Happy Birthday to the late and great Hall of Famer, Phil Niekro. During a twenty-four-year-long career, the vast majority saw Niekro pitching for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves. While also making stops with the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Career Statistics/Accolades (1964-1987)

318-274 W-L 3.35 ERA 1.268 WHIP 5,404 IP 3,342K

  • 5x All-Star
  • 5x Gold-Glove

As a Pitcher

Known as a “Knuckleball” pitcher, Niekro is one of the greatest Knucklers ever. While the Knuckleball is very difficult to master, if your able to do it, you as a pitcher will last a long time, being very friendly to your throwing arm. Despite pitching on a lot of bad teams, which resulted in him losing a lot of games. Niekro had 19 seasons in which he logged in 200 or more Innings Pitched, leading the league four times. He was also a three-time 20-game winner, had 13 seasons winning 15 or more games, and often found himself with an ERA in the low 3.00s. 

As a Fielder

There isn’t much to say about Niekro as a hitter, but he is certainly one of the better fielding pitchers of all time, winning five Gold Glove Awards. Spending 5,404 Innings on the mound, Niekro’s lifetime Fielding Percentage of .972 was .19 above the league average for pitchers throughout his career. Also, he ranks 4th all-time in Putouts (386) and 2nd in Double Plays (83), among pitchers.

Best Years

Being a Knuckler, Niekro was able to pitch a long time, being durable. I have six seasons, which I consider “Hall of Fame Seasons”, down below. 

What’s worth noting is that four of those six years occurred at the age of 35 and later. He lost to Seaver in 1969, and in 1974, he finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting. If you compare his season to that of Andy Messersmith and Mike Marshall, you can make a case that he should’ve won it.

1967 11- 9 W-L 1.87 ERA 1.058 WHIP 207 IP 129 K (20 Starts/46 Games)

1969 23-13 W-L 2.56 ERA 1.027 WHIP 284.1 IP 193 K (35 Starts/40 Games)

1974 20-13 W-L 2.38 ERA 1.115 WHIP 302.1 IP 195 K (39 Starts/41 Games)

1978 19-18 W-L 2.88 ERA 1.187 WHIP 334.1 IP 248 K (42 Starts/44 Games)

1979 21-20 W-L 3.39 ERA 1.240 WHIP 342 IP 208 K (44 Starts/Games)

1982 17-4 W-L 3.61 ERA 1.272 WHIP 234.1 IP 144 K (35 Starts)

Legacy

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. Had he pitched on better teams, providing him with more Run support, Niekro definitely would’ve been closer to 400 Wins. How should Niekro be remembered besides being a Hall of Famer? One of the greatest Knuckleball and Fielding Pitchers of all-time, sounds nice. After his career, the Braves retired his #35 jersey, and Niekro was enshrined into Cooperstown in 1997.

References:

  1. Phil Niekro Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/niekrph01.shtml
  2. Wikipedia Contributors, Phil Niekro via Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Niekro