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Philip Henry "Phil" Niekro (born April 1, 1939), nicknamed "Knucksie", is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. Niekro's 318 career victories are the most by a knuckleball pitcher and he ranks 16th on the overall all-time wins list.〔List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins〕 He also won the National League (NL) Gold Glove Award five times. Niekro pitched for 20 seasons for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves. During his tenure in Atlanta, Niekro was selected for five All-Star teams, led the league in victories twice and earned run average once. Niekro was also a key to the only two division titles Atlanta won before . Phil and his brother Joe Niekro amassed 539 wins between them, the most combined wins by brothers in baseball history. Phil Niekro's 121 career victories after the age of 40 is a major league record, and his longevity is attributed to the knuckleball, which is a difficult pitch to master but is easy on the arm and often baffles hitters due to its unpredictable trajectory. He is also the uncle of former first baseman and pitcher Lance Niekro. Niekro was the last MLB pitcher to have both won and lost 20 or more games in the same season; with the 1979 Braves,〔(Phil Niekro - BR Bullpen )〕 Niekro finished with 21 wins and 20 losses. His third and final 20-win season came in 1979; it was also the second and final year that he lost 20 games.〔(Phil Niekro Statistics and History ). Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved January 17, 2015.〕 ==Early life== Niekro was born in Blaine, Ohio, attended Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Ohio, and was a boyhood friend of Basketball Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek. The baseball field on which he played at Bridgeport High School's Perkins Field athletic complex was renamed "The Niekro Diamond" in 2008 after both Phil and his brother, Joe. Niekro was the son of a coal miner; his father had pitched semipro baseball and had learned to throw a knuckleball from another coal miner. Phil and his younger brother, fellow major league pitcher Joe Niekro, learned the pitch from their father in their backyard as kids. Phil and his family have continued to support the students of Bridgeport High School with the proceeds from the annual golf tournament "The Niekro Classic". Niekro was signed to the Milwaukee Braves by scout Bill Maughn in 1959 for $250.〔Knuckleball (2012, movie)〕 He pitched for minor league teams at several levels for the next few years, appearing mostly as a relief pitcher. While he was briefly promoted to the Class AAA Louisville Colonels in 1960, he spent the entire next season with the Class AA Austin Senators. He returned to Louisville in 1962 and recorded a 9-6 win-loss record. He missed the 1963 season due to military service.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Phil Niekro」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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