Countdown to Spring Training - 49 Days

If you were to ask most baseball fans today to associate the #49 with the knuckleball, most people, especially fans of the AL East, would likely think of Boston's Tim Wakefield. Wake, who will turn 46 in 2012, has had quite a run throwing arguably baseballs most interesting pitch. However, fans would be remiss to forget Wake's predecessor of the knuckle arts, "The Candy Man," Tom Candiotti, who proudly wore the #49 in Toronto during the second half of the 1991 season.

Candiotti, though not the only man to ever throw a knuckleball in a Toronto Blue Jays uniform, is the only pitcher to have ever won a game employing the pitch. The legendary Phil Niekro, who made three starts for the Blue Jays during the final season of his Hall of Fame career, was the first to throw a knuckleball for Toronto, but he was winless in his three starts in 1987. Those three starts turned out to be three of the last four of his career.

The Candy Man came to the Blue Jays from the Cleveland Indians in the midst of the finest season of his career, the 1991 season. He put together very impressive numbers with Toronto, including an ERA of 2.98 over 19 starts. Upon his arrival, he became the ace of a Blue Jays staff that won the American League East with a 91-71 record before falling to the Minnesota Twins in the American League Championship Series, four games to one.

Candiotti was on the mound for games one and five of the ALCS, registering the loss in game one, and a no decision in game five, which the Twins ultimately won 8-5. It was an unfortunate end to an impressive season, and served as the disappointing end of Candiotti's brief tenure with the Blue Jays.

Toronto fans haven't seen a knuckleballer in a home uniform since, though they have had plenty of opportunities to see Wakefield and his #49. Wakefield has made 28 appearances at the Rogers Centre throughout the course of his career with the Red Sox, which is the most appearances he has made at any ballpark other than Fenway Park. In those 28 appearances he has compiled a 6-5 record with a 4.65 ERA.

Following the 1991 season, Candiotti went to Los Angeles and spent six seasons with the Dodgers, though he never matched the success of his time in Cleveland and Toronto. He also never really got a shot at redemption in the postseason, as he never started another playoff game in his career. The only other postseason appearance he made came in relief in 1996.

Currently, Candiotti serves as a color commentator for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and while his 151 career wins and lifetime ERA of 3.73 aren't quite good enough for Cooperstown, he is still a hall of famer in his own right. As a Bowler, Tom has a 200-plus average in his league in Arizona, and he was inducted into the International Bowling Museum's Hall of Fame in 2007 in St. Louis.

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