out and showed determination, but as I worked my way through Knuckler, I had no idea just how much.
In Knuckler we follow Tim from his college days to Pittsburgh's minor league system, where he was basically shuffled around. Wakefield was an infielder, he was a hitter. He only threw the knuckleball during practices, but never in seriousness. Turns out, the knuckleball was going to end up being the one thing that kept him in baseball. He was basically given a choice, focus on the knuckleball, or go home.
From his rise as a star on the Pirates, to winding up on the Red Sox, Wakefield shares, due to managers and pitching coaches not understanding the knuckleball, his struggles from being tossed around. From the starting rotation to the bullpen, sometimes managers undervalued the knuckleball, seeing it as the bottom of the totem pole as far as pitches went. Sometimes he was thrown in the bullpen only to clean up other people's messes. He often sacrificed his own ERA for the good of the team, going into games on short rest in order to rest the bullpen or to give the team some much needed pitching.
And after game seven in the 2003 ALCS, Wakefield thought he was going to be another Bill Buckner, but he soon learned that Boston and its fans valued him and were still rooting for him. He had his chance at redemption the following year, along with starting game one of the World Series and a World Series Championship. Another championship came in 2007 and in 2009 he made his first ever All Star Game Appearance at age 42. And just recently, he won the Roberto Clemente Award, being the first ever Red Sox to do so.
Throughout his years in baseball, Wakefield thought he was often overlooked because he was a knuckleballer, but it turned out that people took more notice than he thought. He's become a permanent staple on the Red Sox and is going to stick around until he's tossed out.
August 4, 2012
Team, community, sacrifice, humble, under-the-radar, longevity, inspiring. Just a few words that describe Tim Wakefield.
Early chapters tell of knuckleballer legends and the history of their schizophrenic pitch, followed by chapters detailing Wakefield’s career.
“Let’s make this clear: knuckleballers aren’t superstars. Tim, especially, was rarely the kind of pitcher who got front-page billing during any year, but when the season ended, I bet the Red Sox and everyone else looked up and gave thanks that they had him. The numbers are one thing – and those speak for themselves. But one thing I told Tim early on is that he needed to have his spikes and glove ready every day, because a knuckleballer is always in a position to help. We can pitch in between starts, on short rest, on no rest. He did that as well as anyone. He’s been like a 26th man for the Red Sox during his entire time there.” – Knuckleballer and Tim’s mentor, Phil Niekro.
“There’s something about a knuckleballer that generates empathy in fans. Even though it couldn’t be further from the truth, it’s just hard to shake the thought that, ‘Hey, he’s only throwing 68 [miles per hour] – that could be me out there!’ Fans don’t feel that way about guys who throw 95 [mph]. Between the knuckler, his ‘everyman’ demeanor, and his incredible contributions to the community, it’s no surprise that Wake is a favorite of so many fans. Unfortunately, for many of the same reasons, the quality of his on-field contribution often gets overlooked. Aside from all the records and being part of two world championship clubs, that paradox is what stands out about Wake’s legacy to me. For a guy who was often underrated and sometimes overlooked, he was completely loved and embraced by Red Sox fans. That means a lot.” – Red Sox Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.
It was insinuated, especially in the early chapters, that 2011 would be Wakefield’s last season before he retired, and that turned out to be true. It may be time, but for me, all of New England, and Red Sox fans all across the country, a hole is left that will never be filled. There will never be anyone like Tim Wakefield.
Early chapters tell of knuckleballer legends and the history of their schizophrenic pitch, followed by chapters detailing Wakefield’s career.
“Let’s make this clear: knuckleballers aren’t superstars. Tim, especially, was rarely the kind of pitcher who got front-page billing during any year, but when the season ended, I bet the Red Sox and everyone else looked up and gave thanks that they had him. The numbers are one thing – and those speak for themselves. But one thing I told Tim early on is that he needed to have his spikes and glove ready every day, because a knuckleballer is always in a position to help. We can pitch in between starts, on short rest, on no rest. He did that as well as anyone. He’s been like a 26th man for the Red Sox during his entire time there.” – Knuckleballer and Tim’s mentor, Phil Niekro.
