Remember Brian Wilson? Of course you do. The heavily bearded and quirky reliever saved 163 games across four seasons for the Giants and made three All-Star games in the process. After a spotty two-season run with the Dodgers, Wilson, who'll soon turn 35, dropped out of the majors after nine years and a 122 ERA+.
 
Brian Wilson wants to come back as a knuckleballer
 
 
Now, though, Wilson has designs on a comeback, and in the service of that comeback he's learning a new pitch. Tim Brown of Yahoo has the scoop ...
On a muddy mound at USC on Wednesday morning, wearing high-top spikes and a Hawaii-themed cap, Wilson threw a 30-minute bullpen session. Of those dozens of pitches, all but a handful were knuckleballs. "That right there," Wilson said while pulling off his muck-caked shoes, "was an MVP-Cy Young knuckleball. You can write that down, too. No joke."
Yep, Brian Wilson, who during his prime made hay with a mid-90s fastball and hard slider, is working on a knuckleball. As for that knuckleball, Wilson's doing some unconventional things with it. Brown's story has the details.
As noted, Wilson's in his mid-30s and has twice undergone Tommy John surgery. As such, a conventional pitching comeback may have been an impossibility. So the novelty comeback it is. It's an indisputably correct opinion that baseball needs more knuckleballers, and perhaps Wilson will be the next one.
Dayn Perry/CBS Sports
 

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