A Fluttering Boost to Flickering Hopes Jared Soares for The New York Times Zach Clark, a knuckleballer in Class A at Frederick, Md., is one of the pitchers the Orioles are trying to convert. BALTIMORE - Standing in the outfield before a May game in Anaheim, Calif., Orioles Manager Buck Showalter did not like what he saw in Zach Clark, but it had little to do with Clark's mechanics or repertory. Showalter noticed that Clark had gnawed his fingernails, hardly ideal for an aspiring knuckleballer. "You may want to stop doing that," Clark recalled Showalter telling him. Clark eventually had acrylic nails applied to the middle three fingers of his right hand, so he could dig into the ball and release it as if it were a balloon. "Trying to explain it was weird," Clark said of his visit to a Maryland salon. Although the Orioles did not put a manicurist on the payroll, they did sign a consultant for 2013, Phil Niekro, who won 318 games in a 24-year career, riding the knuckleball from the moment the Milwaukee Braves signed him in 1958. Niekro's assignment is to help the Orioles transform three pitchers into full-time knuckleballers: Clark, 30, now with Class A Frederick, Md.; Zach Staniewicz, 27, in the rookie Gulf Coast League; and Eddie Gamboa, 28, of Class AAA Norfolk, Va. Baltimore's approach may be unconventional, but leaders in the organization are well aware of how effective the knuckleball can be. While managing the Texas Rangers in 2005, Showalter persuaded a flailing pitcher, R. A. Dickey, to take up the knuckleball. Last year, Dickey won 20 games for the Mets and earned the National League's Cy Young Award. Dan Duquette, the Orioles" executive vice president for baseball operations, also has experience with a successful knuckleballer. When he ran the Red Sox, Duquette signed Tim Wakefield after the Pittsburgh Pirates released him in 1995. Wakefield pitched for 17 seasons with Boston. The Orioles" strategy is a lifeline to pitchers trying to salvage their careers, and a low-risk, high-reward proposition for the organization. It involves identifying prospects who are likely to remain in the minor leagues or to reach the majors only briefly. But Duquette, Showalter and the Orioles" pitching coach, Rick Adair, said that even middling candidates for conversion must fit basic criteria. A player must sublimate his ego to embrace an unorthodox pitch; stick with it despite inevitable poundings when the knuckleball refuses to dip, dart and flutter; and be athletic enough to field squib hits when a batter makes contact. He must also limit base stealers, using a quick delivery from the stretch to offset the pitch's slower journey to the plate. Above all, Showalter said, "you have to have failed at a very high level." The Orioles" approach, if it works, could prompt a reassessment of pitchers" development in the short and long terms. Throwing knuckleballs puts far less strain on the shoulder and arm than throwing conventional pitches, possibly extending innings pitched and careers. "You forget everything you learned about pitching when you throw a knuckleball," Niekro said in a telephone interview. But it is hard to trust a pitch whose speed is not the object and whose destination is unpredictable. "With the knuckleball, you have to make the commitment," Niekro said. You've got to throw it in all situations. Making that adjustment is not so simple. Charlie Haeger, a pitcher in the Red Sox organization who estimated that he throws the knuckler about 85 percent of the time, said, "As a kid, you don't think of becoming a knuckleball pitcher." Sitting in his office at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Duquette made a case for developing more knuckleballers. "I'm not sure why there aren't more out there, because every time you throw the pitch, you have a chance to get an out," he said. Look at the money the industry spends on conventional pitchers, and most of them end up on the disabled list, not even working. You're not putting as much stress on your shoulder because you're trying to get the ball to float, not throw it past the backstop. He added: "About half our players are pitchers on a given team. Why not knuckleballers - why not? Our goal is to have them pitch until they collect Social Security, or at least their major league pension. To tutor Wakefield, Duquette once hired Niekro and his brother Joe, another knuckleballer. Wakefield consulted with Charlie Hough, who had recently retired, and Tom Candiotti, who was also learning the pitch. And when Dickey began to focus on the knuckleball, first with Texas and then with the Seattle Mariners and the Minnesota Twins, he sought out Wakefield.