I never knew how to throw a fastball, never learned how to throw a curveball, a slider, split-finger, whatever they're throwing nowadays. I was a one-pitch pitcher.

My dad played for a coal-mining team in eastern Ohio; he was a very good pitcher. If he hadn't hurt his arm, he probably would have got a shot somewhere. He hurt his arm one spring, didn't warm up good enough, couldn't throw a fastball anymore. Another coal miner taught him how to throw the knuckleball.

I've become a better pitcher because I've learned to economize, ... I can throw four or five days in a row, and when Felipe (Alou) gets me up, I almost always come into the game, so there isn't a lot of wasted energy.

It could help, because I can work even more on my spins. If you're just a fastball pitcher, it's going to hurt you.

We don't want to throw him out there just for the sake of throwing him out there.

There's very few pitching coaches that I worked with that actually came out on the mound and told me what I was doing wrong with the knuckleball. Because they just didn't know. So I had to figure it out. I was on my own.