A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight,causing an erratic,unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This change adds a deflecting force to the baseball,making it difficult for batters to hit but also difficult for pitchers to control and catchers to catch;umpires are challenged as well,as the ball's irregular motion through the air makes it harder to call balls and strikes. A pitcher who throws knuckleballs is known as a knuckleballer.
Philip Henry Niekro,nicknamed "Knucksie",was an American baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball,20 of them with the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves. Niekro's 318 career victories are the most by a knuckleballer and rank 16th on MLB's all-time wins list. He won the National League Gold Glove Award five times,was selected to five All-Star teams,and led the league in victories twice and earned run average once. He was a key contributor to the Braves winning their only two division titles before 1991. Niekro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.
Timothy Stephen Wakefield is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Wakefield began his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates,but is most remembered for his 17-year tenure with the Boston Red Sox,from 1995 until his retirement in 2012 as the longest-serving player on the team. When he retired,Wakefield was the oldest active player in the major leagues.
USA Baseball is the national governing body for organized baseball in the United States,and is a member of the United States Olympic Committee and the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The organization selects and trains the World Baseball Classic,Olympic,Premier12,and Pan American Games teams;the USA Baseball collegiate national team;the USA Baseball 18U,15U,and 12U national teams;and the USA Baseball women's national team,all of which participate in various international competitions each year. In addition,USA Baseball selects players for the 14U,16U,and 17U national team-development programs. The organization is responsible for the continued proliferation and health of the sport,and leads a number of amateur initiatives through its Sport Development department,including Play Ball and Pitch Smart. USA Baseball also presents the Golden Spikes Award annually to the top amateur baseball player in the country and is responsible for creating the USABat standard.
The International Baseball Federation is the former worldwide governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee as overseeing,deciding and executing the policy of the sport of baseball. The IBAF has since become the international baseball "Division" of the World Baseball Softball Confederation,the officially recognized world governing body for baseball. One of its principal responsibilities under the WBSC umbrella is to organize,standardize and sanction international competitions,using the WBSC name,among baseball's 124 national governing bodies through its various tournaments to determine a world champion and calculate world rankings for both men's and women's baseball. Prior to the establishment of the WBSC,which has since superseded its authority,the IBAF had been the lone entity that can assign the title of "world champion" to any baseball team delegated to represent a nation. Its offices are housed within the WBSC headquarters in Lausanne,Switzerland—the Olympic Capital.
Robert Allen Dickey is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers,Seattle Mariners,Minnesota Twins,New York Mets,Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves.
Women's baseball is played in several countries. The strongest and most organized women's baseball leagues are in the United States,Australia,Japan,Taiwan,Cuba,Hong Kong,and Canada. Those countries have national governing bodies that support girls' and women's baseball programs. Other countries/regions that currently have organized women's baseball are Germany,France,Netherlands,Croatia,India,South Korea,Venezuela,Argentina,Puerto Rico,Colombia,Brazil,Dominican Republic,and Pakistan. There also is a handful of women playing baseball in Vietnam currently on the Fishanu team at Hanoi University and on the Hanoi Baseball Club.
The Thailand national baseball team is the national baseball team of Thailand. They have competed in numerous international competitions,including the Southeast Asian Games,the Asian Games,and the Baseball World Cup. The team is organized by the Amateur Baseball Association of Thailand.
The WBSC Americas,formerly known as Pan American Baseball Confederation,is the governing body of baseball and softball within the Americas.
Scott Daniel Richmond is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Eri Yoshida is a Japanese professional baseball player. She plays as a sidearm knuckleball pitcher. In 2008,at the age of 16,she became the first woman drafted by a Japanese men's professional baseball team.
Victoria Gran Hayward is Canadian,former collegiate All-American,medal-winning Olympian,professional softball player. She played college softball for Washington from 2011–14. She most recently played for the Canadian Wild in the National Pro Fastpitch. She played in the inaugural season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball league and finished in third place overall in points earned. She is an outfielder and bats and throws left-handed. She has played for the Canadian Senior Women's softball team since June 2009 and helped them win a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
World Baseball Softball Confederation is the world governing body for the sports of baseball,softball,and Baseball5. It was established in 2013 by the merger of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and International Softball Federation (ISF),the former world governing bodies for baseball and softball,respectively. Under WBSC's organizational structure,IBAF and ISF now serve as the Baseball Division and Softball Division of WBSC. Each division is governed by an executive committee,while the WBSC is governed by an executive board.
Veronica Alvarez is an American baseball catcher. She is a member of the United States women's national baseball team which won a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games.
The 2016 Women's Baseball World Cup was the 7th edition of the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup,the biennial international women's baseball world championship tournament. The competition was held in Gijang,South Korea from September 3 to September 11,2016.
The 2018 Women's Softball World Championship was an international softball competition held in Chiba,Japan,from 2 August to 12 August. It was the 16th edition of the tournament,and the third edition to be sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). Previous editions were sanctioned by the International Softball Federation,which governed the sport until its 2013 merger with the International Baseball Federation to create the WBSC. As the winners,the United States earned the right to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics. It was the last world title awarded under the championship format before the WBSC implemented the new world cup 4 year cycle.
Softball competitions at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima,Peru are scheduled to be held from July 25 to August 10. The venue for the competition is the softball stadium located at the Villa María del Triunfo cluster. A total of six men's and six women's teams competed in each tournament. This means a total of 180 athletes are scheduled to compete.
Baseball at the 2019 Pan American Games was held from July 27 to August 4. The venue for the competition was the baseball stadium located at the Villa María del Triunfo cluster. The tournament was part of the 2019 edition of the Pan American Games,hosted by Lima,Peru.
Cuba competed in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima,Peru from July 26 to August 11,2019.
Canada 