Two former Seahawks QBs to be featured on new TV show

http://tracking.si.com/2013/02/06/doug- ... =obnetwork

MLB Network will be debuting a new program, “The Next Knuckler” on Feb. 13. The premise of the show is to have former Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield teach a bunch of former college and NFL quarterbacks how to throw a knuckleball. The quarterback who shows the most promise as a pitcher will get an invitation from the Arizona Diamondbacks to try out for the team at spring training this season, according to Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports.

The quarterbacks who will compete for the invitation are John David Booty; his brother, Josh Booty; Doug Flutie; David Greene and Ryan Perrilloux.

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Interesting. Would be cool to see Greene or Booty win that tryout.

I really hate the off-season. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I know who MysterMatt will be rooting for.

SeatownJay":1riqsahg said:

I know who MysterMatt will be rooting for.

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Yeah I hear he's a big David Greene fan :th2thumbs:

If Wakefield can teach those scrubs (minus Flutie) to pitch a knuckler, then he should be the one receiving the invite to a MLB spring training as a pitching coach.

Side note, if Greene even wins it there is no way he will be able to throw a fastball more than 75mph. That dude has a noodle arm. What a waste of a draft pick.

Greene already knows how to throw a knuckle ball....just before stepping out the end zone.

:lol:

What a garbage premise

Mark Lemke is an interesting story that goes along these lines.... he was a very good 2nd baseman and team leader for the Braves during their big run in the early 90's when they finally got good. Then he was out of baseball, having been supplanted by younger guys that had more pop in their bat as teams looked for more production out of 2nd basemen than just being amazing fielders like the Lemmer was. They wanted guys that could hit too (unless they were the Mariners, who still think loading a team with great fielders with no bat is a-ok). But I digress. Anyway, Lemke went back to the minors to keep playing and extend his career in hopes that he'd get back to the majors with somebody, even as an extra guy off the bench and started messing around with the knuckleball and became a knuckleball pitcher in his late 30's.

I remember reading a series of articles about how he was actually doing quite well and was getting looks from teams and there was a possibility that he was going to get back to the majors as a long reliever with his knuckler. Many scouts felt that if he had been throwing it all along instead of just picking it up later that he'd have had a career as a major league pitcher.

I know for a fact that the knuckleball is absolutely brutal to hit. I played slowpitch for a lot of years after high school and college, and I learned to throw a slowpitch softball knuckler and in a pretty high level game I actually threw a shutout 2 hitter. In slowpitch that's pretty impressive since you typically score 10-40 runs in a game. If it's on, then it is darn near impossible to hit.

I could hit balls in the high 90's without issue, had no real issue with the curve, or the slider as I could pick up motion on the ball very well. But throw me a knuckleball and I was dead. I had no idea where the thing was. The lack of spin made it impossible for my brain to process where it was. The spin on the ball helps you to gain a point of reference on where it is in space. Without spin it literally looks like a puppeteer is working strings on it and speeding it up and slowing it down and right as it gets near to you he gives the string a final yank to drop it to a dead stop. Half the time the catcher can't even catch the thing.

They are fun to throw, and it's good they move slow, because with the lack of ability to judge the ball they end up going off of the heel of the glove and bonking guys in the head. That's ok with a 40 mph ball. Not so good when it's traveling 90.

Both the Booty boys huh? Ok.

Wasn't one of them a professional baseball player? I thought he was, or was at least drafted (the older one). Could be thinking of somebody else, but I thought he was back in the days of Drew Henson and Akili Smith, who also played pro ball and then went back to football.

SharkHawk":2zo5psf3 said:

Wasn't one of them a professional baseball player? I thought he was, or was at least drafted (the older one). Could be thinking of somebody else, but I thought he was back in the days of Drew Henson and Akili Smith, who also played pro ball and then went back to football.

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According to my friend Google, his buddy Wikipedia told him that Josh played some baseball for the Florida Marlins.

I feel so stupid. Sorry for just throwing it out there in conversation rather than doing any research first.

It's gonna be a long offseason apparently.

Ryan Perrilloux...what a waste of talent that guy was. Even if he won this competition he'd mess it up somehow. I even heard once that he was seriously considered to be the guy that could possibly win 4 heisman's....ummmm that didnt happen.

SharkHawk":2evg5qez said:

I feel so stupid. Sorry for just throwing it out there in conversation rather than doing any research first.

It's gonna be a long offseason apparently.

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Haha, naw man. Don't feel stupid. I'm just a smart ass with way too much Google time on his hands.

I hate the future.

This is one of the worst, most random ideas I've EVER seen...

And for some reason it intrigues the SHIZ out of me! I'm doing backflips over the possibility of getting to watch David Greene, Josh Booty, John David Booty, and Ryan Perilloux all trying to learn the knuckler. My bet is that Josh Booty wins it. Actually played in the majors and was at one point a very promising prospect. The real question is, who the hell cares?!??!

bellingerga":3qh300yb said:

I really hate the off-season. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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