R.A. Dickey

In 2005 I was heartbroken.

Having married a girl from Wichita, I root for the Wichita State Shockers by default.  For those who don't know, the Shockers are, historically, one of the premier baseball programs in the country but have not had the same level of success the past decade. 

2005 was an exception, they had a solid team, led by Mike Pelfrey, who is now a regular starter in the Mets Rotation, as well a handful of other players who would be drafted sprinkled through their lineup and bullpen. 

They went down to Tennessee for their Super Regional where they ran into the Tennessee Volunteers with Luke Hochevar and his Robin, R.A. Dickey.  Dickey was known as a fireballer with the fluky ability to throw the occasional knuckleball.  He an Hochevar were both taken in the first round that year.  Some of you are aware of Hochevar's struggles to learn to pitch, rather than just throw.  ALL of you, I'm sure, are aware of R.A.'s success as the most unique knuckleballer, perhaps the most unique pitcher, that baseball has seen in many of our lifetimes.

This is a knuckleballer who can still throw a fastball in the high 80's.  I have little doubt that if he reached back, he could still crack 90 mph.  This ability to apply a huge range of speed to a knuckle, and back it up with a legit fastball, has proven itself too be amazingly effective.  To identify that R.A. is doing this when most doctors would expect that he would be unable to pitch at all due to missing ligament, is to become even more amazed by what R.A. is doing.

Then, you get to his personal life.

R.A. is a devout christian who is actively involved in providing basic supplies to poor people in Latin America. 

He risked his salary against a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

He is an avid reader, claiming his reading of Hemingway as inspiration for his climb.

And, he is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who has gone public with this news at what is likely the peak of his fame.  His hope is that people who have suffered what he suffered will see that he was able to overcome, and it will give them some strength.  That is a truly benevolent purpose for such a public disclosure.  More than his turn around to make major leagues, more than his historical accomplishment of pitching back-to-back 1-hitters, more than anything else this should be what we laud him for.  We should laud him for opening a wound that he spent decades healing, for putting himself in the spotlight to be judged by the small-minded, and challenged by the skeptical would rub salt in the wound by openly wondering if he made the story up to expand his notoriety. 

I say good for you R.A. and thank you for being a good and strong man.