• Dickey was raised in Nashville. And he describes a childhood fit for a country music song. His parents married young and divorced young. His mother developed an addiction to alcohol. Money was tight enough that Dickey's family used silverware pilfered from the local Western Sizzlin and pinballed from address to address.

  In the summer of 1983, when Dickey was eight, he was sexually abused on multiple occasions by a female babysitter and, separately, by a male teenager in a nearby town where Dickey was visiting family.

  "There is no helping me or my shame," Dickey writes in his book, Wherever I Wind Up of his emotional state at the time. "It feels as though it is choking me to death." He banished the memory to some deep recess of his mind, leaving it unaddressed for more than two decades.

  Salvation came from maneuvering both words and baseballs. At 13, Dickey was fortunate enough to get a full scholarship to a prominent all-boys private school in Nashville, where teachers nurtured his writing and artistic talent and introduced him to literature. When he wasn't winning a regionwide poetry contest, he was a hard-throwing pitcher good enough to land a scholarship at Tennessee.

  He was both an All-American and an Academic All-American as an English lit major in college.

• Dickey writes in his book, Wherever I Wind Up, that he was victimized by two separate perpetrators during the summer he was 8 years old—by a 13-year-old female babysitter and a 17-year-old male.

  "I started writing the book in 2005, and it was too painful then to write," Dickey said. "So I set it down a couple of years until I felt like I had the equipment to be able to hold it well and talk about it, in an effort not only for my own catharsis, but as a possibility to help other people. Sure, it's been difficult. But I feel like I'm OK with it."

• In 1993, the Tigers chose Dickey in the 10th round, but he didn't sign.

• In 1994, R.A. was Baseball America's Freshman of the Year.

• He is a perfectionist. He is never satisfied and has a great work ethic.

• He was an English major at the University of Tennessee.

• Dickey says he enjoys bluegrass music, especially Allison Krauss.

• Dickey was a member of the 1996 US Olympic Baseball team that won a bronze medal in Atlanta. Dickey started two games, recording wins in both.

• R.A. is as cerebral as they come in professional sports.

  FUNKY LIGAMENT

• In 1996, after being drafted, Dickey had agreed to a bonus of $810,000 from the Texas Rangers. But during the team's physical exam, tests showed he has no ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, so the joint has no stability. Dr. James Andrews said that R.A. may have been born without one, or he could have torn the ligament and it never regenerated. Andrews and Dr. Frank Jobe had never heard of such a case. And so the Rangers signed him for just $75,000.

  "The Rangers have put a dollar figure on R.A.'s elbow ligament," said Mark Rodgers, Dickey's attorney. "They can't put a dollar figure on R.A.'s heart and soul."

  That bizarre twist came after Rangers trainer Danny Wheat looked at the cover of Baseball America's July 22, 1996 issue, which featured Dickey and four other members of the U.S. Olympic team's starting rotation. Dr John Conway, Texas' orthopedic consultant, was bothered by the look of Dickey's right elbow in the picture. His arm did not hang naturally like the others. Conway's concerns raised Rangers' worries.

  R.A. was very durable at the Tennessee, working as a starter and reliever, setting school records for appearances and even threw 160 pitches in an NCAA regional game. "All this stuff was news to me," Dickey said. "I've never been to the doctor. I've never had an injury. I've never missed a start. The Rangers drafted me on my ability and that's still there. You could say I lost $810,000, but I never really had that. What you can say is I got $75,000 and a chance to pitch."

  Texas GM Doug Melvin was struck by the tears that welled in Dickey's eyes as he talked about not lost money but possibly losing his chance at a dream.

• Dickey says, "A lot of doctors think the lack of the ligament causes laxity in the elbow, but in college I threw about 200 innings a year, and I was also the quarterback on my high school football team. After the diagnosis, I had a lot of doctors around the nation wanting to do case studies about how I performed without it. I said 'forget it.'

  "I shouldn't be able to shake someone's hand," Dickey said. "I shouldn't be able to do a lot of little everyday things. Throw a Frisbee. Play golf. Hold my baby. There are a lot of different things that, medically, people can't explain about this condition." There is no logical explanation, except that he has been blessed by God, for how R.A. can play baseball, let alone throw 93 mph fastball. He does not have, and probably never has had, an ulnar collateral ligament on the inside of his right elbow.

  "Doctors said I shouldn't be able to turn a doorknob or start a car without feeling some pain, much less throw a fastball or curveball," said Dickey.