“There’s something about a knuckleballer that generates empathy in fans. Even though it couldn’t be further from the truth, it’s just hard to shake the thought that, ‘Hey, he’s only throwing 68 [miles per hour] – that could be me out there!’ Fans don’t feel that way about guys who throw 95 [mph]. Between the knuckler, his ‘everyman’ demeanor, and his incredible contributions to the community, it’s no surprise that Wake is a favorite of so many fans. Unfortunately, for many of the same reasons, the quality of his on-field contribution often gets overlooked. Aside from all the records and being part of two world championship clubs, that paradox is what stands out about Wake’s legacy to me. For a guy who was often underrated and sometimes overlooked, he was completely loved and embraced by Red Sox fans. That means a lot.” – Red Sox Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.
It was insinuated, especially in the early chapters, that 2011 would be Wakefield’s last season before he retired, and that turned out to be true. It may be time, but for me, all of New England, and Red Sox fans all across the country, a hole is left that will never be filled. There will never be anyone like Tim Wakefield.
October 31, 2011
I love baseball. In my humble and correct opinion, it's superior to all other sports. So it's probably not surprising that I also love baseball books. But in the interest of staying well-rounded, I limit my consumption of them to about one a year. Last year, it was Jason Turbow's terrific The Baseball Codes. This year, it's Tim Wakefield's autobiography, Knuckler: My Life With Baseball's Most Confounding Pitch.
Co-written with Tony Massarotti, the book is really not just the story of Tim Wakefield's journey from power-hitting prospect to grizzled flutterball-throwing veteran, but also the story of the knuckleball itself. And it's a fascinating story. Having read Robert Adair's The Physics of Baseball (highly recommended for any other geeky-ish baseball fans, BTW), I was already familiar with the "why" behind a knuckleball being difficult to hit. For those not in the know, when you throw a baseball with no spin (hint: this is called a knuckleball even if it's thrown without knuckles), the motion of the ball through the air is unpredictable as the laces hit air currents on the way to the catcher's glove (or just as often, the backstop).
I've been a fan of Tim Wakefield ever since I first saw him pitch, which was about the same time I discovered that there were still knuckleball pitchers around. Not many of them, mind you, but there seems to always be one hanging around the majors. Right now, incidentally, we've got one in the American League (Wakefield) and one in the National League (R.A. Dickey). I just about had a fit of baseball-geeky-hyperactivity a couple of years ago when Dickey pitched for the Mariners and was matched against Wakefield and the Red Sox.
Full review on my blog.
Co-written with Tony Massarotti, the book is really not just the story of Tim Wakefield's journey from power-hitting prospect to grizzled flutterball-throwing veteran, but also the story of the knuckleball itself. And it's a fascinating story. Having read Robert Adair's The Physics of Baseball (highly recommended for any other geeky-ish baseball fans, BTW), I was already familiar with the "why" behind a knuckleball being difficult to hit. For those not in the know, when you throw a baseball with no spin (hint: this is called a knuckleball even if it's thrown without knuckles), the motion of the ball through the air is unpredictable as the laces hit air currents on the way to the catcher's glove (or just as often, the backstop).
I've been a fan of Tim Wakefield ever since I first saw him pitch, which was about the same time I discovered that there were still knuckleball pitchers around. Not many of them, mind you, but there seems to always be one hanging around the majors. Right now, incidentally, we've got one in the American League (Wakefield) and one in the National League (R.A. Dickey). I just about had a fit of baseball-geeky-hyperactivity a couple of years ago when Dickey pitched for the Mariners and was matched against Wakefield and the Red Sox.
Full review on my blog.
October 30, 2014
“Knuckler” is not for the story readers. It is very analytical which is the reason I enjoyed it. It reminds of the way I look at sports. I always look at them with stats. I never looked deep into the personalities behind the athlete. Don’t get me wrong that is always cool to learn the background of a certain athlete, especially the ones that come from rags to riches. This is not one of those stories. You actually barely learn the background of good ole Tim Wakefield. This book is all about the stats and the ups and downs of his career with the “most confounding pitch”, the knuckleball. It is very stat based so as I said before if you are not one that loves statistics like me, this book is not for you.
