Most Mets stories don’t have a happy ending.
David Wright, former team captain and the finest position player the organization ever produced, was forced to retire at the age of 35 because of a debilitating back condition.
Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, a pair of homegrown stars with Hall of Fame potential, battled personal demons that upended their careers and personal lives.
Even Tom Seaver, the man known as “The Franchise,” saw his initial Mets tenure end in turmoil when he was unceremoniously traded to Cincinnati in the infamous “Midnight Massacre.”
Injuries, addiction, contract disputes, and various spells of misfortune have routinely prevented great players from leaving the Mets at the height of their powers. Of the few players who bucked this trend, none were more captivating than knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.
An Unexpected Journey
Dickey was always destined to be a Met. He was, after all, an underdog at nearly every stage of his baseball journey. As an aspiring professional, he lost out on a lucrative signing bonus when a Rangers team physician noticed the unusual way his arm hung in a Baseball America cover photo; further evaluation showed that Dickey was born without an ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Dickey should not have been able to turn a doorknob without feeling pain, and yet he continued to pursue his goal of throwing baseballs for a living.
Dickey made it to the big leagues in spite of the missing UCL, but his stuff impressed no one and the results weren’t much better – the righty posted a ghastly 5.72 ERA in 266 career innings for Texas. It was only at the suggestion of Rangers pitching coach Orel Hershiser that Dickey adopted the knuckleball as his primary pitch…and began to dramatically alter the trajectory of his career.
Dickey enjoyed the ideal Mets tenure: he rose from nowhere to become everyone’s favorite Cinderella story, improved as he went along, and finished his time in Queens as the best pitcher in baseball. When the Mets signed Dickey to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training in 2010, it was a standard depth signing that was largely ignored. At that point, Dickey was a failed major leaguer whose future hinged on harnessing baseball’s most unpredictable pitch. But then Dickey threw a one-hitter in the minor leagues and received a promotion to the big club in May of the 2010 season. He became a rotation anchor for the Mets and, behind Johan Santana, their most dependable pitcher.
Dickey’s Dominance
Dickey’s reemergence in 2010 was a mere taste of the genius to come. Two years after his Mets debut, Dickey went from good to transcendent. Through tireless work and dogged determination, a 37-year-old pitcher who had been written off as a joke mastered a pitch that had previously been thought untamable. In contrast to his knuckleballing predecessors, Dickey threw the pitch with force and expert precision rather than simply floating it to the plate. With every start, Dickey demonstrated how the knuckleball can be more than just a gimmick, but the weapon of a true power pitcher.
Dickey’s 2012 campaign was baseball magic in the purest sense. He won 20 games, threw back-to-back one hitters, and became the first knuckleballer ever to win the Cy Young Award. Along the way, Dickey earned the adoration of Mets fans with his earnest intellectualism and thoughtful approach to his craft. He even appealed to bookworms by naming his bats for literary swords, like “Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver” from The Hobbit. His bestselling autobiography, Wherever I Wind Up, shed light on his personal struggles and brought further attention to his remarkable baseball odyssey.
Searle’s Final Say
But of course, no feel-good story would be complete without a satisfying ending. To this day, Dickey has few detractors among Mets fans because he went out on a high note. His 2012 season was his last as a Met, and while it was tough to say goodbye, his departure set the franchise up for future success. By dealing Dickey to Toronto at the height of his value, Sandy Alderson snagged two cornerstones in Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud.
So while Dickey’s Mets career was short lived, it was about as perfect as one could hope. Dickey was a beloved figure in his three seasons in Flushing, and he never overstayed his welcome. Mets fans never watched his skills deteriorate, nor did they lament that he was still in his prime when he left. He didn’t go on to throw a no-hitter for another franchise like Seaver and Gooden, and he never came close to reaching the heights of his Mets heyday following the trade. The Mets got the absolute best of R.A. Dickey, and unlike other fan favorites, he rode off into the sunset with nary a controversy or lingering questions of what might have been.
