Knucksie Taught Us Three Important Life Lessons
Hall of Famer Phil Niekro was a credit to life in general and baseball in particular
Hall of Famer Phil Niekro won 318 games over his 24-year career with the Braves, Yankees, Indians, and Blue Jays. He was a five-time All-Star who had three 20-win seasons with Atlanta. Niekro won five Gold Glove awards and was a respectable hitter for a pitcher, with seven homers and 109 RBIs over his career.
Do What You Do Best
Phil Niekro had one pitch — the knuckleball — and stayed with it throughout his career. One future Hall of Famer felt sorry for Niekro when they were both in the minors because he did not believe Niekro could ever reach the major leagues with just that one pitch. Niekro proved him wrong, along with many other doubters along the way.
Niekro picked up his 300th win in 1985 when he 46 years old while pitching for the Yankees. He reached the milestone by shutting out the Blue Jays 8–0. All knuckleballs, right? Wrong. By that time Niekro had learned some other pitches and tried to pitch the game without throwing his trademark knuckleball. However, when it came to his final batter in his watershed moment, Phil Niekro struck out the final batter with four straight knuckleballs. He later stated that he decided to finish the game with what had gotten him to that moment.
Do Not Give Up
Niekro signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1959. He did not make his Atlanta Braves debut until 1964. Niekro was an “old” minor leaguer when he reached the major leagues for good in 1966 at age 27.
Niekro had just 31 victories by his 30th birthday and an amazing 287 thereafter. It was not until a decade after his professional baseball career started that things would take off. In 1969, Niekro went 23–13 as the Braves won their first NL West title. He was runner-up for the Cy Young Award that same year.
Niekro had an amazing 121 wins after his 40th birthday. That same year, Niekro made a career-high 44 starts, completing 23 of them. He went 21–20 with a 3.39 ERA for a Braves team that won only 66 games that season. Niekro holds a baseball record for being the only pitcher to win and lose 20 games in the same season.
His career finally ended at age 48 (in 1987). Phil Niekro was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997.
Family Matters
Niekro’s father taught Phil and his brother Joe the knuckleball. The brothers Niekro ended up with a combined 539 wins, making them baseball’s winningest brothers. They competed against each other nine times, also played on the same team for several seasons, and remained friends until Joe’s death.
Following his baseball career, Phil Niekro managed the Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-women baseball team in the late 1990s. Joe Niekro was his brother’s assistant coach.
The two brothers shared an unusual pitch that made them both famous, supported each other along the way, and kept their focus on being good people as well as good professionals. For his humanitarian service, Phil Niekro was honored with the Lou Gehrig Award, Roberto Clemente Award and Brian Piccolo Award during his lifetime.
Three Life Lessons
Phil Niekro is a great baseball story. And a great life story as well. Three key life lessons that we can all take from Phil Niekro is to do what you do best, never give up, and family matters.
