The Knuckleball King

The biggest story in the world of sports yesterday was the return of the unionized officials to the world of the NFL.  And while that was big news, in my opinion, it pails in comparison to the accomplishment achieved by journeyman pitcher Robert Allen Dickey, better known as R.A.  For those of you who are not familiar with the story of R.A. Dickey, it is nothing short of amazing.  It is a story of determination, redemption, adversity, and faith. 

Dickey recounts the horrors of his childhood and his odyssey through professional baseball in his memoir Wherever I Wind Up.  If you like inspiring, faith-based stories, Dickey’s certainly qualifies.  I won’t run through all of the details that he shares in his book, hopefully you will take the time to read it, but he takes the reader on a journey through his darkest secrets, secrets that no child should have to keep, and the liberation he has felt in opening up about them.  In his memoir, Dickey discusses being sexually abused by a babysitter the summer he was 8 years old and later in that horrific summer, being sexually assaulted by a 16 year old boy who lived by his grandparents’ neighborhood.  The fact that Dickey was able to open up about these events and share them with a therapist and later write them down in a book for the entire world to read is nothing short of courageous. 

While nothing else so violating ever happened to Dickey after that summer, his tragic tale was far from over.  Upon having a successful college career at the University of Tennessee and winning a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Dickey was drafted in the first round of the MLB draft by the Texas Rangers, where he was to receive a signing bonus of just over $800,000.  But in a true Shakespearean twist, a team physical performed just before signing that contract revealed that Dickey did not have an ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm.  (For those of you who don’t know, that is the ligament that gets replaced in the Tommy John procedure and provides the stability the arm needs to control pitches thrown at a high velocity.)  When that news was received, the big bonus dropped all the way to $75,000.

Dickey spent the next ten years trying to prove his worth in the Rangers’ organization, bouncing back and forth between AAA and the big league club.  Just when it seemed his hopes for a major league career were all but over, pitching coach Orel Hershiser and manager Buck Showalter approached Dickey with the idea of learning to be a knuckleball pitcher.  Dickey was not eager to give up on being a traditional pitcher but realized that heeding the advice of these two men was his last chance to achieve his lifelong dream.  To make a long story short, and to encourage you to read the book, Dickey leaned on famous knuckleballers of the past to persevere through several more seasons before getting his big break with the New York Mets.

The Mets took a chance on Dickey at the beginning of the 2010 season at the age of 35 and he pitched well enough that year to finally get the security blanket he had always wanted: a multiyear, multimillion dollar contract.  With financial security for his family finally attained and being able to unburden his past in hopes of inspiring people to overcome their greatest adversity, Dickey is putting a wrap on one of the most unbelievable seasons any pitcher his age has ever had; and no one deserves it more than R.A. Dickey.

That brings me back to what Dickey was able to accomplish yesterday (virtually unnoticed because a group of part-time workers returned to their jobs); his 20^th win of the season.  Dickey became the first knuckleball pitcher to hit that milestone since Joe Niekro in 1979, and it put him in line to become the first knuckleballer ever to win the Cy Young award.  What made his performance even more amazing is that he was able to do it in front of the home crowd while throwing nearly 130 pitches and striking out a career high 13.  To put his season in perspective, let’s take a look at the best season marks for some of the most well known knuckleballers of all time.

PITCHER	RECORD	ERA	K	IP	WHIP	BB
R.A. Dickey	20-6(2012)	2.69	222	227.2	1.05	54
Phil Niekro	23-13('69)	1.87('68)	262('77)	342(79)	1.03(’69)	81('86)
Joe Niekro	21-11('79)	2.47('82)	152('83)	270('82)	1.07(’82)	51('69)
Tim Wakefield	17-8('98)	2.81('02)	169('03)	225.1('05)	1.05(’02)	51('02)
Charlie Hough	18-13('87)	3.18('83)	223('87)	285.1(87)	1.12(’85)	71('93)
Tom Candiotti	16-12('86)	2.65('91)	167('86,'91)	252.1('86)	1.16(’91)	53('88)
Wilbur Wood	24-17('72)	1.91('71)	210('71)	376.2('72)	1.00(’71)	62('71)
Hoyt Wilhelm*	15-11('59)	2.19	139	226	1.13	77

*Wilhelm was primarily a reliever.  The only year he was used primarily as a starting pitcher was 1959.  All of his numbers in the chart are from that year. (Numbers in parentheses denote year accomplishment took place.)

As you can see in the chart, Dickey’s career best numbers have all come this season, leaving one to ponder if he is not having the greatest season a knuckleballer has ever pitched.  One thing that must be remembered is that most of these men, Wakefield and Candiotti being the only other exceptions, pitched in a time when it was common to make 40 or more starts a season.  Wilbur Wood, with the White Sox, had a five year stretch from 1971-75 where he made 224 starts.  Dickey, by comparison, will make his 33^rd and final start of the season next week against the Marlins.  And, he currently has an 11 strikeout lead on Clayton Kershaw, a lead that if maintained will allow him to join Phil Niekro as the only knuckleballers to lead the league in strikeouts. 

Typically speaking, I am always one the pull for the underdog, unless they are playing one of my teams of course.  And you can’t get any more underdog than what R.A. Dickey has been in his career.  If ever a pitcher and a pitch were meant for each other, it is a baseball vagabond like R.A. Dickey and the Quasimodo knuckleball.  His magnificent tale of perseverance, determination, and faith is uplifting, inspirational, and both heart-wrenching and heartwarming.  Even a Braves fan like me can have the utmost respect for what he has overcome, even if he is a Met.  There is no pitcher in the National League more worthy of winning the Cy Young award than R.A. Dickey and the only thing more unbelievable than his season on the field is the story of how he got there.

P.S:  One final plug for Wherever I Wind Up.  Question: What does R.A. Dickey have in common with Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery?  Answer: The Missouri River.  To find out what that means, you have to read the book.  I could tell you but you probably wouldn’t believe me.