Knuckleball! - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Knuckleball official trailer

Knuckleball! is a 2012 documentary film that follows the 2011 seasons of Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey, Major League Baseball's only knuckleball pitchers that year. It was released in theaters on September 20, 2012 and on DVD on April 2, 2013. Wakefield won his 200th game in 2011 and Dickey won the 2012 Cy Young Award.

Background

Stern and Sundberg's previous documentary was Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. They had also previously directed the documentary The Devil Came on Horseback about the War in Darfur.

Plot

The film sets up the 2011 season by showing how the knuckleball saved both pitchers from obscurity. Dickey moved his family 37 times before landing with the New York Mets. The film presents Wakefield's chase of his 200th win as a member of the 2011 Red Sox and Dickey’s make-it-or-break-it season with the 2011 Mets. It demonstrates the fraternal nature of knuckleball pitchers who trade tips of the trade via various meetings with the likes of Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough. Dickey won the Cy Young Award in November 2012.

Critical review

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With 13 out of 14 critics approving, the film scored a 93% rating at Rotten Tomatoes from the critics and an 87% approval rating from the audience. The film scored a 73 at Metacritic based on 9 reviews. According to Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times, the film's release, which coincided with Dickey's Cy Young run, made a "first-rate sports documentary" especially sweet. The Boston Globe's Ty Burr said "The movie’s a must for baseball fans in general and Red Sox fans in particular". Even the film's harshest critics such as Time Out's David Fear says "Viewers who can’t get enough of ESPN's "30 for 30" docs will lap up this dual portrait", but continued to say that "Nonfans, however, are about to find out exactly what the phrase inside baseball means."