This book includes outlandish stats that almost no one knows like the highest pitch count since 1990 was Tim Wakefield with 172 pitches with the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 27, 1993 against the Atlanta Braves which is astonishing that his arm did not fall off in the process. He also had another high pitch count total which was a 154 pitch outing. That is very is surprising that someone can throw that many pitches and have little effect on the arm. It also includes accolades that he earned like an All-Star appearance in 2009. He has also won two World Championships in 2004 and 2007. He also won the AL Comeback Player of the Year in 1995. His favorite award was winning the Roberto Clemente Award in 2010 which is giving to a player that helps the community and his team like the great Roberto Clemente did all the way up until he died. Tim Wakefield also won 200 career games in the end which is his most outstanding accomplishment with the pitch the pitch that brought him great happiness and sadness, the knuckleball. He then retired after 2011.
June 15, 2011
I like Tim Wakefield and his loyalty to his team, his versatility as a pitcher and his longevity as a player.
Unfortunately, this book did nothing to illuminate Wakefield's talent, personality or even his thoughts!. That isn't Wakefield's fault. It is that of his co-author, Tony Massarotti.
This book is billed as written by Tim Wakefield *with* Tony Massarotti. However, it is written in the 3rd person and clearly is all Massarotti's point of view. There are very few quotes or first person accounts directly attributed to Wakefield. There are more quotes from Joe Torre and Phil Niekro than anything else. It all feels like pasted together columns and notebook quotes from Massarotti's time covering the Red Sox for the Boston Herald.
Tony Massarotti's writing style made this book very difficult to get through. He is very wordy. He has an odd obsession with italics. Only rarely are the italics are for emphasis. More often they are used in place of quotation fingers or to be like the detached voice in Field of Dreams. Is it Tim Wakefield's words in quotes? Is it just a random phrase? Each page had at least 3 sets of italicized phrases. And what's up with him and Bronson Arroyo? Every time he mentions Arroyo he's described as "stringy" or "slinky". No other player is described like this. It's just weird.
If only Wakefield had signed on with Michael Holley instead.
Unfortunately, this book did nothing to illuminate Wakefield's talent, personality or even his thoughts!. That isn't Wakefield's fault. It is that of his co-author, Tony Massarotti.
This book is billed as written by Tim Wakefield *with* Tony Massarotti. However, it is written in the 3rd person and clearly is all Massarotti's point of view. There are very few quotes or first person accounts directly attributed to Wakefield. There are more quotes from Joe Torre and Phil Niekro than anything else. It all feels like pasted together columns and notebook quotes from Massarotti's time covering the Red Sox for the Boston Herald.
Tony Massarotti's writing style made this book very difficult to get through. He is very wordy. He has an odd obsession with italics. Only rarely are the italics are for emphasis. More often they are used in place of quotation fingers or to be like the detached voice in Field of Dreams. Is it Tim Wakefield's words in quotes? Is it just a random phrase? Each page had at least 3 sets of italicized phrases. And what's up with him and Bronson Arroyo? Every time he mentions Arroyo he's described as "stringy" or "slinky". No other player is described like this. It's just weird.
If only Wakefield had signed on with Michael Holley instead.
December 10, 2011
This is a book written by a sports columnist (Tony Massarotti), not a sports player. This is good, because the brief introduction written by Wakefield is poor prose at best. This is bad, because sports columnists have a way of writing that works for 700 words, but doesn't work for 250 pages. If I see one more one-sentence paragraph, or one more sentence fragment . . . . I feel as though Mas has perfected the period splice -- the inverse of the comma splice, where he creates two sentences using a period where there should have been one sentence joined with a comma.