  R.A. says, "If I can be an inspiration to anyone with any kind of infirmity or ailment, that would be so great and would take a lot of the sting out of what happened to me. In my humble opinion, everything happens for a reason. Maybe my situation could be a way to tell young people not to give up."

• Rangers Minor League pitching instructor Lee Tunnell, pitching coach for several of Dickey's teams in the minors, counts himself as one who knew what Dickey could do all along. He discovered quickly that Dickey's elbow condition was much to do about nothing.

  "It's just one of those things that just is—it doesn't bother him," Tunnell said. "I've played long toss with him hundreds of times. It's not even an issue. We've never talked about it in all these years. He has a deep faith in God and a purpose in his life, and I think he has a lot of peace about things."  (MLB.com's Thomas Harding-01/04)

• Dickey and his best friend, another one-time fellow Rangers pitching prospect Jonathan Johnson, started a nonprofit organization called "Honoring the Father," aimed at reaching out to today's youth via speaking at school, athletic and church youth groups, mostly during the offseason. Johnson and Dickey first met when they were assigned to room together with Team USA in 1994. Both originally hailed from Tennessee, though Johnson had moved to Florida, and the pair found they had much in common.

  "We just hit it off immediately and became best friends," R.A. recalls, adding that when he was drafted by the Rangers—the same team that made Johnson it's first pick in 1995—it was one of the happiest days of his life.

• Dickey is a hard and willing worker and a fierce competitor. "You can ask my friends and, whether it's golf or playing basketball or whatever, winning is something I always take seriously," R.A. said.

  "I consider that the biggest part of the story," Dickey said. "Here I am, a human being who has a condition that doctors can't really explain; it's kind of a phenomenon, yet God has given me the ability and the platform to be able to reach a lot of different people. Everybody in the world has an ulnar collateral ligament, but I don't, and yet I play a game that depends on the use of that ligament."

• On June 22, 2003, Dickey pitched five innings, giving up six hits and one unearned run for the Oklahoma Redhawks in Iowa, after being on his cell phone and helping his wife, Anne, through labor. She had been scheduled to deliver two days later, but went into labor before the game. So R.A. got on the phone and patiently talked his wife through delivery of their daughter, Lila Anne.

• After the 2003 season, R.A. helped deliver donated equipment to Cuba. He helped collect the stuff for Honoring the Father Ministries, a Christian organization that Dickey has been involved with for several seasons. A group of former and current Major League players make the trip to Cuba every offseason to personally deliver the equipment to those in need. Herbert Perry, pitcher Jonathan Johnson, infielder Warren Morris, and J.D. Drew are a few of the players that make this charity possible.

  He took another trip in December 2003. "We're going to collect as much equipment as we can and take it over there and distribute it. We'll also put on some camps and other stuff. Those guys over there don't have anything." Dickey said. "They're playing with cardboard taped up to their hand for a glove, no shoes—it's unbelievable. That's why some of those guys field so well."

  When R.A. returned, he said, "It's neat to talk to them, find out what their needs are and be able to provide them. Things. like medicine. But if they want to go to the doctor, some go 18 hours by horse. Baseball is the universal language, but it allowed us to really reach out to people."

• Dickey and his wife Anne have two daughters.

• In 2007, R.A. was named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year.

• R.A. spent a month and a half during the 2013-14 winter teaching the knuckleball to Frank Viola III, the former Cy Young Award winner’s son, who signed a Minor League contract with Toronto in February 2014.

  NICKNAME

• Dickey, whose legal name is Robert Allen, said he went by "Robert" until he reached the seventh or eighth grade.

  "Everyone in my family and friends called me R.A., and when anyone called me Robert, I would tell them my name is R.A. Heck, it's just a nickname, anyway."

  Same with his Mom's father, who has gone through life known as R.G. Bowers.

  R.A., meanwhile, said he has had several teammates remove the periods from his nickname.

  "Some guys call me RA [as in rabid]," he said. "You might not know this, but RA means sun god in Egypt, but I'm not a sun god. [Roy] Corcoran calls me ARA [as in aura]."  (Jim Street/MLB.com July 9, 2008)

• Early in 2010, frustrated by baseball and considering a leap into academics, Dickey attended classes in existentialism and modern American literature at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee.

  The day after most lectures, Dickey drove to a local cafe, purchased sandwiches, and headed to his professor's office, where the two discussed F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned or John Gardner's Grendel, as well as Dickey's own original poetry.

