Let’s get this out of the way right off the top: yes, it is a slow news day. In fact it’s been a slow news week, what with baseball on hiatus and free agency in the NBA and NHL grinding to a halt.
So before things pick up again, we decided to have a little fun with a trend we’ve noticed involving everybody’s favourite knuckleballer.
If you follow the Blue Jays, there’s a good chance you’ve come across a photo of R.A. Dickey that looks something like this:
He’s not the only one to make funny faces while being captured at the apex of physical exertion — it’s pretty standard in sports. But he sure is consistent.
With Dickey set to take the mound Friday against the Texas Rangers, here’s a tongue-in-cheek gallery of the knuckleballer in various moments of sports and cinematic history.
Here’s R.A. Dickey starring in Academy Award winning film Braveheart.
And here he is getting his war on again in 300.
And taking a spin on his magic carpet.
Did you know R.A. once knocked out Sonny Liston? True story.
He also scored the game-winning penalty kick in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final.
Remember when Mark Messier went hysterical after being handed the Cup in 1994? Me neither.
Dickey was slated to star in John Carpenter’s unreleased film about a baseball player who uses a magical pitch to save his crumbling team and break the cycle of misery in dystopian Toronto.
Watch your back Wes Mantooth, R.A. Dickey is in the mix.
Dickey stands in for Daniel Stern during the filming of Home Alone.
An adjective Blue Jays fans hope applies to Dickey down the stretch.
“Say hello to my little friend,” Dickey said before striking out the side and blowing out his finger guns.
As a noted Star Wars fan, Dickey should appreciate this last one.