Other reviewers have hit the nail on the head with their summary of the content. The book begins with a history of the knuckleball and an overview of Wakefield's struggle to get to the majors. The main part of the book provides a very surface-level overview of Red Sox history during the time Wakefield played there, and very obviously biased by the experiences and philosophy of Wakefield and Massarotti. I grew up with these Red Sox, and it was a bit of a treat to get a taste of those behind-the-scenes issues.
This book was a disappointment. Wakefield is one of my favorite Red Sox personalities, and I was looking forward to reading his memoir. However, the book was held back by Mas's writing style and his insistence on overpowering Wakefield's voice.
Other reviewers have hit the nail on the head with their summary of the content. The book begins with a history of the knuckleball and an overview of Wakefield's struggle to get to the majors. The main part of the book provides a very surface-level overview of Red Sox history during the time Wakefield played there, and very obviously biased by the experiences and philosophy of Wakefield and Massarotti. I grew up with these Red Sox, and it was a bit of a treat to get a taste of those behind-the-scenes issues.
This book was a disappointment. Wakefield is one of my favorite Red Sox personalities, and I was looking forward to reading his memoir. However, the book was held back by Mas's writing style and his insistence on overpowering Wakefield's voice.
August 5, 2011
I love Tim Wakefield and was happy to spend some time reading this book regardless of how familiar I already was with most of the material. I was not familiar with Wakefield's early career so I was glad to have that gap in my knowledge filled.The Neikros involvement in Wakefield's education and the "Brotherhood of Knuckleballers" was also interesting to read about.
I do wish Tony. Mazz hadn't spent the first 30 pages talking about the uncertain trajectory of the knuckleball. I got it. Many times over, I got it. I almost put the book down at that point, but pushed on. I do also wish Tim's voice was a bigger part of the book. He was hardly the author which was a bit disappointing. There were also, as one might guess, a very limited number of personal details included.
All in all, it was certainly worth reading and it does a good job of rounding up and piecing together Wakefield's many sacrifices and emphasizes his "team first" mentality so that one understands how much he has really done for the Red Sox and their fans. It never hurst to remember how selfless he's been.
A good light read.
I do wish Tony. Mazz hadn't spent the first 30 pages talking about the uncertain trajectory of the knuckleball. I got it. Many times over, I got it. I almost put the book down at that point, but pushed on. I do also wish Tim's voice was a bigger part of the book. He was hardly the author which was a bit disappointing. There were also, as one might guess, a very limited number of personal details included.
All in all, it was certainly worth reading and it does a good job of rounding up and piecing together Wakefield's many sacrifices and emphasizes his "team first" mentality so that one understands how much he has really done for the Red Sox and their fans. It never hurst to remember how selfless he's been.
A good light read.
July 21, 2011
I wanted to love this book. Really I did. I was looking forward to it, as a Sox fan and as a Wakefield fan. It fails on two levels. First it claims to be written by Wake, with Massaratti as a contributor, but reads like a third person biography with some interjections by Wake. Boring. Second, it recounts things that the basic Sox fan would know. Who else is going to read this book other than a Sox fan or a Wake fan?
Finally, this book was clearly written over the winter, when Wake was considering being done and not coming back. His season last year really lacked, and this year is a ten fold improvement.
I don't know how it could have been better. Maybe some inside info, or something like that. A real plus is that Wake seems really grounded that he is not Pedro or Clemens, he is Tim Wakefield.
Finally, this book was clearly written over the winter, when Wake was considering being done and not coming back. His season last year really lacked, and this year is a ten fold improvement.
I don't know how it could have been better. Maybe some inside info, or something like that. A real plus is that Wake seems really grounded that he is not Pedro or Clemens, he is Tim Wakefield.
July 8, 2011
Closer to a 3.5.
First, this book is barely by Tim Wakefield - it's more of a journalistic history of the most successful knuckleball pitcher of the current generation. It's well done enough, having a great history of knuckleballers and some insider information about how teams and managers have handled (or mishandled) knuckleballers. The focus, though, is on Wakefield's travels through the minors and as a Red Sox pitcher, so the appeal is limited to hardcore baseball fans and Boston fans.
