Joe Niekro, 61, a Master of the Knuckleball, Is Dead
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Joe Niekro, the knuckleballing right-hander who won 221 major league games in 22 seasons and combined with his Hall of Fame brother Phil to win more games than any pair of brothers in major league history, died Friday in Tampa, Fla. He was 61.
His death was announced by Tal Smith, the president of the Houston Astros, The Associated Press said. Niekro, who pitched 11 seasons for the Astros, had a brain aneurysm, the news agency reported.
The Niekros, each featuring a knuckler and each pitching into their 40s, combined for 539 victories, pitching from the 1960s into the 1980s. They were teammates on the Atlanta Braves and the Yankees.
Joe Niekro was a two-time 20-game winner and he finished second in the National League Cy Young award balloting in 1979. But he was remembered as well for a misadventure that he turned into a late-night television comedy sketch.
On the night of Aug. 3, 1987, pitching for the visiting Minnesota Twins against the California Angels, Niekro was ejected in the fourth inning after the umpires approached him, looking for something that might have defaced the baseballs he was throwing.
When Niekro turned his pants pockets inside out at the umpires’ request, an emery board tumbled onto the grass. The discovery of the board and an examination of five scuffed baseballs that Niekro had thrown brought a 10-day suspension from the American League president, Bobby Brown.
Niekro maintained that he used sandpaper and the emery board to manicure his fingernails. “Being a knuckleball pitcher, I sometimes have to file my nails between innings, so I carry an emery board with me to the mound,” The A.P. quoted him as saying.
While serving his suspension, Niekro appeared on “Late Night With David Letterman,” coming onstage with a power sander and a carpenter’s apron containing Vaseline, emery boards, sandpaper, a nail file, and fingernail and toenail clippers.
Mr. Letterman asked him if he had ever thrown a scuffed, cut or otherwise doctored baseball.
“I can’t say I’ve never thrown one,” The A.P. quoted Niekro as saying. “I think every pitcher fools around with one. And I’ve had games where I’ve pitched where there’s been a baseball that’s had some marks on it.”
Asked how the marks got there, Niekro replied, “The ball hitting the ground, hitting AstroTurf.”
Niekro had a record career of 221 victories and 204 defeats. Making his debut in 1967, he pitched for the Chicago Cubs, the San Diego Padres, the Detroit Tigers, Atlanta, Houston, the Yankees and Minnesota.
He had a 21-11 record in 1979 with the Astros, tying his brother Phil of the Braves (21-20) for the most victories by an N.L. pitcher, and was runner-up to Bruce Sutter for the N.L. Cy Young award. The next season, Joe Niekro was 20-12 with Houston.
He hit one home run in his major league career, and it came off Phil, when Joe was pitching for the Astros and Phil for the Braves.
Joe Niekro pitched only once in the World Series, a two-inning relief stint for the Twins against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1987. Phil Niekro, pitching mostly for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, had a record of 318-274 in 24 seasons and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997. But he never appeared in a World Series.
In addition to his brother Phil, Joe Niekro’s survivors include a son Lance, who played first base for the San Francisco Giants this season.
Joe Niekro, a native of Martins Ferry, Ohio, and his brother Phil were tutored in pitching by their father, Phil Sr., a former coal miner. “Dad was the best athlete in the family,” Joe Niekro told The Washington Post in 1987. “He taught us the knuckler but he didn’t throw it. He was big and strong. If they had radar guns in those days, they say he threw it 100 miles an hour.”
And, Joe Niekro explained, “Phil and I can’t bring it 100 combined.”
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Joe Niekro, the knuckleballing right-hander who won 221 major league games in 22 seasons and combined with his Hall of Fame brother Phil to win more games than any pair of brothers in major league history, died Friday in Tampa, Fla. He was 61.
His death was announced by Tal Smith, the president of the Houston Astros, The Associated Press said. Niekro, who pitched 11 seasons for the Astros, had a brain aneurysm, the news agency reported.
The Niekros, each featuring a knuckler and each pitching into their 40s, combined for 539 victories, pitching from the 1960s into the 1980s. They were teammates on the Atlanta Braves and the Yankees.
Joe Niekro was a two-time 20-game winner and he finished second in the National League Cy Young award balloting in 1979. But he was remembered as well for a misadventure that he turned into a late-night television comedy sketch.
On the night of Aug. 3, 1987, pitching for the visiting Minnesota Twins against the California Angels, Niekro was ejected in the fourth inning after the umpires approached him, looking for something that might have defaced the baseballs he was throwing.
When Niekro turned his pants pockets inside out at the umpires’ request, an emery board tumbled onto the grass. The discovery of the board and an examination of five scuffed baseballs that Niekro had thrown brought a 10-day suspension from the American League president, Bobby Brown.
Niekro maintained that he used sandpaper and the emery board to manicure his fingernails. “Being a knuckleball pitcher, I sometimes have to file my nails between innings, so I carry an emery board with me to the mound,” The A.P. quoted him as saying.
While serving his suspension, Niekro appeared on “Late Night With David Letterman,” coming onstage with a power sander and a carpenter’s apron containing Vaseline, emery boards, sandpaper, a nail file, and fingernail and toenail clippers.
Mr. Letterman asked him if he had ever thrown a scuffed, cut or otherwise doctored baseball.
“I can’t say I’ve never thrown one,” The A.P. quoted Niekro as saying. “I think every pitcher fools around with one. And I’ve had games where I’ve pitched where there’s been a baseball that’s had some marks on it.”
Asked how the marks got there, Niekro replied, “The ball hitting the ground, hitting AstroTurf.”
Niekro had a record career of 221 victories and 204 defeats. Making his debut in 1967, he pitched for the Chicago Cubs, the San Diego Padres, the Detroit Tigers, Atlanta, Houston, the Yankees and Minnesota.
He had a 21-11 record in 1979 with the Astros, tying his brother Phil of the Braves (21-20) for the most victories by an N.L. pitcher, and was runner-up to Bruce Sutter for the N.L. Cy Young award. The next season, Joe Niekro was 20-12 with Houston.
He hit one home run in his major league career, and it came off Phil, when Joe was pitching for the Astros and Phil for the Braves.
Joe Niekro pitched only once in the World Series, a two-inning relief stint for the Twins against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1987. Phil Niekro, pitching mostly for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, had a record of 318-274 in 24 seasons and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997. But he never appeared in a World Series.
In addition to his brother Phil, Joe Niekro’s survivors include a son Lance, who played first base for the San Francisco Giants this season.
Joe Niekro, a native of Martins Ferry, Ohio, and his brother Phil were tutored in pitching by their father, Phil Sr., a former coal miner. “Dad was the best athlete in the family,” Joe Niekro told The Washington Post in 1987. “He taught us the knuckler but he didn’t throw it. He was big and strong. If they had radar guns in those days, they say he threw it 100 miles an hour.”
And, Joe Niekro explained, “Phil and I can’t bring it 100 combined.”
