Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey has straightened out his life and crooked-out his pitches

Washington Post ^ | 6/6/2012 | Dave Sheinin

[Saije]

R.A. Dickey exits the New York Mets’ Pentagon City hotel, jaywalks across South Hayes Street and makes his way underground to the Metro platform. “This thing,” he grumbles, stepping gingerly down the broken escalator, “is never working.” He’s not in a bad mood, per se — just a serious one.

It is Tuesday afternoon, and Dickey, 37, is headed to a therapy session — relationship therapy. Dickey and his knuckleball, they are making great progress these days, their understanding of each other growing deeper and richer. But the work must never stop, lest they drift apart again. Later that afternoon, in the bullpen at Nationals Park, they will take their places and pick up where they left off last time...

Dickey is, without question, the Most Interesting Man in Baseball. It isn’t just that he speaks of his primary pitch as if it were a living, breathing thing, or of his development of that pitch as a relationship — but it is partly that. He is the only knuckleball pitcher left in the majors, and only a knuckleballer would speak in such a way.

But he is also a voracious reader of Big, Important Books (for example, “My Name is Asher Lev,” by Chaim Potok; “Life of Pi,” by Yann Martel), a former English major at the University of Tennessee, a born-again Christian and an avid bicyclist. This past winter, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania — despite the Mets threatening to void his contract if anything happened to him — telling New York magazine, “The scope of the mountain resonated with me.”

He is also a medical marvel, possessing no ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow, which first came to light after the Rangers drafted him in 1996...

[Saije]

For reasons I won't go into here, I could never be a Mets fan but I do like knuckleballers and this kid sounds like a really interesting guy.

[Tainan]

BaseBall used to be great.

It was because of guys like this.

Unique. Oddballs. People who didn't fit the mold.

They made the game great.

[Nathaniel]

The only times in sports I EVER was a fan of anything from NYC were – when Brett Favre played the un-appreciated year for the Jets and when Tim Tebow went there – I bought a Tebow #15 home jersey. Aside from that, on 9-11 we all became New Yorkers for the time. It IS part of America. Other than that, they have a liberal idiot as mayor and draconian gun laws out the ying-yang.

[Ransomed]

I will watch any game RA Dickey pitches in. The last few starts have been even more sharp than usual. The last knuckler in the bigs, thows it pretty darn hard, he started mixing in more traditional 55-65 mph knucklers and they are acting like a change-up to his normal faster one, getting strike outs instead of the more normal knuckle-ball grounders and weak fly balls. He starts against the Nats today after coming off a complete game shut-out the day after Santana’s no-hitter.

Freegards

[TurboZamboni]

I liked watching him when he was with our hometown Twins.

[Ransomed]

Had to resurrect this thread.

Back to back 1 hitters for RA Dickey! Hasn’t happened since 1988. I saw the game on MASN last night, the O’s were helpless. 13 strikeouts, 2 walks. He’s 11-1! That thing was vibrating all over the place, moving back and forth really fast as it dove down or sideways, hammering the corners. If he keeps it up he will be starting the all-star game and if the trend continues he will be the first knuckle ball pitcher to win the CY. In the last seven starts, he struck out 71 and walked SEVEN!! SEVEN!! For a Knuckleball pitcher.

Next start should be a national game, vs the yanks and CC on Sunday night baseball on ESPN. I think it is the best story in sports right now, I mean the guy is a 37 year old journey-man pitcher. Not a Mets fan but this guy has been must see tv everytime I have seen him this season.

Freegards