  "The basis of our conversations was always the literature," Dickey's professor, Michael Karounos, recalled.

• Dickey is quiet and gentle. A thoughtful man, he reads a lot. He has a book in his hand at least as much as he has his hand in a baseball glove.

  The written word has appealed to Dickey since before he could write. He won a poetry contest as a seventh grader in an all-boys school in Nashville. He's been "booked solid" for the better part of his 35 years. And for the better part of his last eight, he has shared his affection and a number of books with his daughters his son.

  If that makes him an uncommon father, so be it. Dickey takes his positions, those of father, teacher, and motivator for Mary Gabriel, Lila Anne, and Elijah Wilson, quite seriously. "I'm very intentional with it," he said. "I'm not too much 'left side of the brain' with biology and sciences. It's more literature, human language, poetry." (Marty Noble-MLB.com-6/15/10)

• R.A. said that after the 2010 season, he was going to compete in a triathlon—a 25-mile bicycle ride, a six-mile run and a one-mile swim. He is a very serious cyclist.

• In June 2010, R.A. was assigned the job of teaching Prince Harry how to throw a baseball overhand, American style. The Prince was preparing to throw out a first pitch before a Mets game at Citi Field.

  "He came in throwing like cricket, with a locked elbow," Dickey said. "He wanted to throw [from] in front of the mound. I said, 'If you ever want to come back to New York, you better get back up to the rubber.'"

• Dickey's wife, Anne, delivered their fourth child, a boy, during 2011 spring training.

• R.A. married his longtime girlfriend, Anne Bartholomew, in 1997. The marriage buckled under the weight of his uncertain career and, Dickey writes, his emotional distance and infidelity. Money was tight, especially as the Dickey brood expanded. (He and Anne have four children, ages one to 10.) He was unhappy, sometimes profoundly so. "It is a life that can make you a perennial adolescent," he writes of being a professional ballplayer, "where your needs and whims are catered to, and narcissism is as prevalent as sunflower seeds, a life that is about as un-family-friendly as you can imagine."

  But Anne and R.A. repaired their relationship when Dickey bared his soul, telling his wife of being raped as a youngster. Anne, who is full of grace, as is her husband, survived in their marriage because both obviously live with the love of God within their very being.

• In August 2011, R.A. began a Twitter account. Dickey's profession, pitcher, is listed fourth on his Twitter profile—behind father, husband, and author. Also on the list are the titles of Christian, adventurer, Star Wars nerd, reader, and cyclist. So began a new project for Dickey, who established his @RADickey43 feed.

  MOUNTAIN CLIMBER

• In January 2012, Dickey scaled Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Red Light District Outreach Mumbai, which combats human trafficking in India. The Mets weren't all that keen about it, and Dickey understands that he could be risking forfeiting his entire 2012 salary if he got injured during the climb.

  "Yeah. I'm a grown man, and I can do what I want to do," Dickey said in an interview with New York magazine. "But at the same time, let's say I slip, fall, break my leg, and can't pitch for two months. Legally, they have the authority to void my contract.

  "They're not saying that they would exercise that right, but they wanted me to be informed. Although, on paper, the climb seems like a fantastic thing to get behind, it's been tough. They view it as a dangerous thing. Of course, it's a risk I'm willing to take. I know what I'm doing well enough to know it's nothing more than a glorified hike. There are no technical climbing skills involved—it's not like Everest or K-2 or Fuji. So I'm not real worried about it."

  Dickey got his inspiration to climb the mountain from Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," which he read in eighth grade. Dickey had always hoped to get the opportunity, even though it was just a dream to this point in his life. He will be joined on the climb by two of his friends—Twins pitcher Kevin Slowey and Mets bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello. They're going to the summit, Uhuru Peak.

  "The scope of the mountain resonated with me," Dickey told the magazine. "It wasn't necessarily the plot. I read the book in eighth grade—when, of course, you don't have the means or wherewithal to tackle something like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I always thought it would be a fantastic pilgrimage to hike to the summit. For years, I . . .  the way that we do . . . we file things in our minds, in cabinets deep in the recesses of our brains."

  Dickey's training regimen is a unique one.

