FanHouse PhilNiekro

This picture was taken shortly after someone told Lance Niekro that the word "knuckleball" does not start with an "n."

As previously reported, the son of Joe Niekro and the nephew of Phil Niekro has decided to abandon a career of .246 hitting to pursue a life of knuckleballing. Can it be learned? Can it be taught?

Today's Dugout is after the jump.

Our last dugout, The Dugout presents Yankee Refocus Giant-Sized Annual #1, was one of our most critically acclaimed of the FanHouse era (by "critically acclaimed" I mean "nobody told us to get a real job"). One of the complaints we've gotten since joining up here is that our stuff is too esoteric and tangential for the mass audience and that our specific kind of esotericism is nerdy as balls and offputting to even the remaining niche audience. The Yankee Refocus Dugout was in the spirit of our Progressive Boink Dugouts, straight-forward jokes and a ton of hyperbole about how the Yankees are gay and rich. It's what works.

So, in the spirit of continuing that upward momentum, here is a Dugout about Eri Yoshida, the first woman drafted into the Japanese professional baseball league, done in the nerdiest way I could imagine. If you spent most of the mid-90s looking for a Suncoast video to buy original language track versions of anime TV shows on VHS, you will probably love this. If you are not one of those 18 people, you will hate it. Sorry, this is the only way I know how to cover the story.

Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

Update: New content added 11/19
Update 2: Well, okay, just a little bit