R.A. Dickey: 5 Phrases "R.A." Really Stands for

Show of hands: When the New York Mets signed journeyman knuckleballer R.A. Dickey on January 5th, 2010, how many people anticipated he would contend for the National League Cy Young three seasons later?

If you are raising your hand you are either a habitual liar, a la John Maine, or you should really be putting your psychic skills to better use.

Regardless, the Mets have caught lightning in a bottle with a man that, as Jon Heyman pointed out in a tweet, won either one or zero games in six of his first 10 years after making the majors.

Given his candid personality, cerebral approach, workman demeanor and willingness to play under-payed, how could Mets fans not adore the guy?

Although his birth name is Robert Allen, here are the top five phrases R.A. should actually stand for. 

No. 5: Regularly Astute

Dickey graduated from the University of Tennessee where he studied English Literature and maintained a 3.35 GPA.

The fact that his ERA is much lower is even more impressive.

In terms of his intelligence, Dickey admits to enjoying reading. He claims he would have pursued a career as an English professor had he not been a professional baseball player.

In the offseason, he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in order to raise the awareness of human trafficking in India. The Mets were extremely reluctant to allow him to endanger his life while doing so.

How many players would risk their careers to climb a mountain?

Dickey claims his inspiration was Ernest Hemingway's novel entitled The Snows of Kilimanjaro. 

The man is not the run-of-the-mill athlete, and for his intelligence and generosity he should be commended.

No. 4: Remarkably Astounding

If a baseball player is discovered to have been born without the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) in his pitching elbow, that is 99 percent likely to be a career-ending diagnosis. 

The UCL is what must be repaired during the dreaded Tommy John procedure. 

The mere fact that Dickey is able to throw a baseball when doctors discouraged him from ever playing the game again is nothing short of remarkable.

The upside is that Dickey will never require Tommy John Surgery since he will never experience pain in that ligament.

Medically speaking, Dickey is a phenomenon. 

No. 3: Rarely Animated

Dickey is an old-school player in the sense that he generally behaves as if he has experienced success on the baseball field before, as opposed to, say, Joba Chamberlain, who occasionally behaves like a buffoon. 

When R.A. strikes out a batter, there is not usually a huge celebration that goes on, and after the final out of a complete game, he simply meets the catcher halfway and shakes hands with his battery mate.

Obviously, the picture above depicts the contrary to these sentiments, but he is a human and there are times when his excitement is overtly displayed.

Basically, when he shows emotion, it is when every Mets fan should as well.

No. 2: Renaissance Artist

The one caveat to becoming a knuckleball specialist is that there will be days when the conditions during the game make it nearly impossible to command the pitch.

During Dickey's one loss this season in Atlanta, he admitted during the postgame press conference that it felt like he was "throwing water balloons."

Aside from that game, Dickey has been incredibly consistent.

His ability to vary the speed and movements of his specialty pitch is nothing short of outstanding. He has the skill to throw one pitch and yet still provide the hitter with zero indication of where the ball will end up.

His 19 walks in 90 innings is extremely rare for a knuckleballer and proves he is essentially an artist on the mound, while traditional power pitchers more closely resemble snipers. 

No. 1: Refreshingly Articulate

How many times do we hear postgame interviews where players are so agitated to be answering such questions that they simply respond with the same recycled phrases over and over?

Basically 99 percent of the time.

Aside from rants given by Metta World Peace, Mike Tyson and Shaquille O'Neal, Dickey may be the most entertaining player to interview due to his intelligence, patience and well-thought-out responses.

In the above video, which was after his one-hit shutout while pitching for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, Dickey describes his level of interest in improving his knuckleball as "passionate."

Always an enjoyable interview.