  "I've done some triathlon training over the past 2½ years in the offseason to get ready for spring training," Dickey said. "Outside of that, I have an altitude training mask that I can work out in, sleep in, walk in. It emulates, let's say, being at 10,000 feet, and there's a nozzle that you screw on that emulates being at 15,000 and then 20,000, and so on. But I won't be going to any high altitudes to train. I don't have the time. I've got a family of four, and I'm gone so much anyway." (Mike Mazzeo-ESPNNewYork.com)

• Newsday has reported that Dickey has been approached to make a movie about his life. While nothing is in the works just yet. (July 2012)

• September 13, 2012: Dickey was named the  2012 winner of the Branch Rickey Award presented by AMG National Trust Bank.

  The award was created by the Rotary Club of Denver and is named for Branch Rickey, a Hall of Famer who developed baseball's farm system, helped the sport expand nationally and participated in efforts to allow underprivileged children to watch Major League games. But Rickey is best known for signing Jackie Robinson in 1945. Robinson broke baseball's modern-day color barrier in '47. Rickey also signed Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, the first dark-skinned Hispanic player to achieve superstardom in the big leagues.

  Dickey is one of the founders and an active member of Honoring the Father Ministries, a charity that distributes medical supplies and baseball equipment throughout the world. Dickey has traveled to Cuba five times, as well as to Mexico, Venezuela and Costa Rica to meet with young players, give them equipment and instruct them in baseball.R. A. introduced his agent, Bo McKinnis, to his future wife. So they are more like friends than in the typical agent-client partnership.

• January 2013: Dickey traveled to Mumbai, India with his daughters, 11-year-old Gabriel and 9-year-old Lila, to work with Bombay Teen Challenge, a Christian organization that has rescued women and children from sex trafficking for the past 23 years.

  It is a cause that Dickey says speaks to his own narrative. He wrote about being sexually abused as a child in his autobiography Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.

  R.A. and his daughters stayed at Ashagram, a rehabilitation campus outside Mumbai that's home to 300 women and children. They were the "most hopeful days" of the trip. They played cricket and sang songs with the children, many of whom are HIV positive.

  "Those are the miracles, the 300 lives in Ashagram, those are 300 living miracles," Dickey said. "Sure (my daughters) heard about the wickedness and the darkness, but they got to actually see the redemption, so their response has been really positive. This is a seminal trip for them."

• March 2013: Dickey pitched for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.

• In 2013, R.A. was in episodes of Space Jays, a two-minute cartoon starring R.A. Dickey and several of his Blue Jay friends.

• R.A. is a New York Times' best-selling author.

• Dickey was interviewed by reporter Lesley Stahl on CBS' 60 Minutes on April 14, 2013, speaking on topics decidedly non-baseball. Dickey’s story is well worth documenting, not just for his on-field accomplishments but for his life away from the ballpark.

  Dickey’s autobiography—Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball—would seem to be the basis for the CBS interest, including recent charity work for Bombay Teen Challenge, an organization that aids teenage sex workers in Mumbai, India. That plus winning the Cy Young Award in New York at the age of 38 while never breaking 84 m.p.h. All that, plus a personal triumph over depression makes it more than a run-of-the-mill sports story. Most viewers of the program couldn’t care less about baseball, but Dickey’s is a lesson in persistence and self-discovery.

  Dickey spoke of his time as a member of the Mets and the sadness he felt after he was traded following a Cy Young Award-winning season in 2012. He spoke of a father that left home in Nashville when he was 7, and an alcoholic mother with whom he has since reconciled.

  He spoke of being abused as a child, the summer he was 8 years old, first by a female babysitter then by a male stranger. He spoke of the shame he felt and how he suppressed those emotions even with his wife Ann, who accepted his proposal of marriage the year he was drafted by the Rangers as a college junior. He had first proposed to her in high school, seven years earlier.

  He spoke of being told by Rangers pitching coach Orel Hershiser that he was not good enough and needed to change. The translation was he had to learn a knuckleball. He spoke of the high of being on the Rangers opening day roster in 2006, then the low of giving up six homers in his first start vs. the Tigers and being banished to the minors for the next four years, before finally landing with the Mets.

  He spoke of the despair of failure as an athlete and a husband, of hitting rock bottom in his personal life, of seeking therapy and needing to involve his wife in the solution, the cure, coming out whole on the other side with family and his career intact. Then came the success of the past three years.  (Richard Griffin - 4/15/13)

• He throws 83 miles per hour tops, and that’s his change of speed. His normal speed is 68 to 78 mph. No starting teammate stays in the dugout to watch him. He chastises himself on the mound after knucklers that fail to locate. He frowns and gesticulates and reminds himself out loud to stay on top.
• Dickey received an honorary degree from Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto on May 13, 2013.
• Dickey named his bats for literary swords—Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver (from The Hobbit) and Hrunting (from Beowulf). Dickey mixed up Orcrist and Sting when explaining the origin of the name. In addition to his fantasy-named bats, Dickey's at-bat introduction song is the theme from Game of Thrones. And he warms up on the mound to Darth Vader's theme song, "The Imperial March."
• R.A. likes to play golf, and he likes to read.

