Brian Gaffney’s ‘School of Hard Knucks’ Book Chronicles Three Sons’ Quest to Master Baseball’s Wildest Pitch

Kaitlin Housler
pitcher

Brian Gaffney, author of School of Hard Knucks: My Three Sons and Baseball’s Wildest Pitch, joined The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy for an exclusive interview to discuss his family’s years-long journey to master one of baseball’s rarest pitches.

Gaffney said the idea for the book began in 2012 after he returned home during R.A. Dickey’s “spectacular” season with the New York Mets and discovered his young sons throwing knuckleballs in the backyard.

“I came home one day in 2012, R.A. Dickey’s spectacular season with the Mets, and my young sons who were just huge Met fans were throwing the pitch in the backyard,” Gaffney said during Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show. “I had tried to throw it when I was a kid. I think every kid who steps on the diamond at some point tries to throw a ball with no spin, and I know it’s pretty hard.”

Gaffney, who described himself as having “helicopter tendencies,” decided to see how far his sons could take the unusual pitch.

“That led us on an odyssey for about a dozen years or more trying to figure out if they could master this, this otherworldly pitch,” he said.

Unlike conventional pitches that rely on speed and spin, the knuckleball is designed to travel with little or no spin, making its trajectory difficult to predict.

“The knuckleball is the exact opposite of those conventional pitches which you try to throw as hard as you can with as much spin as you can,” Gaffney said. “The knuckleball is thrown, or you try to throw it, you better throw it, without spin.”

Gaffney and his sons traveled around the country seeking instruction from some of the most notable knuckleball pitchers in baseball history, including Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, and R.A. Dickey.

One of those pitchers, former Boston Red Sox All-Star Steven Wright, became a mentor to the boys. Gaffney said Wright initially had reservations about teaching young players the pitch.

“He said, ‘I’m doing this reluctantly because I don’t think we should be teaching kids this pitch,’” Gaffney recalled.

The family’s persistence eventually produced results. Gaffney said his youngest son, Ben, became one of the few, if not the only, full-time pure knuckleballers in college baseball. Ben currently pitches for Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

Gaffney said the pitch can give players who lack the physical attributes traditionally associated with elite baseball an opportunity.

“I would say it’s the only skill that can take an athlete who does not have those God-given elite athletic gifts – speed, strength, explosive power – and take them all the way,” he said. “Or at least, let them dream about going all the way.”

School of Hard Knucks is published by Post Hill Press and is out now.

Watch:

– – –

Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.

 

 

 

Related posts

Comments