Phil Niekro Quotes

Getting my curveball back and finding another pitch just helped me figure out how to pitch.

I threw a good fastball and changeup, but a below-average curveball.

I've always been fastball-curveball and really relied on that pitch, and when it goes away, it just totally changes how you attack hitters.

You continue to try to hammer out fastball command the best you can.

The reason I think I'm a good pitcher is I locate my fastball and I change speeds. Period. That's what you do to pitch. That's what pitchers have to do to win games.

The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball.

I know my fastball command will get even better.

I'm not executing my pitches. I'm not commanding my fastball, and I get behind in the count. When I try to throw strikes, I'm getting hurt. That's not the way I pitch.

I use fast curves, pitched overhand and sidearm, fastballs, high and inside, and an underhand fade away pitch with the hand almost down to the level of the knees.

I was short with my fastball and breaking ball.

The big thing will be having two pitches you can throw for strikes and developing a change-up, too.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm a pitcher, but I think that's pretty cool that a guy can throw a ball 100 miles an hour.

When I can buy strikes with that curveball, that just lets everything else play up.

I've got some good movement on my sinking fastball, and I rely on that.

That's why it's so important to have that gap between your fastball and off-speed pitches: then, when you effectively locate your fastball, it plays at a higher velocity.

If you can constantly just put pressure on all four quadrants, it gives you a little more leverage to be able to fill the zone up with breaking balls and fastball counts - or with breaking balls when guys are maybe sitting on the fastball that you've established.

There's more to pitching than just striking guys out, but also it is a big reason why you can have success.

I want to throw a faster fastball. I want a sharper curve. I want to improve all my pitches.

If you talk to any pitcher, consistency is the most important thing.

Walk rate is probably the area in which a pitcher has the most room to improve, but a rate that high is tough to overcome.

Later, I could take something off my slider and I could make my fastball sink, so I really had four pitches.

I've got a fastball, change-up, forkball, curve, slider, knuckle-slider, knuckle-curve, I had about seven pitches I could have used at any time.

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.

John Wetteland had a very good curveball. He threw it for a strike, too, in any count, any situation. But, he really didn't use it much. He didn't want to throw it. He wanted to throw fastball-slider.

I only know one way to pitch. I really do.