  Dickey's Favorites: Actor: Christian Bale; TV Show: Big Bang Theory; Favorite music: Christian contemporary; Favorite food: Sushi; Player I learned the most from: Jeff Brantley; Trait I appreciate in a person: Humility; Three people I'd invite to dinner: I'd invite just two: Jesus Christ and Robert Frost.

• Since the dawn of time, unicorn backpacks and untimely cosplay have been staples of the veteran/rookie relationship in MLB clubhouses. But R.A. Dickey might have taken that to new heights when he, um, "commandeered the van/house of Blue Jays pitching prospect Daniel Norris".  

  Dickey recently took Norris' VW Camper van for a spin at the Jays' Spring Training facility and indicated that the stunt might not be the end of the line for Norris' tough time.  

  "I think he's got some reparations that he's certainly gonna, ya know, be working on over the course of the next year. But it's a cool little vehicle and he'll have it for a long time." If R.A. was pleased with his rank, he was equally impressed with his showing behind the wheel. "It's a '78, so it needs a little bit more upkeep. I think it's only going on two cylinders right now and there's no power steering. I hadn't driven his house/car a lot, so finding the gear ratios was a little bit tricky. But, once I did, it was fun driving it around." (Mike Bertha - MLB.com - March 12, 2015)

• R. A. has stepped forward with a direct donation to develop a resource that will help create safe environments for children in sports organizations. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has partnered with the Jays Care Foundation to create Commit to Kids—Sport Edition. The key piece of literature has strategies, policies and a step-by-step plan for reducing the risk of child sexual abuse.

  The kit also includes a guide for sports organizations and a training video in addition to materials for parents and sports leaders. It's an important issue that has impacted children all over the world and particularly hits close to home for Dickey.

  "I carried the pain of sexual abuse for more than two decades. As a kid I didn't know how to deal with it, so I tried to forget. But you can't forget," said Dickey. (4/25/14)

• Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey recently published "Knuckleball Ned," an anti-bullying picture book with illustrations by Tim Bowers.  Dickey says he is a strong supporter of children's literacy.

  "Reading is something that can really teach a child how to relate to characters and people," he said. "I'm a huge proponent of reading to kids."

  The children's story revolves around Ned, a nervous baseball on his first day of school. Everyone seems to know where they belong, except Ned. He isn't a fastball or a slider, and the Foul Ball gang makes fun of him for the way he wobbles. When they bully another student, it's up to Ned to come to the rescue. Not only does Ned realize he is a knuckleball, but he discovers that he can be a hero.

  Known for being a bookworm, Dickey, who won the NL Cy Young Award in 2012, studied English at the University of Tennessee and often reads in the clubhouse and bullpen. He is also the bestselling author of his memoirs, Wherever I Wind Up and its adaptation for young readers, Throwing Strikes. (Ross - mlb.com - 5/7/14)

• For  knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, the pre-season plan is a little different. The veteran righthander has to give his nails extra attention since they're critical for his unique pitch.

  "I just kind of let them go in the winter," Dickey said Friday. "And then when it comes time for like around late January, I start treating them with some product and making sure that they're filed right, and the nail hardener is on there, things like that." (Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press)  

• June 16, 2015: R.A.'s father, Harry Lee Dickey, died at age 63.  

• Each spring with the Blue Jays, R.A. Dickey has been forced to spend a lot of his time teaching a catcher how to properly handle his knuckleball. In 2016, he didn't have to worry about any of that.  Toronto made the decision to partner Dickey with his longtime batterymate Josh Thole from the outset of camp. In years past, the two worked with each other for long stretches during the regular season, but every spring there was a new face trying to learn the pitch.

  In 2013, it was J.P. Arencibia. The following year, it was Erik Kratz. And then last season, Russell Martin gave it a shot. Martin handled it better than either of the previous two, but Thole is the best of the bunch, and he and Dickey appear set to work exclusively with each other this year.

