TAKE FIVE: TOM CANDIOTTI

Monday, July 9, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

During his 16-year career as a major league pitcher, Tom Candiotti won 151 games and lost 164. Although he pitched for some pretty bad teams, when Candiotti's knuckleball was knuckling it was most difficult to hit. This was especially true in 1991, when he finished second in the American League with a stingy 2.65 earned-run average.

But these days Candiotti, 49, mostly likes to chat about his 212 average in the Wednesday night Scottsdale (Ariz.) Rollers men's league, and his first sanctioned 300 game in March.

"As I recall, every shot was in the pocket," he said.

Candiotti, who pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Dodgers, was inducted into the celebrity wing of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame during a ceremony at Mandalay Bay.

During a break in the festivities, he chatted briefly about his 16-win season in 1986 and more extensively about throwing strikes and spares at Via Linda Lanes in Scottsdale and becoming a bowling ambassador.

Move over, Bus

Candiotti, who sometimes competes in PBA national and regional events through sponsors exemptions, is the second celebrity to be inducted into the bowling Hall of Fame in St. Louis, just across the street from the new Busch Stadium and the requisite Hooters restaurant. Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis was feted last year, and Candiotti says what bowling needs is a special made-for-TV event pitting him against "The Bus" for a lot of money or adult beverages, whichever might be available.

Curves for strikes

Candiotti began bowling when his mom entered him in a junior league while he was growing up in Walnut Creek, Calif. He bowled occasionally in college at Saint Mary's but didn't pick up the game in earnest until spring training many years later when it was too cold to play golf. "I used to watch Pete Weber throw a curveball for strikes on TV and I said, 'Heck, I've been doing that all my life,' " he said. Candiotti, who still takes his bowling ball on road trips - he's a radio broadcaster for the Arizona Diamondbacks - said ex-Dodgers teammates Jesse Orosco and Mickey Hatcher also were pretty good bowlers, or at least talked like they were.

Rest easy, Bob Uecker

Former big league catcher Bob Uecker claimed the best way to catch a knuckleball was to wait until it stopped rolling before picking it up. But that doesn't apply in bowling. Candiotti said although the pros often ask him to try, he can't throw a knuckleball down the lanes. So if you're reading, Tim Wakefield, bowling immortality still can be yours.

Hoyt so good

Observant baseball fans might have noticed that Candiotti had a small part in the HBO movie "61," director Billy Crystal's paean to Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and the home run chase of 1961. I say might have noticed, because Candiotti's head-cocked-to-the-side impression of fellow knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm was so spot-on it was as if the Hall-of-Famer had risen from the dead to pitch to the celluloid Bronx Bombers. "That was all Billy Crystal," Candiotti said of Crystal's insistence that a real knuckleball pitcher portray one of the greatest ones in baseball history - and walk just like him on the way in from the bullpen.

Say good night, Gracie!

Although he is best known for a pitch that hesitates on its way to home plate, he did not do the same when asked about the perks of being a card-carrying member of the Bowling Hall of Fame. "I can't wait to go back to work and see Mark Grace and Matt Williams," he said of his Diamondbacks broadcast partners. "Now when we sign autographs, I can write 'HOF 07' under my name. That will really (hack) them off."