R.eally A.mazing Dickey

Added by Eddie Utley on June 19, 2012.

Mets knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey, is now 11-1 on the season after pitching his second consecutive one-hitter.

Baseball writers, announcers, analysts, and everyone around the game are going to run out of superlatives to describe R.A. Dickey’s season to this point. The Mets’ starting pitcher threw another one-hitter against the hot Baltimore Orioles. This was what the Mets needed from a pitcher, since they aren’t hitting right now. It was Dickey’s second straight one-hitter.

Dickey’s next start is against the Yankees, so I don’t expect another one-hitter, but, you never know, crazier things have happened.

When drafted 16 years ago, Dickey was going to get a $750,000 bonus and that was reduced to $75,000 when it was found that he had no UCL. It’s rare, but it does happen, as Dickey explained in his recently released book. He was bounced around the league for a while, was a rule 5 pick, and had no one truly believing in him until he got back to the Texas Rangers. It wasn’t until 2006 when he started using the knuckleball after middling success that things really starter to come together for him.

Buck Showalter and Orel Hershiser are partially responsible for Dickey learning and staying with the knuckleball. However, Dickey didn’t stop there. He talked to former knuckleballers and even worked on the pitch in his own way. He admits he used to try to be like Tim Wakefield, but he needed to be his own man.

Now he has amazing control of an uncontrollable pitch.

Last year, Dickey was a hard luck loser. This year, the Mets are actually scoring runs for him. At 11-1, he should be the starting pitcher in the All-Star Game in early July and hopefully looking at a potential 20-win season. He could even be in talk about a Cy Young award if he doesn’t drop off the face of the earth like a lot of guys do after a hot start.