Jared Fernandez used to be on the squad, no? http://www.oddball-mall.com/knuckleball/list.htm
A former champion breakdancer (according to him), he had a nickname from his Utah days, something "Pop", I cannot remember. I think he threw a screwball, too, but I could be wrong about that. Needeless to say, none of his pitches were very impressive. I think he ended up in Japan for a few seasons. They embrace knucklers over there.
. . .I had high hopes for Steve Sparks, who had a similar style knuckleball, but he peetered out in his late 30's.
I met Sparks in a bar once, interesting guy. In person he looks like a movie star. He has some thoughts about the knuckleball, he said he was never in any situation with any team in the U.S. where the knuckleball was accepted as a valid pitch, it was always looked upon by his managers and coaches as an anomaly or worse. He felt there was an institutional disregard for the knuckleball, so anyone employing it was facing an uphill battle. Even a guy like one of the Niekros or Wakefield, successful throwing the pitch for years and years, was immediately highly suspect at the first sign of a falling off of effectiveness, or a slump.
I may be wrong, but it seems there is more than one kind of knuckleball pitcher. Some, like Wakefield, seem to throw it almost all the time. Whereas Phil and especially Joe Niekro mixed in fastballs and/or some other off-speed pitch regularly. Some claim to have some control over the knuckler, others say they don't have any more idea than the batter where it is going once it leaves their hand.
Was what Hooton threw officially considered a knuckler? Or not? I am guessing the latter. I never see him referred to as a knuckleball pitcher; at the time, he called his money pitch as a "knuckle-curve" I think, something like that. He was primarily a conventional pitcher, now that I think of it, but when he whipped out that "pitch of mixed parentage", whatever it was, he was almost unhittable.