  "I feel like Josh has been unfairly criticized in a lot of ways, but for me, it's very comfortable to have a guy back there that I have a lot of rapport with and a good chemistry with, who knows me," said Dickey. "Like today, I struck out a guy on an 81 mph fastball in. I didn't have to shake to it, he knew what I wanted. There's a real connection there for us.

  "That's not to say [Humberto] Quintero or Russ [Martin] can't do it, but it's hard to replace the amount of reps that we have together. I don't remember many people getting all over Doug Mirabelli when he was with the Red Sox when they were winning world championships, and he was the personal catcher of Tim Wakefield. That was just kind of the way it is."  

  "I don't necessarily have a personal catcher," said Dickey, "Josh caught a lot of my starts, but so did Russ last year, and every year that I've been a Blue Jay, Josh has not been the predominant catcher. This may be the year that he is, and that's a good formula. I think when you look at my walk rates with him behind the plate, they're significantly different simply because he understands the art of catching that in the strike zone to give the umpire the best possible look. That's hard to quantify for the average fan, and he does an incredible job doing that."  (Chisholm - MLB.com - 3/2/16)
• Nov 18, 2016:  R.A. Dickey has pitched in six organizations and with five Major League clubs over the course of the past 20 seasons. But before being officially introduced by the Braves, the veteran knuckleballer had never donned the jersey of the team he and his late father passionately followed throughout his childhood in Tennessee.

  "I don't think I've ever been as emotional putting on a jersey," Dickey said. "It brings back a lot of sweet memories. It makes me more motivated and excited to make a contribution to this organization. So, there are a lot of things that played into it. It's special, very special."

  Whether listening via a transistor radio or watching games on TBS, Dickey was a passionate fan of Braves teams that spanned from the days of Dale Murphy and Bob Horner to the more memorable years during which Tom Glavine and John Smoltz helped build something special in Atlanta.

  Now, Dickey has a chance to play a key role as he optimistically moves toward a new era. The former National League Cy Young Award winner's lifelong dream to be a Brave came true at the age of 44, courtesy of the one-year, $8 million contract he agreed to. He will now pitch four hours from his family's residence in Nashville, Tenn., and attempt to satisfy the club's hope he will serve as an effective short-term bridge until some of Atlanta's highly touted starting pitching prospects prove they truly are Major League ready.

  "I'm thankful to hear I was at the top of their list because they certainly were at the top of mine," Dickey said. "It made for a great fit." Braves president of baseball operations John Hart has shared a long relationship with both Dickey and Bartolo Colon, a 43-year-old starting pitcher who also signed with Atlanta within the past week. Hart helped identify these two ageless wonders as targets because he believes both have the ability and character to serve as assets both on and off the field.

  "It's a real honor first and foremost for me to be a part of a very historic franchise that looks like it's on its way to becoming what it once was," Dickey said. "I'm happy to be a part of that growth." (M Bowman - MLB.com - Nov 18, 2016)

• March 31, 2017: The Braves played their first baseball game at their new home, SunTrust Park, in an exhibition with the Yankees. Atlanta turned to two of its marquee free-agent signings of the offseason, Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey, to throw the team's first pitches in the ballpark, and that very fact alone warrants a bit of a conversation. Colon took the mound and threw the very first pitch at the new ballpark. 

  Bartolo navigated the first three innings until Dickey came out of the bullpen to get in some work in the fourth and fifth innings, setting up the unique circumstance of the evening. Combined, the two veterans have a cumulative age of 85 (Colon is 43, Dickey is 42). A combined age of 85 for two consecutive pitchers in the same game is probably not something we'll see very much this season. So thanks for that, Braves! (A Garro - MLB.com - March 31, 2017)

  TRANSACTIONS

• June 1996: The Rangers took him in the first round, out of the University of Tennessee.

• January 12, 2007: Dickey signed with the Brewers organization.

• November 29, 2007: Dickey signed with the Twins' organization.

• December 6, 2007: The Mariners chose Dickey out of the Twins' organization in the Rule 5 Draft at the MLB Winter Meetings in Nashville.

• December 2008: The Mariners granted Dickey free agency.

• December 24, 2008: R.A. signed with the Twins.

• October 2009: Dickey became a free agent.

• December 23, 2009: R.A. signed with the Mets, getting a $600,000, one-year contract, plus incentives.

• January 28, 2011: Dickey and the Mets agreed on a two-year contract.

• December 17, 2012: R.A. and the Blue Jays agreed on a two-year, $25 million contract extension. The Jays have a team option for $12 for the 2016 season. 

