Ump'ing Knucks Ain't Easy The umpire seeing a strike stands as perhaps the most difficult obstacle for knuckleball pitchers. The slow speed, zero spin and erratic movement drops the ball into the zone at strange angles. And that can spin an ump cross-eyed. There are strategies passed on down to me from Charlie Hough and Phil Niekro to mitigate this issue, but what you really need is a committed umpire that'll follow the ball until the end while calling the pitch crossing the plate; not where it'