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What is a knuckleball

Forty years ago today, White Sox knuckleball pitcher Wilbur Wood became a legend. He was always a great workhorse. He averaged more than innings a season from , with an ungodly In he would become the first pitcher since Walter Johnson to win and lose 20 games in the same season, with a mark. If you look at the game logs, he had a nice complete game start, something he did plenty of other times.

Aye, but the game logs overlook one key fact that makes this game special. You see, if you look more closely, Wood is credited with making his only relief appearance from in the May 26, contest. That is both true and false. You see, the AL at that time had a curfew rule.

Wilbur wood sabr

Games that went too long would be suspended and finished up at a later time. Rather than finish the game up on Sunday, May 27, the Sox decided to give fans an extra reason to show up to their Monday Memorial Day game against the Indians, so the final innings of the May 26 game came on May As it happens, May 28 was also the day Wilbur Wood was scheduled to pitch.

Sox manager Chuck Tanner had a simple idea. So in the early afternoon of May 28, , Wood took the hill in the top of the 17th against the Indians before a crowd of 17, Sox fans in a game tied He fanned the first two batters and retired 11 in a row.