Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is
commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of
praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8
R. A. Dickey is one of the best
stories in baseball this year.
At age 37 he is one of the oldest
pitchers in a starting rotation. He is also the only current knuckleballer. His
18-5 record of wins and losses is second in the National League, an improbable
achievement, since his team, the New York Mets, has an overall record of 66
wins and 80 losses. At 2.68, his earned run average leads the league. He’s also
first in complete games and in shutouts. He’s second in WHIP (walks and hits
per innings pitched), strikeouts, and innings pitched.
Dickey’s life has not been easy. He
grew up with an alcoholic mother and was sexually abused by a baby-sitter. His
refuge was athletics. But his path to the Major Leagues was not an easy one. He was an Academic
All-American at Tennessee and was drafted in the first round by the Texas
Rangers in 1996, but a routine physical showed there was something the matter
with his arm. His right elbow was missing a ligament. Dickey recalls, “They
thought they had drafted damaged goods, and I went back to Nashville thinking
that I may never throw for a professional team again.”
Eventually, the Rangers did sign
him for $75,000, a small fraction of what they had originally offered. He
bounced around the minors with little success. In 2006, after re-inventing
himself as a knuckleballer, he got another chance to start a major league game,
but he gave up 6 runs and was immediately demoted to the minors in Oklahoma.
His minor league exile led to a
baptismal experience that changed his life. One night after a game he decided
that he wanted to swim across the Missouri River. It was not long after he
waded into the water that he discovered that the current and the undertow were
much worse than he had anticipated. "Every stroke was a determined stroke to try to survive an experience
where I [thought that I] may drown,” he said. "I had given myself over to
the fact that this was it, I wasn't going to make it. The undertow was pulling
me down."
His feet touched
bottom just as he was giving up and prepared to sink and let the water fill his
lungs. He was able to make his way toward the shore where a teammate pulled him
out of the river. "I look at it as almost a baptism of sorts," Dickey
said. "I went into the Missouri River; I was hanging on by a thread
professionally. ... And when I came out of the river, I ended up going 11-2
with a 2.80 ERA and became the Pacific Coast League pitcher of the year. I
think when I came out of the river, I was so consumed with just wanting to live
in the present well — wanting to enjoy every second — that I think that carried
over directly into my pitching, and I just cared about each pitch singularly.
... And I decided that that's how I wanted to live my life."
The Mets are not
on television very often and I have only watched him pitch once. It was a game
against the Yankees and he did not display his best stuff. But he did show me
something at least as important. After nearly hitting Alex Rodriguez in the
head with a wayward knuckleball, he took a couple of steps toward home plate
and shouted an apology.
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