Remembering Phil Niekro

The news broke on Sunday that Hall of Famer Phil Niekro had died after a long battle with cancer. Baseball's most successful knuckleballer entered the Hall of Fame in 1997 with 318 career victories and 3342 strikeouts over 24 seasons (1964-87). The Braves greatest pitcher between Warren Spahn and Greg Maddux, Phil won a career-best 23 in 1969, when they won the NL West and returned to the post-season for the first time since 1958. There were other vintage seasons: 1982, Atlanta's first division title since '69, when he went 17 - 4, and most amazingly, 1979, when he became the last player to win 20 and lost 20 the same year. The bright spot on a last place team than went 66 and 96, he completed 23 of his 44 starts that year -- at age 40! Run those numbers back again -- he won 30 percent of his teams games, and started 40 percent of the 162. And with no arm trouble. Yes, the magic of the knuckleball.

When his record dropped to 11-10 in 1983 at age 44, the Braves released him. So instead of surrendering to father time, Phil took his show to Broadway -- well 120 or so blocks north in the Bronx. And he sparkled on the big stage, winning 16 games in each of the next two seasons -- capped by a complete game shutout against the Blue Jays at the end of 2015 for his 300th career victory. 

Then, like the Atlanta two years before, the Yanks decided it was time to part company. So, it was on to Cleveland and, age 47, an 11-11 season with the Indians. 1987 was the end of the line, with fittingly a final return to Atlanta, where he made his final appearance, as a Brave on September 27th, his place as a franchise legend already firm. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997.

Alongside the nuts and bolts of a stellar career, there are plenty of fun facts:

• He was the last Milwaukee Brave to play in the majors -- 22 years after the franchise left Wisconsin.
• He and his (fellow-knuckleballing) brother Joe are the most prolific pitching siblings of all time with a combined total of 539 victories, just ahead of Gaylord and Jim Perry.
• A five-time All Star and five-time Gold Glove winner, he was better-than-average hitter among pitchers, with a .169 career average, 109 RBIs and seven home runs -- the last at age 43!
• Proof that baseball is a team game, Phil ranks with fellow Hall of Famers Ferguson Jennings, Jim Bunning and Gaylord Perry -- all peers of his -- as the greatest pitchers who never appeared in a World Series.
• When he made his debut with the Braves on April 5th, 1964, The Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" was the number-one song. On September 27th, 1987, Whitney Houston ruled the music world with "Didn't We Almost Have It All."

I got to meet Phil twice -- in 1986, I was covering spring training and caught up with him in the Yankee locker room the day he learned he was being released. It was a happier moment when I saw him last, at the 2012 BAT Dinner in New York. That night, I snapped a few photos when Phil visited the press room before the event began.