Editing Knuckleball (section)

==Naming and relationship to other pitches==
[[Image:Wakefield Throws a Knuckleball.jpg|thumb|right|267px|[[Tim Wakefield]] in his throwing motion, showing his grip of the knuckleball]]
Since it developed during a period when the [[spitball]] was legal and commonly used, and was similarly surprising in its motion, the knuckleball was sometimes called the "dry spitter". Cicotte was widely reported to throw both the knuckleball and a variant on the spitball known as a "shine ball" (because he would "shine" one side of a dirty ball by rubbing it on his uniform). However, Cicotte called the shine ball "a pure freak of the imagination", claiming that he did this to disconcert hitters and that the pitch was still a knuckleball.

Other names for the knuckleball have generally alluded to its motion and slower speed. These include the flutterball, the floater, the dancer, the butterfly ball (the name for the pitch used by French language game commentators employed by the [[Montreal Expos]]), the ghostball, and the bug.

The knuckle curve has a somewhat similar name because of the grip used to throw it (also with the knuckles or fingernails), but it is generally thrown harder and with spin. The resulting motion of the pitch more closely resembles a [[curveball]], which explains the combination name. [[Toad Ramsey]], a pitcher from 1885 to 1890, is credited in some later sources with being the first knuckleballer, apparently based primarily on accounts of how he gripped the ball; however, based on more contemporary descriptions of his pitch as an "immense drop ball", it may be that his pitch was a form of knuckle curve.  Two later pitchers, [[Jesse Haines]] and [[Freddie Fitzsimmons]], were sometimes characterized as knuckleball pitchers even by their contemporaries, but in their cases it again refers to a harder-thrown, curving pitch that would probably not be called a knuckleball today. Historically, the term "knuckle curve" had a usage that was different from what it has in the game today. Many current pitchers throw a curveball using a grip with the index finger touching the ball with the knuckle or fingertip (also called a spike curve). This modern pitch is unrelated to the knuckleball.