No spin needed here: Knuckleball-throwing Mickey Jannis made his Major League Baseball debut at age 33 on Wednesday for the Baltimore Orioles.
Jannis was known in the minors for his nearly rotation-free pitch and he got to show it off against the Houston Astros.
In a slow-motion video that’s going viral, Jannis strikes out Yordan Alvarez with his knuckleball. It was the first batter Jannis faced. Observers called the pitch “filthy” and “pure art.”
But not all of his pitches were so challenging. The reliever logged a scoreless fifth inning but eventually gave up 7 runs in a 13-0 defeat.
Jannis adopted the novelty pitch in about 2012 and used it in the Mets minor league system from 2015 to 2019. He joined the Orioles organization in 2020 and lost a minor league season to the pandemic.
The last-place Orioles promoted him from Triple-A Norfolk on Tuesday and while Wednesday wasn’t exactly a dream debut, he’s now a major leaguer.
“Deep down, I always believed that I could pitch in the major leagues, and that’s why I never gave it up,” Jannis told The Baltimore Sun. “I told my wife like as long as I feel like I have a chance to pitch in the major leagues like I want to pursue this dream. She was all for it, backing me up. My parents backed me up, my entire family, so it’s just pretty special.”
Welcome to the bigs, kid, er, sir.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.