• Submitted by: manso
• Sports
• 08 / 26 / 2010

---

Tuesday, August 24th 2010, 4:00 AM. PITTSBURGH - It will be a small college classroom somewhere, so distant from the cheers of a Citi Field night, and R.A. Dickey will be sitting at the corner of a desk, dissecting the works of Frost or Hemingway.

Or it will be in a village in the hills of Cuba, with no running water.

Or maybe it will still be on a pitcher's mound, deep into an unlikely career.

Dickey, by following disparate interests, has arrived at a satisfying place, but is still searching, excited about the uncertainty of where he will be in a few years. His varied pursuits are atypical for an athlete and suggest a future at least as interesting as the present.

Working toward a degree in literature while considering a teaching or writing career, organizing faith-inspired humanitarian missions to Cuba and Venezuela, and emerging as the Mets' most consistent pitcher in 2010, the 35-year-old pitcher is not content to rest on the movie-worthy biography that led him to New York.

The outline of his story is becoming well known, thanks to his 8-5 record and 2.41 earned run average heading into Monday night's start against the Marlins: After the Texas Rangers drafted Dickey in the first round in 1996 and offered him an $810,000 bonus, they discovered that his elbow was missing an ulner collateral ligament, and reduced their offer to $75,000.

Dickey struggled for several years as a conventional pitcher, until former Texas pitching coach Orel Hershiser and others in the Rangers' organization recommended in 2005 that Dickey learn to throw a knuckleball. Seeing a final hope for success, Dickey sought former knuckleballer Charlie Hough for mentoring.

Last Wednesday, Hough watched from California as Dickey threw a strong 8-1/3 innings but gave up a ninth-inning homer in a no-decision in Houston. "He's not even supposed to be able to play catch, let alone pitch in the leagues," Hough said. "So he is a special person."

It is a compelling narrative, how Dickey reignited his career, but the pitcher does not see his success as an end - rather, just one of many projects. The engagements in baseball, literature and religion do not necessarily align; a life is too complex, he says, to make easy connections between its facets.

"It would be very sloppy if I tried to weave together a way that they're all related," Dickey says. "I don't see it as some huge tapestry - it's beautiful, you hold it up. 'Aw, look at this.' It's very messy, and I'm OK with the mess. I think it's very interesting."

Dickey's Christian faith, and the outreach that results from it, is a key element. In the late 1990s, he and a friend founded Honoring the Father, which began as a platform to speak to youth groups and implement community service projects. After a few years, they began traveling to Mexico and Venezuela to deliver medical and baseball supplies, and help build homes. About five years ago, they applied for and received special religious visas allowing them to enter Cuba, where they travel about once a year.

BY Andy Martino
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Source: www.nydailynews.com/