Chuck Knoblauch

I sympathized with Chuck Knoblauch when he was going through his throwing woes, as I had the yips myself for a time - when I was a catcher, my pretending to have something important to say to the pitcher so I could casually walk out to the mound between every pitch and hand him the ball instead of throwing the ball into center field was Oscar-worthy.  He was the leadoff hitter on my first Yankees team, 1998; every fucking game he would've scored, putting the Yankees up 1-0 before you could even settle into your chair to start watching.  Also, he's responsible for the greatest back-page headline of all time.


Interesting article here on him here.  I don't know what's more shocking: how removed from baseball he is, how much he's hated in Minnesota, that he retired 9 years ago, or that he's got a brother that's 6'5".

Knoblauch's now remembered mostly for his throwing yips, but he also had one of the smartest plays in the history of the World Series.