Happy Birthday to the late and great Phil Niekro. Who would want to pitch in the big leagues for 24 years and wait to do it until 48? Well, that's what Phil Niekro did.
Phil Niekro Career Statistics & Milestones
318-274 W-L, 3.35 ERA, 5,404 IP, 3,342 SO, 1.268 WHIP, 864 GMS
He holds the most career wins as a "Knuckleball" pitcher (318). Being a knuckleball pitcher helped Niekro give him longevity, lasting 24 seasons to his age of 48. The "Knuckleball" is a difficult pitch to master but easy for the pitcher's arm's health, and it also baffles hitters with its unpredictable trajectory. While it took him until 28 to get into the grind of being a starting pitcher, he led the MLB with a 1.87 ERA throughout 207 innings. From that point, Niekro would pitch over 200 Innings in all but one of the next twenty seasons. Leading the league in Innings Pitch, Games Started, and Complete Games four times. He threw a no-hitter in 1973, made the All-Star game, won Gold Glove five times, and led the NL in Strikeouts in 1977. But it gets even more impressive 121 of his career Wins came after his 40th Birthday. He may never have won a Cy Young Award, but that doesn't take anything away from the career Niekro had.
While he did lead the league in giving Losses, Earned Runs, Home Runs, and Walks, that comes when you're asked to pitch well over 300 Innings, facing 1,400 batters, and sometimes starting a game 40-plus times a year. At the end of his career, he had 300 plus Wins, over 3,000 Strikeouts, a 3.35 ERA, and 1.268 WHIP throughout 5,404 Innings pitched, which is a worthy Hall of Famer. One more thing he and his late brother Joe Niekro were the NL co-leaders in Wins in 1979.
Written & Published By: Robert Dobek
Follow on Twitter: @RobTheYankee
References:
- Phil Niekro Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/niekrph01.shtml
- Wikipedia Contributors, Phil Niekro via Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Niekro
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