R.A. Dickey
From BR Bullpen
Robert Allen Dickey
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 3", Weight 205 lb.
- School Trevecca Nazarene University, University of Tennessee
- High School Montgomery Bell Academy
- Debut April 22, 2001
- Born October 29, 1974 in Nashville, TN USA
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[edit] Biographical Information
R.A. Dickey was a star pitcher at the University of Tennessee and won a bronze medal for the United States at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He was 1-0 with a 2.51 ERA as Team USA's ace in the 1994 Baseball World Cup but walked 8 in 14 1/3 IP.
After they drafted Dickey in the first round of the 1996 amateur draft, the Texas Rangers' medical staff discovered that he was missing a crucial tendon in his throwing elbow, and that it was unexplainable that he could pitch at any level with such a condition. They offered him only a nominal contract, fully expecting that he would break down in short order. However, his arm held up and he managed to reach the major leagues in 2001. He was a regular member of the team's pitching staff in 2003 and 2004 as a swingman, although he never managed to post an ERA under 5.00. He began to experiment with throwing a knuckleball after that. He made the Rangers' staff at the beginning of 2006 but in his sole appearance on the mound on April 6th, he gave up 6 home runs, one less than Charlie Sweeney's all-time record, to earn a ticket back to AAA.
Dickey made the 2007 Pacific Coast League All-Star team as the top right-handed starting pitcher. He went 13-6, 3.72, in 31 games for the Nashville Sounds during the season and was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 2007 Rule V Draft. He returned to the major leagues on April 14th, pitching a game in relief for the Mariners that day before making a losing start in place of Erik Bedard against the Los Angeles Angels on April 18th. He was sent back to the Tacoma Rainiers on April 22nd when J.J. Putz came off the disabled list.
Dickey became the 5th major league pitcher to throw four wild pitches in one inning, when he did so on August 17, 2008; two of the pitches scored runners in a 11-8 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Kenji Johjima also had a passed ball on one of Dickey's knuckleballs.
In 2010, Dickey emerged as a quality pitcher in his first season with the New York Mets. He went 11-9 with a 2.84 ERA in 174.1 innings. He set career highs in starts, innings, wins, and strikeouts, and his ERA was more than a run and a half lower than in any other season. He had another good year in 2011, pitching over 200 innings for the first time, with a 3.28 ERA, but lack of support meant he finished the year with only an 8-13 win/loss record.
After the 2011 season, he went on a charity climb of Mount Kilimandjaro in Tanzania with former teammate Kevin Slowey and two friends. The trek was to raise money for the Bombay Teen Challenge's Red Light District Outreach Mumbai Program, which aims to rescue young Indian women from human trafficking. He said he was motivated to work for the cause because he is the father of two young daughters. The Mets were not overly enamored of the idea, though, and they sent him a letter warning him that if he sustained an injury on the trip, it could be enough to void his contract, but Dickey decided to go ahead anyway. It was not his first foray into charity work. As a long-time friend of Jonathan Johnson, a former pitcher who became a minister after retiring from baseball, he began taking part in charitable missions with his friend most off-seasons while still in college. He began by making visits to children's hospitals, then travelled to Cuba on missions that combined religious and sports outreach, and worked on church construction projects throughout Latin America.
His eclectic interests off the field are not limited to charity work. When his career appeared to be floundering before the 2010 season, he went back to school at Trevecca Nazarene University (he had never completed his original degree at Tennessee) and found a passion for literature after attending classes on existentialism and modern American literature. He began to write short stories, as well as an autobiography entitled: Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, scheduled for publication on March 29, 2012. In the book, excerpts of which were published in Sports Illustrated to coincide with Opening Day, he reveals that he was sexually abused as a child, and that he was confronted with widespread use of steroids when he first joined the Rangers in 2001. He is also one of the main subjects of a documentary produced by film-makers Rikki Stern and Annie Sundberg on knuckleballers, scheduled for release around the same time.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- 200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 1 (2011)
[edit] Further Reading
- R.A. Dickey and Wayne Coffey: I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, Blue Rider Press, Penguin Books USA, New York, NY, 2012.
