Dickey to the Rescue as Mets White Knuckle it

A close friend of mine, after reading one of my columns, noted that the tenor of the piece was highly critical. He believed that I should emphasize the positives on the Mets. I politely informed him of the mind-set of the typical Met fanatic, which is definitely of the glass half-empty variety. Of course, my friend lives in Seattle, where patrons of the Mariners likely politely applaud great plays by the opposing team.

We are certainly a critical bunch. But my friend was right in some respects. Journalists who follow the Mets typically don’t take note that, despite being offensively challenged, Jason Bay made two gutsy, marvelous catches last week on the first catch, doing an impersonation of Lenny Dykstra when his head rammed into a steel buttress, and on the second, diving into the stand a la Derek Jeter. We don’t take notice very often of Johan Santana’s quiet professionalism; we perennially criticize David Wright, despite the fact that he is amongst the Major League leaders in the power categories.

But my favorite story of the year is the saga of R.H. Dickey. After the Yankees picked up Javier Vazquez to much fanfare, the Mets countered by signing Dickey. The cynical Mets fans continued to whisper to each other that the Wilpon’s were broke, and all they could afford to sign was a mediocre 35 year old career nomad, who had been tried and discarded by four major league franchises. His major claim to baseball immortality up to that point was that had tied the record for most wild pitches in an inning (4). The New York Daily News sardonic headline read “Mets Make Move, Too!" Not that the press and fans could be blamed for their contemptuous attitude. Dickey’s life-time record was 22-38, with a lifetime E.R.A. well above 5.00. In fact, prior to 2010, Dickey never had a year where his E.R.A. was under 5.00. Needless to say, he was hardly noticed on the Mets radar. After Spring Training, he was assigned to play with the Buffalo Bisons. On April 29 th, he gave up a single to the first batter, and then proceeded to retire the next twenty-seven batters in a row. He was soon brought up by the Mets, whose projected starting rotation was bereft of the redoubtable Ollie Perez and the injury riddled John Maine. Since being called up to the Bigs, Dickey has pitched 84.2 innings to the tune of a 6-4 record, with ten quality starts, an ERA 2.55 and a WHIP of 1.20. He has had only one bad outing, against the Marlins in Puerto Rico. Dickey became the first hurler in Mets history to win his first 6 consecutive games. He actually has been even better then that recently; despite going 0-3, he has an E.R.A. of 1.89 in his last five starts.

Dickey was originally drafted in the first round (18 th overall pick) by the Texas Rangers in 1996. He was one of the more highly touted pitching prospects at that time. He was selected to the U.S. Olympic team that year, and helped lead the squad to the Bronze Medal. Dickey was offered a signing bonus of over $800,000. However, before R.H. had a chance to sign on the dotted line, the team physician noticed the photo on the cover of Baseball America’s Olympic Preview. Dickey’s arm appeared to be hanging in an unevenly. Medical testing found a most peculiar thing – Dickey was missing his ulna collateral ligament – not just part of it, all of it. It should have been painful for him to turn a doorknob without a great deal of pain; how he has managed to pitch remains a mystery to this day.

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“For him to be able to throw at all is pretty phenomenal in itself,” said Rick Griffin, the Mariners’ head athletic trainer. “But he’s doing it in the major leagues. People in sports amaze you physically, but this is something you’d never suspect. It’s like a running back in the N.F.L. having no anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. It’s amazing.” - Rich Griffin, Seattle Mariners head athletic trainer.

At any rate, Dickey saw his bonus offer reduced to $75,000; as he once stated, it was like winning the millionaire lottery, and then losing the ticket.

After several seasons in the Majors, it became clear that Dickey’s repertoire of pitches was nothing special. His fastball was in the mid-eighties, due to ongoing back problems. His curve was average at best; he also threw an odd forkball, which he called “The Thing”. In actuality, the forkball was a hard knuckleball, but Dickey at that time did not wish to acknowledge that he was desperate. Dickey, who was an Academic All-American at Tennessee with a 3.35 GPA in English literature, knew that he had to re-invent himself. It took him five years and four changes of major league organizations for him to be able to develop the necessary command of the pitch. It was frustrating, to say the least, and at a number of points along the road, he was plagued with self-doubt:“Every day I had to decide whether I was going to be bitter, if I was going to be that guy — woe is me, you know?” Dickey said. “I had to choose every day to be the other guy.” – Dickey has Mets Fans Hearts Aflutter, David Golbiewski, 7/22/1o

Along the way, He received help from Charlie Hough, a former Knuckleballer in the Majors, who worked on changing his grip. He also assiduously studied the careers of former knuckleballers, such as Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Niekro, the only two pitchers who depended almost exclusively on the knuckler and are in the Hall of Fame.

Although there is not a large sample group of knuckleball pitchers for points of comparison, Dickey’s knuckler is unusual in several respects. He has a high ground ball/fly out ratio, an above-average strike-out rate. He varies the speed of the pitch, from 63 to 83 MPH, with most of his pitches in the 70-79 MPH range, which again, is faster then the average for those who dare to throw this unusual pitch. The majority of knuckleball pitchers, including Tim Wakefield, throw the pitch in the mid-60 range.

The question remains: can R.H. continue his success? The majority of baseball wags have been predicting that Dickey’s star is bound to fall to earth in the near future. But what they seem to forget is that the majority of Knuckleball pitchers achieve the majority of their wins after the ager of 32. It is a very difficult pitch to achieve mastery over a pitch that no one knows for sure just where it will break over the plate. It is very possible that the Mets have indeed found a gem in the rough. Even baseball fans who are not aficionados of the Amazin’s cannot fail to wish this man the best of luck; a man embarked on a second baseball career; a man who medically should have no business pitching at all.

By Paul J. Nebenfuhr
MLBCenter.com New York Mets Correspondent

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