School of Hard Knucks

A helicopter dad nearly spins out of control as his sons struggle to master the knuckleball—and perhaps save baseball’s most storied pitch from extinction. The knuckleball is the only skill that can elevate an athlete without a superjock’s speed, strength, or explosive power to the Hall of Fame. Thrown without spin, it darts around unpredictably for reasons physicists and engineers labor to explain. It’s a secret weapon every pitcher should want to master, so why is the knuckleball close to extinction? When a father discovers his baseball-crazed sons have the knack for the knuck, they begin a decade-long, cross-country quest to perfect the pitch. Along the way they meet the greatest to throw it, the scientists investigating its mysterious movement, sabermetricians, and executives who hope to resurrect it. The aspiring knucklers also learn lessons they’ll use off the field, proving that when life throws them curves, they have something to throw back.

Brian Gaffney, vice president of documentary programming at Fox News Media, began his journalism career as a sportswriter and has worked as an investigative reporter and TV magazine producer covering sports, politics, entertainment, business, and culture. A riveting storyteller, he has produced and written hundreds of hours of long-form television programming and interviewed hundreds of newsmakers. His work has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, Dateline NBC, ABC 20/20, Discovery Animal Planet, The Wall Street Journal, and other print publications. Gaffney has earned numerous journalism honors, including an Emmy nomination and the Gerald Loeb Award (one of business journalism’s highest honors), and was a 2006 Claremont Institute Lincoln Fellow. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School. A husband and father of four children who’s coached dozens of youth baseballs team, he splits time between Morristown and Lavallette, New Jersey.