  The Blue Jays traded C John Buck, C Travis d'Arnaud, RHP Noah Syndergaard, and OF Wuilmer Beccera to the Mets; acquiring Dickey, C Josh Thole, and C Mike Nickeas.

• Nov 3, 2016: Dickey chose free agency.

• November 10, 2016: R.A. signed a one-year, $8 million pact with the Braves, with a club option for 2018.

• Oct 23, 2017: The Braves opted to decline Dickey's $8 million option for 2018. Dickey is contemplating retirement.
  
  
• Nov 2, 2017: Dickey chose free agency.

• Dickey is a KNUCKLEBALLER with nearly 78 percent of pitches he threw in 2017 were flutter-balls. He also has an 82-84 mph SINKER an 82-85 mph 4-seam FASTBALL, and a 71-75 mph  CHANGEUP that has armside fade, but he rarely ever throws it.

  R.A. throws an unusually hard knuckleball. Actually, he throws several, from a super-slow eephus, to the pitch that has made his name: a knuckler that hits 80 miles per hour on occasion. Such a beat seems to defy logic, and it certainly baffles hitters. The knuckleball averages about 75 mph, but can hit 80 mph. (April 2016)

• 2015 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 5.5% of the time; Sinker 4.4% of the time; Change .5%; and Knuckler 89.6% of the time.

  2016 Season Pitch Usage: Knuckleball 87.6% of the time; Fastball 2%; Sinker 9.2%; and Changeup 1.2% of the time -- basically one changeup per game.

  2017 Season Pitch Usage: Knuckleball: 77.6% of the time, Fastball 7.2%; Sinker 11.2%, and Changeup almost 4% of the time.

•  Way back in 2005, R.A. revealed his two-seam sinking fastball (not too good!). And the Rangers talked to him about making his KNUCKLEBALL his primary pitch. He has, and he can even change speeds with it, enabling him to be successful.

• In 2012, Dickey began a remarkable run. For decades, hitters and knuckleball pitchers have had an unspoken agreement, an equilibrium of sorts. When a hitter steps into the box, he has no idea where the knuckleball is going to go. But it's only fair, because neither does the pitcher.

  R.A. Dickey has upset that balance.

  When Dickey throws his knuckleball, it darts and dances, and the poor hitter trying to beat him can only guess where the ball is going to end up. But Dickey, maybe more than anyone who's ever thrown a knuckler before him, actually does have some idea where it's going. He's throwing the pitch with a level of command that is essentially unprecedented. And as a result, he's just about unhittable.

• Of becoming a knuckleball pitcher, Dickey recalls how it started: He was sitting on a sofa in Rangers manager Buck Showalter's office.

  "Across from me are Buck, pitching coach Orel Hershiser and bullpen coach Mark Connor. It's April 2005. Orel asks, 'After you finish rehabbing your shoulder, what would you think about going back to the minors to become a knuckleball pitcher? We think it's your best chance for success. You have a good knuckleball already. You have the perfect makeup to make it work, because you know how to compete.' I squirm on the sofa.

  "Orel and I have had some general conversations about this, but nothing concrete. My fastball has been topping out at (only) 85 or 86. My arm feels fine, but I cut the ball loose and . . . nothing!

  "So I look at Buck and Orel and Connor, and I tell them: 'I'll do it. I'll go to the minors and become a full-time knuckleball pitcher. I stand up and shake hands with all three of them, a life-changing, seven-minute meeting complete."  (Dickey, from his book: Wherever I Wind Up, April 2012)

• R.A. has a hard knuckler that breaks sharp and late and tops out at 81 mph. The slower one dips to 61 mph and can break three or four times as it flutters to the plate. But in 2008, after a conversation with Charlie Hough, former Major Leaguer and coaching mentor, about pitching strategy, Dickey settled on a comfort zone of about 73-76 mph with his knuckleball. Then he throws a slower one or a quicker one to change things up.

  "Everything's going to work off a certain speed and being able to slow it down or speed it up off that speed," he said. (Geoff Baker-Seattle Times-5/23/08)

  R.A.'s knuckleball is faster than Phil Niekro's or Wilbur Wood's or Tim Wakefield's. Those guys had a 67-71 mph knuckler.

  "The principles are all the same, it's just that everything is sped up for me," Dickey said. "When I started to understand that's OK, that I could throw my knuckleball as hard as I can and still take spin off it, that's when I started to have success."

