Shenk: Searching for the Phillies last knuckleballer

Simple knuckleball question, long answer

By Larry (Baron) Shenk

Philadelphia Phillies

“Do you remember the last Phillies pitcher to throw a knuckleball?”

That question was tweeted by @KostivalonBase this morning. In person that would be Alec Kostival.

Couldn’t immediately come up with an answer. Heck, there are days in which I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night. Now, Alec is asking about a knuckleball pitcher.

Matt Leon (@MattLeon1060) of KYW Radio fame, quickly twitted, Darrell Akerfelds and Tyler Green threw knuckle curves. Darrell pitched for Phillies in 1990-91; Tyler, 1993, 1995, 1997-98.

Putting on a thinking cap, I came up with Murry Dickson (1954-56) and Lynn Lovenguth (1955). As I recalled they were “pure” knuckleballers as that was their primary pitch.

So an emergency panel was established to help answer Alec’s question: Rich Westcott and Frank Bilovsky (retired journalists and co-authors of the Phillies Encyclopedia), Bob Warrington (baseball historian/SABR author), Chris Wheeler (retired Phillies broadcaster), Ed Wade and Ruben Amaro (former Phillies GMs) and Greg Casterioto (current, director, baseball communications), who has the distinction of the lone “kid” on the block.

Wheels and Greg quickly responded, “Dennis Springer, 1995.” Phillies History Today by Broad and Pattison (@PhilsHistry2Day) offered same answer a little later.

When you think of the great knuckleball pitchers in history, two Hall of Famers come to mind, Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Niekro.

These answers raised another question, “Who was the last left-handed pitcher to feature a knuckleball?” That came out of my question hat because all the others mentioned are right-handers.

Back to the emergency panel and an additional expert and friend, Craig Muder, Director of Communications, National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Craig’s e-mail quickly arrived: “The first one that jumps to mind is Wilbur Wood, whose last season was 1978. But an internet search revealed Danny Boone, who last pitched for the Orioles in 1990, was also a knuckleballer.”

Southpaw knuckleballer Ryan Feierabrand also made two appearances for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2019.

So, there you have it. A simple question and a long answer.