Story by
Thanks to dad, Kenny Serwa throws a rare knuckleball — and he's no longer a secret
- Story by
- Thanks to dad, Kenny Serwa throws a rare knuckleball — and he's no longer a secret
Kenny Serwa will never forget his first knuckleball.
He was 9 years old. It was the summer of 2006. His father, Ken Serwa, stood ready to catch.
Kenny had been trying sliders and curveballs in the front yard that day, but his father wanted to protect his arm from the strain of high-spin pitches, so he taught him the knuckleball. His hands weren't big enough to use his knuckles. He had to dig his fingernails underneath the seams.
Advertisement
The ball danced.
"I couldn't even catch it," his dad said.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Serwa (left) and his father, Ken Serwa (right), in the early 2000s, with Kenny holding his first trophy.
Nearly 20 years later, Kenny is throwing that same knuckleball in the Detroit Tigers organization, in Double-A Erie. Signed in January 2025, he has already been promoted from High-A West Michigan. It's the fastest knuckleball ever recorded, at 88.5 mph. The 27-year-old has a chance to become MLB's next knuckleballer — and the Tigers' first since Steve Sparks in the early 2000s.
"I may have shown him," Ken said, "but it's Kenny Serwa's knuckleball."
This is a Father's Day tale.
Kenny wouldn't be here without him.
Advertisement
His father always told him: "You're the best kept secret in baseball."
Kenny isn't a secret anymore.
"I want to say all of me knew I was going to make it the entire time," Kenny said. "But there was a small part of me that thought, 'What if I didn't get to the right place at the right time?' Timing is everything — you have to be at the right place at the right time. I was like, 'Maybe my time was in the past.' But I knew I had this knuckleball. I was just waiting for the right place at the right time."
WHEN IT HAPPENED: Tigers sign viral knuckleball pitcher Kenny Serwa to minor league contract
Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Serwa with Double-A Erie in the 2025 season.
Celebrate Father's Day and the Tigers with our new book!
Advertisement
'You're good enough'
Long before joining the Tigers, 9-year-old Kenny — a member of the Glenview Blaze in Little League — spent a month working on his new knuckleball with his dad. Once it was ready, he approached his coach and asked if he could throw it.
"Let me see it," his coach said.
The first pitch hit the catcher in the face mask.
"You can throw that," his coach said.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Serwa in the early 2000s.
Not only is a knuckleball difficult for hitters to hit, but it's also difficult for catchers to catch — and pitchers to control. To this day, catchers struggle to catch it and hitters struggle to hit it, but Kenny has learned to command it — not perfectly, but enough to throw it with intent.
Advertisement
In Little League, he realized the pitch had potential. By high school, he started to wonder if anyone could actually hit it.
Then came college.
With it, everything changed.
"It was a heck of a journey," Kenny said.
He pitched for four colleges in six seasons across seven years: Division II St. Joseph's College in Indiana in 2016 and 2017, then up to Division I SIU Edwardsville in 2018, 2019 and 2020, Central Florida in 2021 and Dayton in 2022. His first school closed for financial reasons. He battled an elbow injury and a knee injury along the way, and he even hurt his fingernail. He was named an All-American in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic canceled the season after four starts and shortened the MLB draft that year from 40 rounds to five, derailing his chances.
Advertisement
In 2020, the Serwa family had an important conversation.
It wasn't about giving up.
But it easily could have been.
The odds were stacked against Kenny. He wasn't sure if he was good enough to keep chasing the dream — to become MLB's next knuckleballer, let alone make it past college. He had a degree in integrated biology. He had a passion for coaching. His family could have encouraged him to take the safer path — the one without playing baseball.
Instead, they told him to keep playing.
"You're absolutely good enough," Ken said.
"We've had conversations, him and me, like, 'Is it time?'" Ken added. "I'm like, 'You never want to give up.' I told him the 'what if' would kill him for the rest of his life. He goes, 'I'm going to keep going.'"
Advertisement
The 'Yoshi' pitch
In 2020, Kenny — frustrated but relentless — played catch with his roommate and teammate, Cole Milam , in front of their college apartment in Edwardsville, Illinois. His season had been canceled. The world had been put on pause. His future was uncertain.
But Kenny kept throwing.
Just like he did with his dad, all those years ago.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Serwa with Double-A Erie in the 2025 season.
One day, Kenny stumbled upon a slower version of his knuckleball.
The ball floated.
"Dude, that one was just like the Yoshi star pitch from Mario Super Sluggers," Cole said.
"Really?" Kenny said. "I've never played that."
Advertisement
"We gotta go inside," Cole said. "You've got to see this."
They pulled up the video game and compared the pitches.
"Holy smokes," Kenny said. "That does look like it."
The "Yoshi" pitch completed Kenny's six-pitch mix: an 87 mph knuckleball, a 78 mph knuckleball and a 93 mph fastball, along with a sinker, cutter and curveball. He attacks north-south with his fastball and curveball, east-west with his sinker and cutter — and the knuckleballs? They're unpredictable.
It's part of his game plan.
