RA Dickey, “Where I Wind Up” RA Dickey with Wayne Coffey

July 15, 2015

I know the book has been out for two years, and RA Dickey has since left the New York Mets, but I finally got around to reading it. As a baseball fan, most books about baseball are short on content, but surprisingly this book kept it going throughout. You will appreciate the look inside Major league clubhouses, the art of pitching, and mainly the trials and tribulations of a journeyed major league baseball player.

Unless you are a baseball geek, you probably don't know Dickey's story. Like any good biography, we get to see his rise to glory and all of the crashes and burns along the way. His story is unique because he is a ballplayer that had to endure more than most to get to the big leagues. A big-league player that doesn't ink his first big multi-million-dollar contract until well into his late thirties is about as rare of a baseball story as you can get. Sometimes the story is heartbreaking to read, and you have to put the book down for a while.

RA Dickey's story doesn't begin with how he became this professional baseball pitcher but probes into his psyche and mental makeup. Some kids are born into poverty and have to overcome disadvantages, but Dickey had hardships from his family situation. He was such a good ballplayer as a young man that he wrote his own ticket to the big leagues.

Like many promising athletes, Dickey endured injuries that constantly reminded him how easy it is to fall from grace. Somehow Dickey hung in there, and at his darkest moment, he found his saving grace in his wife and religious faith. During his long path to redemption and his career was nearing the end, he was introduced to a new pitch, the knuckleball.

Dickey was pessimistic about throwing this pitch but realized that this would be his only chance to get back into the big time. It took a couple of years of relentless tinkering and tutoring from others who had mastered the pitch before he achieved any success. Baseball fans will love this section of the book that tells how he began to grasp the technique of this obscure pitch.

Dickey does make it back to the bigs as a reinvented pitcher. It was a little rough at first, but he began to find his stride and success with the New York Mets. Dickey does achieve the pinnacle of pitching by winning the Cy Young Award in 2012.

The book is aptly named “Where Ever I Wind up" because Dickey has played for many organizations in towns all over the United States. His wife and children were subjected to a lot of this movement, which is as much a testament to them as it is to him. This story is written honestly with very personal insights, and of course, this book has a happy baseball ending.