Despite unimpressive minor league credentials, Knudson pitched in the majors briefly each season from 1985 to 1988, and 1989 was the first time he began the season on a big-league roster. Knudson went 8-5 with a 3.35 ERA for Milwaukee that year, but his output deteriorated over the next two seasons, in part due to a virus contracted during at the start of the 1991 season.
“The day after Opening Day, I had a temperature of 103. I soon lost 10 pounds,” Kundson told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1992. “The mistake I made was that I pushed myself back too soon before I was ready. It was a confusing situation because I didn’t look hurt, I didn’t feel hurt, but yet I wasn’t 100 percent.”
Knudson’s career as a Brewer ended in October 1991 when he refused a minor-league assignment. After his release, the hurler became so despondent that he prepared to apply for a broadcasting job with the expansion Colorado Rockies for the 1993 season. Instead, Knudson made a brief cameo as a pitcher with the Rockies that year, but accumulated a mile-high 22.24 ERA in only four games with the club.