"The knuckleball, I just throw it over the plate," Kenny said. "I can get it to be a strike, but the movement is up to the knuckleball."
Advertisement
His college career continued as a graduate transfer at Central Florida in 2021 and Dayton in 2022, but his performance didn't warrant interest from MLB organizations. So he turned to independent ball to keep his dream alive, joining the Billings Mustangs in 2022 and the Chicago Dogs in 2024.
For the Dogs, he set a franchise record with 119⅓ innings pitched, over 20 appearances.
But that's not what put Kenny on the map.
The credit goes to his former Dayton roommate and teammate, Cody Whitten , who introduced him to Tread Athletics, a state-of-the-art pitching lab in Charlotte, North Carolina — and, once again, to his family for getting him there.
Advertisement
"We got some help from family members to get it all done," Ken said, specifically thanking Kenny's grandmother, Helen "Honey" Greco. "It was expensive, but it was what needed to be done. No matter what happened, it was right. He was in the right place."
Signing with the Tigers
For a couple of years, Cody had been urging Kenny to train at Tread Athletics , where he works as a performance coach. Each January, more than 100 pitchers throw in front of scouts from all 30 MLB teams during a three-day showcase. More than 200 pitchers from Tread have been signed by MLB organizations.
Kenny needed to be there.
Advertisement
"I wish I would have gotten there sooner, but I wasn't able to afford it," Kenny said. "Once I was, I got my foot in the door and took off from there."
Detroit Tigers right-hander Kenny Serwa pitched for the University of Dayton in the 2022 season.
In the showcase, every pitcher gets seven minutes to throw.
Kenny felt nervous.
"All the preparation, months and years, it all comes down to that one moment — those seven minutes," Kenny said. "Everything happened so fast. The adrenaline was pumping."
Guess who felt even more nervous?
His dad.
The Serwa family — Ken; mom, Sandra; and young brothers Michael and Danny — waited together in their kitchen during Kenny's showcase, hoping for the best.
Advertisement
"I probably get more butterflies than he does," Ken said. "My wife and I, we're nervous, and we're excited, and we're waiting for the call, waiting for the call ... and then we finally got it."
Several teams were interested, including the Tigers — and Kenny's hometown Chicago Cubs . The Tigers loved his knuckleball, appreciated that he threw strikes and had a plan for his development. Kenny came away impressed after conversations with people throughout the organization.
His agent, Alex Ministeri , handled the negotiations.
Kenny cried tears of joy when he signed with the Tigers. He then called his parents.
Advertisement
"I'm going to be a Detroit Tiger," he told them.
The baseball world took notice.
Kenny became a viral sensation on social media for throwing the fastest knuckleball ever recorded. The main video — posted by Tread Athletics co-founder Ben Brewster — racked up nearly 1 million views. Rob Friedman , known online as "Pitching Ninja," showcased the pitch to his 530,000 followers. Even the MLB account , with 12.5 million followers, posted a clip.
It was finally the right place at the right time.
His father always told him: "You'll be seen."
'Your time will come'
Kenny reported Feb. 11 to spring training in Lakeland, Florida — his first day with the Tigers. He walked into the minor-league clubhouse and immediately received recognition from his peers, almost like they were awaiting his arrival.
Advertisement
"You're the guy, right?" a fellow player asked.
"What guy?" Kenny responded.
"The knuckleball guy," the player said. "That's you, right?"
"Yeah, that's me," Kenny said.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Serwa with Double-A Erie in the 2025 season.
On April 5, Kenny pitched in his first-ever affiliated minor-league game, with High-A West Michigan. He threw four scoreless innings that day, before running his streak to 11 innings without allowing a run, all while recording one walk and 12 strikeouts. On June 5, the Tigers promoted Kenny to Double-A Erie, putting him just two steps away from his MLB debut.
He is working as a starting pitcher for the SeaWolves.
Advertisement
In 2025, Kenny has a 3.00 ERA with 11 walks and 41 strikeouts across 48 innings in 12 games for West Michigan (10 games) and Erie (two games). Opponents are batting just .205 against him, with minimal power.
"I want to see him strike out Bryce Harper and Shohei Ohtani ," his dad said. "I think he could do it. I've been watching him for his whole life. I think he can do it in the big leagues."
The Tigers want Kenny to keep throwing his knuckleball.
The one-of-a-kind pitch could take him all the way to the highest level, where Joe and Phil Niekro , Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey , among others, proved knuckleballers can thrive.
Advertisement
His father always told him: "Your time will come."
He was right.
For Kenny, that time is now.
"He's always been the best kept secret in baseball," Ken said. "He goes, 'Dad, I'm tired of being the secret. I don't need to hear it anymore.' But when he was younger, he needed to hear that, and it was the truth."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
Listen to our weekly Tigers show "Days of Roar" every Monday afternoon on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts .
Advertisement
Order your copy of "Roar of 125: The Epic History of the Detroit Tigers !" by the Free Press at Tigers125.PictorialBook.com .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Father's Day: Detroit Tigers' Kenny Serwa learns blazing knuckleball
