SEATTLE — As much relief as sweat washed over R.A. Dickey’s tanned, bearded face Monday night. He’d done it. He’d finally arrived.
Dickey had just finished his first major league appearance in two years, since a disastrous outing with the Texas Rangers sent him to the minor leagues and threatened to leave him there.
Dickey, who will make his first start of the season Friday against the Los Angeles Angels, pitched the ninth inning for the Seattle Mariners in their 5-1 loss to Kansas City. He induced David DeJesus to pop out to second, got Mike Grudzielanek to ground out to second and struck out Mark Teahen.
“It’s been a long journey and at times real painful,” said Dickey, 33, called up just that day from Class AAA Tacoma.
Dickey’s primary pitch and key to his career’s revival is a knuckleball, that floating, darting object of fury that’s as difficult to hit as it is to control. As a Texas Ranger, Dickey turned to the pitch 21/2 years ago when he began losing velocity on his fastball. It was a suggestion by then-Rangers pitching coach Orel Hershiser, who turned Dickey on to knuckleball specialist Charlie Hough.
Hough not only became Dickey’s mentor, but also the savior of his professional life.
“Charlie told me, ‘It took me one day to learn to throw a good knuckleball and a lifetime to learn to throw it for strikes,’” Dickey said in his soothing Southern lilt that reveals his Nashville, Tenn., roots. “He also told me that if I have a bad knuckleball inning, my other stuff is good enough to get guys out.”
Dickey still can throw a fastball that can reach 88 mph. He also has a changeup and an overhand curve. After much sweat and anxiety, he has developed a knuckler unique in its pace. Dickey throws it significantly harder than most, from 69 to 82 mph.
Dickey had kicked around the majors and minors for 11 professional seasons after being a first-round draft choice of the Atlanta Braves in 1996. Going into this season, he had 77 major league appearances and at least one big-league record on his resume.
On April 6, 2006, Dickey tied knuckleballer Tim Wakefield’s modern-day mark by giving up six home runs to the Detroit Tigers in 32/3 innings. He admits now that he was just learning the pitch and wasn’t ready to unleash it on hitters on a full-time basis.
“I was throwing it 62 mph and was scared for my life,” he said. “After the fourth homer, I could have gone back to my conventional style of pitching to not embarrass myself anymore. But I didn’t. It’s a cliche, but I persevered.”
Dickey continued to work on the pitch under Hough’s guidance. In the minors the past two seasons, he was 22-14.
Pitching for Nashville in the Minnesota Twins organization, Dickey was named the 2007 Pacific Coast League pitcher of the year with a record of 13-6 with a 3.72 ERA. He was 10-2 with a 2.52 ERA after June 1. But the Twins failed to protect him and the Mariners picked him up in the Rule 5 draft.
Dickey was the M’s final pitching cut in spring training. He was sent to Tacoma, where he was 1-1 with a 2.40 ERA.
The M’s called him up Monday to replace the struggling Eric O’Flaherty, optioned to Class AA West Tennessee.
“It was emotional when I got here (Monday)” Dickey said. “It’s been a real battle from ‘06 to now. I’m 33 years old. I’ve got a wife and three kids. It’s been a real process and there have been a lot of sacrifices that have been made on my family’s part and my part.”
Dickey’s knuckleball is faster and may break twice before it gets to the plate. Wakefield may throw his between 64 and 68 mph and it may break four times.
Dickey sticks the tips of his index and middle fingers near a seam on the ball. It has little forward rotation when thrown well. Dickey hopes for a slight breeze blowing toward him. Ideally, the air has a little humidity and moisture, which makes Seattle a good place to throw it.
Because the knuckleball takes minimum wear and tear on the arm, Dickey can pitch nearly every day. M’s manager John McLaren said he plans to use him in virtually every situation.
That’s fine with Dickey, who’s happy to be anywhere. He has spent two long years developing his ticket to the majors. Finally, his dream has come through.
“It’s hope, the quintessential human emotion,” Dickey said when asked what keeps him going. “Hope in a different future. Hope in doing something that’s hard to do and doing it well. Hope in being able to do it differently, living in the moment with it and trying to discover what that’s all about.”
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. To reach Sleeper’s blog, “Dangling Participles,” go to www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.
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