John Kruk, on hitting a knuckleball:
"I'd rather have my leg cut off than do that all day. You just hope it hits your bat in a good spot."
Dick Allen:
"I never worry about it. I just take my three swings and go sit on the bench. I'm afraid if I ever think about hitting it,
I'll mess up my swing for life."
Phil Niekro, before a World Series game:
"I don't want anybody to panic. I'm not pitching. I'm just throwing out the first ball."
Joe Torre:
"You don't catch the knuckleball, you defend against it."
Bobby Murcer, on Phil Niekro:
"Trying to hit Phil Niekro is like trying to eat jello with chopsticks. Sometimes you get a piece but most of the time you get hungry."
Jimmy Cannon, what's a knuckleball?
"A curve ball that doesn't give a damn." :lol:
"You live and die with it, and hopefully, you don't die too much."
-- Dennis Springer
Pete Rose:
"I work for three weeks to get my swing down pat and Phil (Niekro) messes it up in one night."
and
"Trying to hit that thing is a miserable way to make a living."
Ernie Banks:
"He simply destroys your timing with that knuckleball. It comes flying in there dipping and hopping like crazy and you just can't hit it."
Hoyt Wilhelm:
"You can throw a bad one once in awhile if you're throwing a lot of good ones. But you can't throw two or three bad ones in a row. Sometimes when I go out there I throw just about every one of them good. At other times it's just nothing. And I get hit. It takes a lot of work and a lot of concentration. It's that delicate a pitch."
Rick Monday, to Phil Niekro:
"When I swing, don't laugh."
Randy Hundley's take on it:
"You see the ball and you just know you've got a bead on it, then you swing, and poof, it's not there anymore."
Jethawks outfielder Joe Mathis describing San Bernardino Stampede pitcher Kevin Pincavitch's knuckleball:
"The thing is like a piranha, it's got bite."
Todd Helton never faced a knuckleball pitcher before he had three hitless at-bats against Tom Candiotti:
"I don't want to see another one."
Bob Uecker, on the best way to catch it:
"Wait'll it stops rolling, then go pick it up."
...and on the benefits of catching it:
"I met a lot of important people. They all sit behind home plate." 
...and a strikeout play:
"(Phil) Niekro struck out a hitter once and I never touched the ball. It hit me in the shinguard, bounced out to Clete Boyer at third base and he threw out the runner at first. Talk about a weird assist: 2-5-3 on a strikeout."
Richie Hebner:
"Hitting Niekro's knuckleball is like eating soup with a fork."
Former coach Tim Owens:
"The knuckleball screws up the mind."
Tim McCarver:
"Hitting that thing is like trying to catch a butterfly with a pair of tweezers."
Jim Bouton, in his book, Ball Four:
"You need the fingers of a safecracker (scassinatore) and the mind of a Zen Bhuddist to throw it."
Willie Stargell calls the knuckleball:
"A butterfly with hiccups."
Barre, Mass. Babe Ruth coach Mike Lam:
"I had a pitcher who had a fastball in the high 80's, and a knuckleball. Talk about unfair."
Dave Clark, KnuckleballHQ
"For a knuckleballer, a pitch count of 150 is not a problem. Unless it's the first inning."
Unknown:
"You don't want a knuckleballer pitching for you or against you."
Floyd Robinson actually swung at one that went BEHIND him...