Still, a good read since I fit both of those splats. It's not for everyone, obviously, and I wish there was more from Wakefield himself, but for an unchallenging, informative read, definitely glad I took the time.
First, this book is barely by Tim Wakefield - it's more of a journalistic history of the most successful knuckleball pitcher of the current generation. It's well done enough, having a great history of knuckleballers and some insider information about how teams and managers have handled (or mishandled) knuckleballers. The focus, though, is on Wakefield's travels through the minors and as a Red Sox pitcher, so the appeal is limited to hardcore baseball fans and Boston fans.
Still, a good read since I fit both of those splats. It's not for everyone, obviously, and I wish there was more from Wakefield himself, but for an unchallenging, informative read, definitely glad I took the time.
April 18, 2011
The focus really isn't Wakefield and his knuckler, but Wakefield's role on the Red Sox an in their history. Which is all well and good, but then the book starts to feel like a book about the Red Sox, not Wakefield vs. X or Y. We never hear about his approach vs certain batters, why he would choose not to throw his knuckleball....I guess he is still playing so no time to give away his strategies, but can't we talk about this in the context of his early career at least? 1990s? We're reminded of his resilience an longevity in MLB all the time, why not put that to use in the book an give a detailed account of what it was like for him to be a competitor. We're TOLD he's a fighter, but we don't see that from the trenches.
January 12, 2016
An interesting survey of Tim Wakefield's career and the oddity of the under appreciated knuckleball. The writer (Wakefield is listed as author but it is made very clear that he did not right this third person account) repeatedly makes the case for Wakefield's value based on the quantity of the outs he delivered over the span of very long seasons. He also shows the sacrifice, and team-first mentality of Wake, long a fan favorite, though sometimes infuriatingly so.
I enjoyed the nice appreciation for Wakefield, and the peek inside his perspective (plus the insights from the fraternity of knucklers and the recap of power-plays within Red Sox Nation), but it read a little like a college thesis without the heart and soul and passion that make a great baseball book.
I enjoyed the nice appreciation for Wakefield, and the peek inside his perspective (plus the insights from the fraternity of knucklers and the recap of power-plays within Red Sox Nation), but it read a little like a college thesis without the heart and soul and passion that make a great baseball book.
April 3, 2014
Boston is an odd town. While it's one of the intellectual capitals of the world (Harvard, MIT, etc) it's a town that demands its sports stars to be tremendously talented AND hugely humble. It's a sort of blue collar attitude by white color fans. Tim Wakefield might as well be the paragon of Boston Sports Stars.
The knuckleball is the antithesis of the fastball. It's unpredictable where the fastball is overpowering. The knuckleball confounds both the pitcher and the batter. It's got a mind of its own. The mental fortitude that Wakefield had to have to not just live and die by the pitch but do it until he was 44 was amazing. His was truly an underdog story with many a time of putting the team before himself. Great story, better man.
The knuckleball is the antithesis of the fastball. It's unpredictable where the fastball is overpowering. The knuckleball confounds both the pitcher and the batter. It's got a mind of its own. The mental fortitude that Wakefield had to have to not just live and die by the pitch but do it until he was 44 was amazing. His was truly an underdog story with many a time of putting the team before himself. Great story, better man.
May 11, 2011
Not bad - fairly shallow bio of one of my favorite baseball players. He is about the same age as me and who wouldn't root for a knuckleballer? Maybe one of the catchers who has to work behind the plate when he's pitching.....
I'd like to have heard more about the pitch. More about Wakefield's relationship with his personal catcher Doug Mirabelli. More about the nuances of the knuckleballer's trade. There was enough here to be interesting but the depth was lacking.
Maybe this is because I'm not a Red Sox fan. The story of their triumphs over the last few years therefore lacks a bit of passion for me.
I'd like to have heard more about the pitch. More about Wakefield's relationship with his personal catcher Doug Mirabelli. More about the nuances of the knuckleballer's trade. There was enough here to be interesting but the depth was lacking.
Maybe this is because I'm not a Red Sox fan. The story of their triumphs over the last few years therefore lacks a bit of passion for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews