Atlanta Braves Opening Day countdown: 35, Knucksie

No right-hander has thrown more innings for the Atlanta Braves franchise, and he did it all on a “trick pitch.” We take a look at Knucksie today.

The Atlanta Braves have retired 11 numbers in their franchise history. Only one was known for his primary pitch, Phil Niekro, also known as Knucksie due to his excellent knuckleball.

Niekro was signed in 1958 by the Braves, but he struggled in his minor league career, really seen as a reliever due to his knuckleball. After injury cost him all of the 1964 season, Niekro showed very well once he was given a chance in the rotation, working his way to the majors that season for his debut.

He worked for two years as a reliever primarily, pitching 69 games between 1965-1966 with a 3.38 ERA and 1.36 WHIP over 125 innings. In 1967, Niekro pitched as a swingman, tossing 207 innings over 46 appearances, 20 of which were starts. He tallied a 1.87 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP.

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While he would always toss a few games as a reliever each season from that point, he would work as primarily as a starter for the rest of his career. He had a career-high 23 wins in 1969 as the Atlanta Braves won the NL West, though they were defeated by the Miracle Mets.

Niekro was still effective in 1983 when the Atlanta Braves let him go. He signed with the New York Yankees and pitched well for two seasons there. He had one more solid year with Cleveland before struggling in 1987. He was able to sign with the Braves to finish out that season, signed on September 23rd in time to get one final start for the team.

He pitched his final game at 48 years old. He pitched parts of 21 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, collecting 268 wins with a 3.20 ERA over 4,622 1/3 innings. He led the league in wins once, starts four times, complete games four times, innings four times, and strikeouts once as well as his 1967 ERA title. An excellent defender on the mound, Niekro won 5 Gold Gloves. He was selected to 4 All-Star games as a Brave and finished in the top-10 in Cy Young Award voting five times.

Most likely his lack of recognition in awards helped to drive voters needing 5 votes to get Niekro into the Hall of Fame in 1997. Interestingly, the Atlanta Braves retired his number 35 before Niekro actually retired as a player.