Phil Niekro, the Hall of Fame knuckleballer who won 318 games in a 24-year career, died in his sleep Saturday night after a battle with cancer, the Atlanta Braves announced Sunday. He was 81.
Niekro won more games than any other knuckleball pitcher — and his 121 victories after the age of 40 are a major league record.
He made his MLB debut in 1964 when he was already 25 and pitched his final game on Sept. 27, 1987 — at the age of 48. Niekro was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.
Niekro spent 20 of those seasons with the Braves, both in Milwaukee and Atlanta, often on bad teams.
Still, he was a 20-game winner three times, including in 1979, when he was 40.
He signed with the Yankees in 1984 and spent two seasons in The Bronx, winning 16 games each year.
And Niekro achieved a career milestone in Pinstripes, capturing his 300th victory while with the Yankees.
In the final game of the 1985 season, Niekro was one shy of 300 and got the start in Toronto. The Blue Jays had clinched the AL East the day before by beating the Yankees and Niekro got the start in the finale.
He hadn’t won in his previous three starts and Niekro said he decided to not throw his signature pitch in the start against Toronto in order to get to 300 without using his knuckleball.
Niekro took a shutout into the bottom of the ninth and with two outs and an 8-0 lead, he decided to go to the knuckleball against his former Atlanta teammate, Jeff Burroughs.
He got a strikeout to end the game and get the win.
Niekro and his brother, Joe — who died in 2006 — also own the record for victories among siblings with 539.
And much of it was due to the knuckleball that Phil Niekro said he learned from his father in the yard in Blaine, Ohio. He began using the pitch full-time while in the minors and the pitch proved to be good enough that the late Bobby Murcer said “trying to hit him is like trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks.”
In a statement, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said: “Phil Niekro was one of the most distinctive and memorable pitchers of his generation. In the last century, no pitcher threw more than Phil’s 5,404 innings. His knuckleball led him to five All-Star selections, three 20-win seasons for the Atlanta Braves, the 300-win club, and ultimately, to Cooperstown… But even more than his signature pitch and trademark durability, Phil will be remembered as one of our game’s most genial people. He always represented his sport extraordinarily well, and he will be deeply missed.”
Former Met Keith Hernandez recalled facing Niekro in the 1982 NLCS between the Braves and Cardinals.
Niekro started Game 1 and took a shutout into the fifth inning before the game was called because of rain. The game was restarted the next night, erasing Niekro’s work. Niekro came back to start Game 2 after another rainout on two days’ rest and allowed two runs over six innings before leaving with a one-run lead. But the Cardinals came back and won.
“Phil would’ve gone nine if he wasn’t on [short] rest,’’ said Hernandez, who added Niekro was the “spitting image” of Kirk Douglas. “Gutty performance. Great guy, too.”
R.A. Dickey, a fellow knuckleballer who won the 2012 NL Cy Young Award with the Mets, tweeted, “So sad today. Phil Niekro helped me in a profound way to change the course of my career and life. I was perpetually moved by his kindness, wisdom and sense of humor. What a man! He will be missed.”
Niekro is the seventh Hall of Famer to pass away this year, along with Lou Brock, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, and Tom Seaver.
— Additional reporting by Mike Puma