TORONTO — Grammarians and baseball fans alike will miss R.A. Dickey when he calls it quits.
In an entertaining news conference that lasted slightly under 10 minutes Monday, the 40-year-old Blue Jays pitcher mused on the future of the knuckleball, ridiculed what he called the dumb jock syndrome and assessed assorted current and ex-teammates he was quizzed about.
Along the way, he dug into his considerable vocabulary to throw out such phrases and words as viable hypothesis, exponent of the equation, narrative, toxic and descriptor.
Dickey, slated to start Tuesday against Kansas City in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, is more than a pitcher. He is an author — having penned his autobiography and a children’s book, with more planned — and, perhaps more than anything else, curious mind.
His Twitter bio reads: "Father, Husband, Christian, Pitcher, Author, Adventurer, Star Wars Nerd, Reader, Ninja in Training & Cyclist."
In 2012, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for the Bombay Teen Challenge, an organization that helps girls and women at risk in Mumbai. He has toured Indian slums.
"I feel a conviction and a very real responsibility to use whatever celebrity or platform or whatever you want to call it to do things that might transcend the game, I do," he said in his first spring training with the Jays in 2013. "And I can’t live outside of that. Or I wouldn’t be me. Because I feel like that’s the responsibility that God’s laid on the heart."
The Nashville native is easy to spot, channelling the look of a Civil War veteran with his neatly trimmed beard and floppy hair combed back. He wears his baseball socks high like an old-timer and often sports a bandana in training, moving with an elegant gait.
On the baseball front, he has experienced the highs and lows of the game.
In 2006, as a fledgling Texas Rangers knuckleballer he tied the post-1900 major-league record in giving up six home runs in a game with the Detroit Tigers. Six years later, he won the Cy Young Award as a Met.
This season, he is making US$12 million to throw a pitch that works best when he doesn’t know where it’s going other than the strike zone.
On Tuesday, Dickey faces Royals’ right-hander Chris Young in a rare post-season outing for the knuckleball. Asked whether showing it off on a bigger stage might up the pitch’s popularity, Dickey said it was a viable hypothesis.
"I think that the more people that see it and are exposed to it, maybe more people become interested in it.," he said.
"There’s a guy in Boston named Steven Wright who is a pretty good knuckleball guy. And he will be the guy that probably takes the baton from me when I leave, much like I took it from Tim (Wakefield) when he left. But they’re dwindling. The numbers are dwindling.
"There’s not a lot of guys left in the minor leagues that are pursuing it or working on it. I know there’s a couple with the Baltimore Orioles organization. But you never know. It’s kind of like that old pair of socks that you can’t ever get rid of. There seems to always be one. So hopefully that trend will continue."
Toronto manager John Gibbons says knuckleballers "keep turning up."
"I don’t think you’ll see Dads teaching their kids a young age to throw it," he said with a smile. "A lot of times, it’s a last resort kind-of-pitch thing. Guys see what success he’s had doing it, I’m sure guys will play with it a little bit."
Not seeing the knuckleball very often makes it a difficult pitch to hit. There’s no real strategy attacking it.
"You just really don’t know what it’s going to do from pitch to pitch." said Royals manager Ned Yost. "You try to see it and hit it."
Toronto catcher Russell Martin had to pause, trying to choose the right words, when asked in spring training this year about what his first attempt at catching the Dickey knuckleball was like.
"Have you ever tried to catch a butterfly as it’s floating around in the air?" he asked by way of response.
"I wish I could put a camera on my mask or something for people to see exactly what the ball’s doing," he added. "It’s pretty impressive."
