Larry Cheney

From a potentially life-threatening accident came the invention of one of baseball's most baffling pitches. Toward the end of the 1911 season, Larry Cheney, who had just been called up from the minors, deflected a line drive that was headed toward his face with his pitching hand, driving his thumb into his nose and breaking both. The next year he couldn't grip the ball tightly and changed his delivery, digging his fingernails into the leather and giving birth to the "knuckleball." With it, Cheney went 26-10 in 1912, tying for the league lead in wins and racking up a league-high 28 complete games.