Tom Candiotti

Most baseball fans know Tom Candiotti as a knuckleballer but he began his career as a conventional pitcher in 1983—after becoming just the second player to appear in the major leagues following Tommy John surgery, at a time when only Tommy John himself had ever come back from the operation. Candiotti, whose arm recovered, threw fastballs and curveballs in his first two years in the majors before switching over to the knuckleball for the 1986 season. He would then go on to use primarily the knuckleball for the rest of his career, though he threw a good enough curveball to get hitters out.
This biography is based on the recollections of Candiotti himself, his former teammates and managers, newspaper and periodical accounts, and archival resources.

K.P. Wee is a life-long baseball fan. After spending a decade as an English instructor, he currently works in an advertising company. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.

K.P. Wee
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 268
Bibliographic Info: 18 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9425-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1559-2
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Preface      1
Introduction      11
1. Coming Back from Tommy John 17
2. The Stopper in Milwaukee 27
3. The ­Non-Prospect 40
4. Minor Leagues, Little Prank, Big Leagues: The Knuckleball 55
5. Revival in Cleveland 66
6. Success in the Big Leagues 77
7. There’s Bad, and Then There’s the Indians 87
8. The Pitcher with the Knuckleball, Not the Knuckleball Pitcher 96
9. Staff Ace 110
10. From Worst to First 122
11. “You’ve gotta throw more knuckleballs…” 132
12. From First to Worst 150
13. Not Past His Prime 163
14. The Great Run by a Knuckleballer on the Other Coast 184
15. Who Says He Couldn’t Start Anymore? 198
16. 200 Innings on a Bad Knee 210
17. Final Goodbye in Cleveland 226
Appendix: Statistics      237
Chapter Notes      239
Bibliography      249
Index      251