I think it might be time to learn how to throw a knuckle-ball. After watching R.A. Dickey carve up yet another major league baseball team at the ripe age of 37, I'm beginning to think my career as a pitcher might not be over. At my age (34) R.A. Dickey was barely hanging on to his career after being jettisoned to the mid west to pitch with the Minnesota Twins. Prior to this he had spent parts of six seasons with the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners. His best ERA during his career to this point was 5.09 in his first full season in Texas. For those not into baseball stats 5.09 is not good, it's not even average. Anything under 3.00 is All-Star worthy, 3.01-4.00 is good and 4.00+ is slightly below average. If you're up over 5.00 you're not going to last.
He realized his career was coming to an end so he worked on a perfecting a knuckle-ball. His last season with the Rangers saw him try, and fail to throw that pitch. He persevered as he continued to struggle through his two seasons in Seattle and Minnesota and when he was signed by the New York Mets at the age of 35 he had to figure this was his last chance. Starting in the Minor Leagues, R.A. Dickey finally found some success and was called up to the big leagues in early May.
That season was the best of his career to date and it amazed all of the baseball pundits to see him transform himself into a quality starter after failing for so many years. He won 11 games that season which was a career high and sported a 2.84 ERA in 26 games. It was a great story, but when his stats slipped a little (8 Wins, 13 losses, 3.28 ERA) in the 2011 season it appeared the great 2010 season was nothing more than a outlier. At 37 he wasn't going to be getting better, that doesn't happen (unless you're Roger Clemens and misremembering sticking yourself in the ass with a needle) at his age.
Lo and behold, father time has been pushed aside in 2012. R.A. Dickey is doing things that are unfathomable to even the most knowledgeable baseball fanatics. With his win last night against the Baltimore Orioles he has already matched his career high of 11 wins(11-1). He has started only 14 games! He is on a 42 inning streak without giving up an earned run. That was six starts ago on May 22nd when he gave up a lone run to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yesterday he became the first pitcher since 1988 to throw back to back complete game 1 hit shutouts. I could keep going folks. In those two games he has struck out 25 batters with 12 last start which was a career high and 13 yesterday for a new career high. He keeps getting better.
In 99 innings this season he has given up 22 earned runs and 8 of those were in one start. That means in the 95 other innings he has pitched in 2012 he has allowed only 14 earned runs (1.33 ERA). He's not just pitching well, he is dominating in ways no pitcher has done since Pedro Martinez in his prime. The kicker is he is barely hitting the mid-80's with his hardest pitch. Right handed starting pitchers are supposed to throw in the low to mid-90's to be successful. Only crafty lefties like myself should be successful throwing the ball just hard enough to break a pane of glass. His ball flutters and moves like it's being controlled by remote. It's as if he's playing the easy level on the XBOX against the best ball players in the World. He's going to start the All-Star game and that is fantastic. I suggest you pay attention to what he is accomplishing because it is something that might not be seen for another generation.
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The ugliest chapter since the 1919 Black Sox scandal ended yesterday when Roger Clemens was found not guilty of obstructing justice and lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs. Countless hours and American tax dollars have been spent on cleaning up Major League Baseball and bringing to light those parties who were using the PED's in the decade starting in the mid 90's. In the long run this process will be good for the game, but what us fans have witnessed from Congress has been nothing short of a debacle.
With Andy Pettitte announcing that he might have 'misrembered' about whether Clemens injected himself, the prosecution was left without their star witness and the case fell apart. I'm glad that we've cleaned up baseball for the most part, even though I'm sure HGH usage is rampant. I'll never forget the summer of 1998 when we were all caught up in the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. I was a huge fan of McGwire and watched every at bat with bated breath. Looking back it was good for baseball at the time, but the bad things that were going on in the seedy underbelly of the locker rooms was poisoning the game I love.
The record books for Major League Baseball are the most revered and when those started falling, it became a problem. The number 61 was known by every fan and it looked as though it would stand forever. For 37 years nobody had threatened the mark, but between 1998 and 2001 it was surpassed six times by three different players. Barry Bonds joined Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as the poster boys for what was wrong with the game just years after they were lauded with helping make the game the most popular it had been in a generation. More names were leaked and soon everyone who played during that period was assumed to have cheated. Pitchers didn't escape the wrath of the fans, they were doping just as much. To stay strong throughout the year and as you get older is just not humanly possible. There should be a natural tapering off of an athletes skill set as he or she gets older. This wasn't happening, especially with Roger Clemens.
At 33 years of age Roger Clemens had just finished back to back sub par years with the Boston Red Sox. He signed as a free agent in Toronto and whatever was in the Canadian water proved to be right elixir for Clemens. At ages 34 and 35 he won back to back Cy Young awards for the best pitcher in the American League going a combined 41-13. It was his best seasons in almost a decade. He was traded to the New York Yankees where he pitched five more years including posting a 20-3 record at age 38. He wasn't done. Signing with the Houston Astros in 2004 at 41 years of age he again won the Cy Young award this time for the National League with an amazing 18-4 record and a svelte 2.98 ERA. At 42 he led the National League in ERA at 1.87....1.87!!!! He was 42 years old and dominating. Unlike R.A Dickey in the above story he was doing it with power, not finesse. Its obvious to everyone who wasn't on the jury yesterday that Clemens was being enhanced by something. Too bad it couldn't be proved in a court of law. I truly hope the baseball writers of America 'misremember' to vote for him when he is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2013.
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