In the summer of 2012 — when knuckleballer R. A. Dickey came out of nowhere to win the Cy Young award — I discovered my sons in our backyard teaching themselves the pitch.
asserted
sons → come → pitch
The knuck, a slow trick pitch that doesn’t spin, has a storied history of elevating longshots, retreads and dreamers to the major leagues — even the Hall of Fame.
asserted
that → spin → Fame
I resolved to see how far my kids could go.
uncertain
kids → resolve → ?
On the decade-long odyssey that followed, I learned that not only baseball-crazy boys harbored knuckleball dreams.
asserted
boys → follow → dreams
Two wealthy business moguls did too.
asserted
moguls → do → ?
Their intersecting lives are one of the strange but true stories in my new book, "School of Hard Knucks: My Three Sons and Baseball’s Wildest Pitch."
asserted
lives → intersect → Knucks
Brooklyn real estate investor Howard Rich, a free-market guy who founded Americans for Limited Government, had Mets season tickets six rows behind home plate — the ideal place to watch Dickey’s knuckleball baffle hitters in 2012.
asserted
knuckleball → found → 2012
"If the knuckleball’s so hard to hit," Rich ’ s wife Andrea asked one game, "why does only one pitcher throw it in the major leagues?"
asserted
pitcher → ’ → leagues
Great question, Rich thought.
asserted
Rich → think → question
He’d fix it by opening a school — the International Knuckleball Academy (IKA).
asserted
He → fix → school
He hired two minor league knucklers, Chris Nowlin and Zach Staniewicz to run it.
asserted
He → hire → it
On the other side of the globe, a 36-year-old South Korean who made a fortune in video games had never given up on his boyhood dream of playing pro baseball.
asserted
who → make → baseball
"I thought if I could master the knuckleball," Min Hur told me, "I might still have a chance."
uncertain
I → think → chance
Hur converted the roof of his Seoul office building into a personal training facility, with a retractable dome and cutting-edge pitch tracking technology.
asserted
Hur → convert → dome
He’d also reached out to the greatest knuckleballer of all, Phil Niekro.
asserted
He → reach → all
"Phil invited me to his home in Atlanta and over a month taught me everything from the grip to the philosophy behind the pitch.
asserted
Phil → invite → pitch
He became my great mentor."
asserted
He → become → ?
Hur worked with another knuckleball legend, Charlie Hough, too.
"He could take the spin off the ball pretty darn well," Hough recalled.
uncertain
Hough → work → ball
In 2013, Hur hired a well-connected agent who got him tryouts with the Rangers, Mariners, and Diamondbacks.
asserted
who → hire → Rangers
They all passed on Hur.
asserted
They → pass → Hur
Then the Rockland Boulders, an independent minor league team in upstate New York, agreed to give him a look.
asserted
Boulders → agree → look
Min’s chauffeur drove him and his translator up from Manhattan every day of tryouts.
asserted
chauffeur → drive → tryouts
He made the team and stepped away from his businesses to focus on his knuckleball career.
asserted
He → make → career
The Boulders promoted Hur’s pro debut as" Min-Sanity," playing off the NBA’s "Lin-Sanity" craze when point guard Jeremy Lin caught fire with the Knicks.
asserted
Lin → promote → Knicks
Min bussed up spectators from New York’s Korean neighborhoods and flew his family in from Seoul.
asserted
Min → buss → Seoul
They watched him pitch three innings and surrender five runs on five hits and four walks.
asserted
him → watch → hits
He also hit three batters.
asserted
He → hit → batters
Howard Rich read all about it, and wondered if Hur would want to partner with the IKA.
asserted
Hur → read → IKA
He called Nowlin.
asserted
He → call → Nowlin
There’s a Korean billionaire in New York right now, and he loves knuckleballs," said Rich.
asserted
Rich → ’ → knuckleballs
"Set up a meting for us."
Rich, Hur, Nowlin, and Staniewicz had dinner in Koreatown, but much was lost in translation.
asserted
much → set → translation
Hur remembers talking about knuckleballs, but nothing about an academy.
asserted
Hur → remember → academy
Rich forged ahead with the IKA, renting Dodgertown, the one-time spring training complex of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
asserted
Rich → forge → Dodgers
Staniewicz worried.
asserted
Staniewicz → worry → ?
"It’s hard enough to find people who want to throw the knuckleball, much less pay thousands of dollars a week to try to learn it," he told me.
asserted
he → ’ → me
"That cut the pool of possible clients from, like, ten to two."
asserted
That → cut → two
Rich offered a financing plan.
asserted
Rich → offer → plan
He told me about it last year when he took me to a Mets game.
asserted
he → tell → game
I hired a hot-shot attorney to draft a contract so players could come for free, but if any went on to throw, say, ten pitches in the majors, we'd get a small percentage of their pay."
Even still, the International Knuckleball Academy shut its doors before a single aspiring knuckler walked through them.
uncertain
knuckler → hire → them
I recently met him at a batting cage in Lower Manhattan.
asserted
I → meet → Manhattan
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
