Jeff Kastner's Weblog

Ah yes.. I love this time of year! Winter sucked. How eloquently stated, yes? The snowy, sunlit tundra I knew as a child was replaced with an endless stream of cloudy, icy days.. windy and frickin’ cold! Remember when we used to actually make snowmen, igloos, or go sled riding? I miss those winters.

But Spring.. oh yes! warm temperatures have arrived. The sun is out again.. and baseball is back! Here’s a great video on throwing a knuckle-ball. I loved it because it brought back so many memories. As a kid, I had this small square painted on the side of our house. I can’t tell you how many seasons I practiced my pitches; fast ball, curve ball and my favorite.. the knuckler! If nobody else was around to play with, I was throwing the baseball… dreaming of the days when I’d walk-on somewhere and shock everyone with my ability to throw a perfect knuckle-ball. Well, the shoulder was not so kind to me in my baseball prime and I decided that being a rockstar might work out better for me. But.. it’s still my favorite pitch (although the split-finger fastball is right there with it) because of the complexity required in learning to throw it. You have to have a lot of confidence to be a knuckle-ball pitcher, because.. as the video also states, you never know what it’s going to do (It took me a couple years to consistently hit that square with that pitch). It’s also just the funnest pitch to watch a batter strike out on. It can make him look completely ridiculous. Every year, I keep waiting on the arrival of a new knuckle-ball pitcher in the majors.. the new dominant force. I miss those guys. Once it happens, I think it will start a trend again and we’ll see a few come up. For now though, I’m happy that Spring is here… readying myself for another year of baseball, enjoying it even more with the realization that I’ll soon be able to start sharing it with my new son.. going to the park with him and teaching the game, eating some hot dogs and passing on the love of the game that my Dad passed on to me.

Jeff Random