Phil Niekro turns 76 years old today, which may seem surprising until you remember he pitched his final game in 1987 when he was 48.
The other day I wrote about Kyle Seager being the most underrated player in today's game. You could probably argue that Niekro is one of the most underrated players of all time, which is an odd thing to say about a Hall of Famer, but it has a ring of truth. When you read about the great pitchers of the 1960s and '70s, you get Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal, Tom Seaver and Carlton, maybe Jim Palmer and Gaylord Perry ... nobody ever mentions Niekro. Heck, he won 318 games and it took him five times on the ballot to get elected to the Hall of Fame.
Niekro, of course, threw the knuckleball and knuckleballers have to fight for every last bit of respect, viewed more as tricksters at times then pitchers. That pitch, however, certainly helped Niekro become one of the least likely Hall of Famers. He grew up in Ohio, the son of a coal miner who taught his sons the knuckleball when they were kids. Joe Niekro would win 221 games in the majors. The Milwaukee Braves signed Niekro in 1959 for $250 and sent him to McCook, Nebraska, part of the short-season Class D Nebraska State League, a league so obscure it folded after that season. He was already 20 years old and was primarily a reliever in the minors until finally allowed to start at Triple-A Denver in 1964. At that point, he was fighting just to have a career.
His first season as a semi-regular starter in the majors didn't come until 1967, when he started 20 times and, thanks to a bunch of unearned runs, led the National League with a 1.87 ERA. He won 14 games the following season. Still, he was turning 30 years old and had 31 career wins. Only two Hall of Fame pitchers won fewer games before turning 30: Hoyt Wilhelm, another knuckleballer, and Dazzy Vance, who didn't win his first major league game until he was 31.
In his 1986 autobiography, Niekro gives a lot of credit to Bob Uecker, his catcher early in his career with the Braves. "More than anyone else on the professional level, he was responsible for my success. He engrained in my mind that I shouldn't be afraid to throw the knuckler. What happened to it after it left my hand was not his responsibility, but instead his."
In the late '70s, Niekro -- like Wilbur Wood earlier in the decade -- threw an insane amount of innings. Pitching for bad Atlanta Braves clubs, Niekro threw 330 innings in 1977, 334 in 1978, 342 in 1979. He was down to 275 the next season but he still led the league in losses all four seasons, despite which he still finished sixth twice in the Cy Young voting. In 1979, he led the league in both wins and losses, going 21-20 for a team that finished 66-94. That was par for the course for the 1970s Braves; they had just two winning seasons in the decade. From 1975 to 1979, the Braves averaged 95 losses a season. Niekro averaged 8.0 WAR per season -- but went just 88-84.
Niekro ranks 10th all time in career WAR, ahead of Perry, Carlton, Nolan Ryan, Fergie Jenkins, Gibson, Don Sutton, Palmer and other contemporaries. Since WAR is a cumulative stat, did Niekro simply benefit from a lot of innings and a long career?
A little. But Niekro's innings for the 1970s aren't that out of line with the others of the era:
1. Perry, 2905
2. Niekro, 2881
3. Carlton, 2747
4. Palmer, 2745
5. Jenkins, 2706
6. Seaver, 2652
7. Bert Blyleven, 2624
8. Sutton, 2557
9. Ryan, 2465
10. Catfish Hunter, 2399
All 10 pitchers are in the Hall of Fame. They all benefited from throwing a lot of innings in that decade, a time when pitchers threw more innings than any period since the dead-ball era. In terms of WAR, Niekro finished second in the decade only to Seaver, 67.3 to 64.9. Seaver was clearly the class of the group, the one guy who was consistently excellent year after year (and also the one who never threw 300 innings in a season). All the others had some ups and downs. Carlton was notoriously inconsistent until later in the decade. Palmer benefited from great defensive teams in Baltimore. Ryan spent his career in pitcher's parks in Anaheim (and then Houston in the 1980s). Hunter and Sutton played on good teams.
Niekro? He played on a lot of bad teams in a park that tended to favor hitters. It's possible the metrics are missing something here: The unearned runs, the passed balls, the wild pitches. But he was a legitimately great pitcher at his peak.
Two other notes. The picture of Niekro as this gray-haired 40-something throwing the knuckleball lingers, but he was a pretty good athlete. He hit .169 in his career, hitting .225 with 10 RBIs at age 39 and .195 with 12 RBIs at age 40. Not too bad. He also won five Gold Glove Awards -- the last coming when he was 44. Now, I have trouble believing a 44-year-old guy was the best fielding pitcher in the league but he must have been decent enough out there.
Anyway, Happy Birthday, Knucksie.