KNUCKLEBALL!

In today's game of baseball the knuckleball is an endangered species. In fact, it's pretty much extinct. There are many reasons for this: it’s inconsistent, it’s difficult to master and it’s slow. Pitchers don’t want to throw it, managers don’t want to deal with it and baseball fans don’t want to see it.

The interesting and entertaining baseball documentary KNUCKLEBALL!, from filmmakers Ricki Stern & Anne Sundberg (JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK), follows the only two knuckleballers left in The Big Show: Veteran Tim Wakefield and up-and-comer R.A. Dickey. The former is the most prolific thrower who is in the twilight of his 17-year career, all of them as a prominent knuckleballer. The latter is the only future the knuckleball has of surviving in a game that is trying to reinvent itself on power and speed, both of which the knuckleball lacks.

A mixture of interviews with Wakefield, Dickey, and some of the few past knuckleballers as well as baseball experts, analysts, and coaches gives KNUCKLEBALL! a very unique, compelling, and modern perspective on the current state of America’s pastime.

"Pick of the Week: It’s almost surprising that nobody has made the definitive knuckleball movie until 2012, but here it is: Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s immensely entertaining, informative and even moving “Knuckleball!,” which immediately leaps near the top of the list of greatest baseball documentaries." -Andrew O'Herir, Salon.com

“An uplifting documentary about perseverance and determination reminds us that the national pastime still offers old-school heroes… Both men are old-fashioned, ah-shucks role models, the type of sports hero once taken for granted but hard to find today. For this reason alone, Stern and Sundberg are to be applauded for bringing their stories to an audience beyond the ballpark."–Rex Roberts, Film Journal