Knuckler My Life with Baseball Most Confounding Pitch (Audible Audio Edition) Tim Wakefield Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : Knuckler My Life with Baseball Most Confounding Pitch (Audible Audio Edition) Tim Wakefield Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books
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 My Life with Baseball Most Confounding Pitch (Audible Audio Edition) Tim Wakefield Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Tim Wakefield and have been following his career since he debuted as a pitcher with the Pirates on July 31, 1992 under the wing of then Pirates' manager Jim Leyland. The book was delivered quickly and I set out to read it as soon as it arrived. I couldn't put it down until I was finished with it. If you love the game of baseball, then this is a must read, and a must have, for your collection!Product details
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Knuckler My Life with Baseball Most Confounding Pitch (Audible Audio Edition) Tim Wakefield Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books Reviews
This book is solid, but a bit underwhelming. As others noted, this isn't a straight up autobiography as it is written in third person. Co-author Tony Massarotti does a nice job of tracing the recent history of the knuckleball by incorporating Phil Niekro and Wilbur Wood into the story. I was also interested in Wakefield's time in and departure from Pittsburgh.
What this lacks, though, is the opinions of Wakefield. By the time he gets to Boston, this reads more like a super long magazine piece rather than an autobiography. There is much description of season-by-season action. But not much around how Wakefield interacts with his teammates - there's not much of a sense of team, other than highlights of Wakefield's many sacrifices for the betterment of the team. I'm not asking for a tell-all. I'm asking for something above next to nothing. The most interesting parts are some details around his relationship with managers and coaches. I was particularly intrigued with his clashes with pitching coach/manager Joe Kerrigan.
There's a couple of gaps in the narrative. Most notable is how Massarotti describes GM Theo Epstein's falling out with Larry Lucchino (team president) that caused Epstein to leave the Sox. But, three pages later, its Epstein pulling off a trade to re-acquire knuckleball catcher Doug Mirabelli from San Diego. For some reason, there's no description of Epstein's return to Sox. So, if you aren't familiar with the story, this would be very confusing.
If you are a veteran baseball fan, you might need only a couple of guesses to figure out who wrote this autobiography - oddly written in the third person, for what it's worth.
The person profiled here is Tim Wakefield, and his story is appropriately called "Knuckler." Not only was the baseball pitcher known for throwing the knuckleball, but his career took all sorts of unpredictable twists. That, of course, makes it just like his favorite pitch.
The writing approach jumps out in this particular story of the veteran who made it through 19 seasons in the majors. Longtime Boston sportswriter Tony Massarotti, who has done some fine work in books and newspapers, is clearly in charge of the story. He writes it as if it were a biography rather than an autobiography. While Wakefield is quoted a few times and obviously was the major source for material, the book often feels like it has a little distance from the subject.
For example, there aren't many stories here about Wakefield's personal life. There are a couple of references to his work in the community, which is legendary - he's won awards for his efforts - but that's about it. The book contains few stories about Wakefield's teammates. His family is almost ignored as well. This contrasts to how the Schottenheimer book was written, which featured plenty of input from the entire family. That makes for a rather dry package at times.
It is worth noting that Massarotti obviously likes Wakefield and thinks his contribution has been a little overlooked by everyone, especially management, at times over the years. But the book doesn't lapse into cheerleading.
Wakefield does have a good story to tell, no matter how it's told. He grew up in Florida and was a good enough prospect to be drafted by the Pirates - as a position player. But he found out very quickly that he wouldn't be able to hit in the pros, and turned to pitching as a last resort. That led to his use of the knuckleball, which was taught by Wakefield's father as something of a plaything.
Amazingly, Wakefield's career caught fire in a memorable run through the 1992 playoffs as the Pirates came within a whisker of the World Series. The pitcher lost his form for a while after that and was released by the Pirates in 1995 - only to be picked up by the Boston Red Sox. He stayed there through 2011.
Wakefield had a variety of highs and lows in Boston. The obvious low came in 2003 when he gave up a walk-off homer to Aaron Boone of the Yankees in Game Seven of the American League Championship Series. By the way, Wakefield had pitched brilliantly earlier in that series, so he received nothing but support from the rabid Boston fan base. It all made the biggest up even better when the Red Sox won the World Series a year later, a postseason that included the greatest comeback in baseball postseason history - against the Yankees, no less.
There's some good insight here on the life of a knuckleballer, a species that always has a couple of practitioners in pro baseball at a given moment. R.A. Dickey is the current example. Once Wakefield let the ball go, he never knew where it would go and where it would land. You have to be a calm person in order to accept that lack of control.
This paperback edition of "Knuckler" came out in 2012, but there was no sign of an update of the hardcover edition from 2011. So it misses Wakefield's last season, which included his 200th career major-league victory. Too bad. What we do have in this book is reasonably satisfying, although it probably won't be of a great deal of interest to those who aren't card-carrying members of Red Sox Nation.
Tim Wakefield's biographer is too wordy and repetitive, so the book moves slowly. However, it does cover the knuckler's features and some of the pitchers who threw it.
Even for Red Sox fans who love Tim Wakefield, this book is a disappointment. Quickly it becomes clear that Tony Massarotti wrote the book since Tim Wakefield is discussed in the third person for the whole read (you have to wonder why Wake is given any credit on the book's cover as a co-author). Beyond that, the book carefully skirts any discussion of what Red Sox fans would be most interested in Manny, Schilling, steroids, and any insightful analysis on the team, it's front office and their business model.
A well written inside story of getting the breaks to make the big leagues and then the willingness to give up individual achievement for the good of the team. A must for every Red Sox fan, baseball fan, knuckleball fan and anyone who really appreciates the rare "good guy" in sports. I've already purchased extras for Holiday gifts for my baseball friends.
This book gives a great insight into one of the best pitchers of the Red Sox, shows personal ups and downs and makes me appreciate the great cotribution he has made to the Red Sox. I have enjoyed reading this book very much and would recommend it to any Red Sox fan.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Tim Wakefield and have been following his career since he debuted as a pitcher with the Pirates on July 31, 1992 under the wing of then Pirates' manager Jim Leyland. The book was delivered quickly and I set out to read it as soon as it arrived. I couldn't put it down until I was finished with it. If you love the game of baseball, then this is a must read, and a must have, for your collection!
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