Hall of Famer Rick Ferrell caught four knuckleballers with the Senators in the 1940s. "I have seen most of the great knuckleballers," he said in 1973, "but it is hard to say that anyone has ever been better than Wood, regardless of time or whatever." "I guess they always said, ‘Poor Wilbur, he just doesn’t have enough natural ability to pitch in the big leagues,’” Sain remembered Wood's trouble with the fastball. “What they call natural ability is standing six-four and being able to throw a ball 100 miles per hour. Well, it turns out that he has as much God-given ability as any man I’ve ever met. He can throw the knuckleball it requires [a natural feel." "I tell you the sensation I get," Gene Tenace described an at bat against Wood. "I see the ball floating up and then I swing. I get a feeling that the bat has made a ripple in the air and has caused the ball to wriggle like a roundworm." "...feeling fully prepared, we go out there and face the thing Wood throws," said Mike Epstein. "It looks like a batting practice pitch—soft, tempting. Like the one he struck me out with today, it breaks three or four directions. I didn't know where it was headed. The catcher, I'm sure, didn't know where it was headed. And I'm pretty certain not even Wood knew where it was headed." "Obviously, the knuckleball makes Wilbur effective, but what makes him even more effective is the fact that he throws it over for strikes," Paul Blair praised his control. "It never goes the same way, but it is always in the strike zone."