• Dickey has to get his knuckleball to move in two or three different directions during its flight to the plate. Connor said he's getting that now, rather than just one break when he first started using it in 2005. The ball has to start one way, then go another way.

  Dickey's most enduring assets have been his aggressiveness, lack of fear and gung-ho attitude. A knuckleballer must be more sedate.

  If Dickey loses the feel of the knuckleball in a game, he must be able to get it back quickly.

  "You can't wait for three or four or five batters before you get the feel again," then-Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. (T.R. Sullivan-MLB.com-3/20/06)

• He has excellent poise. R.A. doesn't have the fluid arm action of some of his contempories. But he is someone who pitches with a lot of heart. His fastball is just a cut above average, but he can reach back for a little extra when he needs to.

• He has good command, throwing strike after strike. And he is very durable. Few can match R.A.'s passion for competition. He is a workhorse.

• His delivery needed work. And he pitched a whole lot of innings at the University of Tennessee.

• Though predominantly a starter in college, R.A. occasionally relieved between starts. And for part of his junior year he was a closer.

• During 2005 spring training, the Rangers had umpire advisor Steve Palermo meet with R.A. Dickey to discuss balks. Dickey was called for a balk early in camp and was called three times for them in 2003-2004. Dickey's leg occasionally will rock once his hands come to the set position, which is technically a balk. The Rangers want to do as much as possible to make it clear to him what constitutes a balk.

• Dickey is a strike-thrower, very competitive—with no ego. He is willing to do what it takes to win. His success has been his ability to change speeds with the knuckleball.

  LEARNS FROM THE MASTERS

• With less than two weeks left in the 2005 season, Charlie Hough—who won 218 Major League games in his career with the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox and Marlins—spent 90 minutes in the Angels bullpen passing on to Dickey the secrets he learned from his knuckleballing forefathers, Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Niekro.

  R.A. impressed Hough with his arm and the movement on his knuckler. Dickey was impressed, too, after an enlightening hour and a half with a 25-year Major League veteran.

  "It was a transforming experience for me," Dickey said. "I learned more in 90 minutes with him than I did in three months by myself and working with people who never threw the knuckleball."

  Dickey spoke with the reverence of someone who's just gotten an unexpected gift, and he planned to spend time working with Hough, who lives in the Los Angeles area, this offseason. As someone who's tutored pupils both successful and not, Hough was optimistic about Dickey's chances.

  "I think he's pretty good ... He has a chance to be a real knuckleballer," Hough said. "He's got an advantage over me in that he's got a [much] better arm."

  Dickey's experience as a conventional pitcher in the Major League helps.

  "I know how to pitch," he said. "Even when I don't have a great knuckleball, I can still manage counts with my other pitches."

  During their bullpen session, Hough talked to Dickey about the philosophy of the knuckler—when to throw it, how hard to throw it—as well as the mechanics of Dickey's delivery. Hough made one important adjustment to Dickey's grip that helps take spin off the pitch, which ideally approaches the plate without any rotation, making its movement more unpredictable.

  "He'll change his spot on the ball and realize mechanically it's closer to being a normal pitcher than you might think and it's hugely important to develop a release point that's repeatable," Hough said. "[We were] trying to get where his thumb and ring finger can get out of the way so it doesn't impede the ball."  (Mark Thoma-MLB.com-9/20/05)

• On August 17, 2008, Dickey tied a Major League record for wild pitches in an inning when he uncorked four.

  "It was moving violently. If I could have thrown it for strikes, it would have been a real fun day, I think," Dickey said. "But I couldn't throw it for strikes."

  Dickey, who has 11 wild pitches in 97 innings this season, became the fifth Major League pitcher to throw four in an inning. Philadelphia's Ryan Madson was the last to do it, in 2006. Another knuckleballer, Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, is on the list. So is Hall of Famer Walter Johnson and Kevin Gregg, who was with the Angels when he tied the record in 2004.

• Dickey throws his knuckler harder than most, and he said that despite perception throwing the knuckler requires great skill, not a reliance on air currents and luck.

  "Charlie Hough was my original mentor,'' Dickey said. "I went to L.A. twice to work and stay with him. Tim Wakefield and Phil Niekro have both been generous with their counsel. I've been able to add to that foundation and slowly add my own personality to pitch. My grip is identical to Charlie and Tim's. Success has to do with the release point. If your release point can be consistent, then you can impart the right amount of spin.

  "Now if you throw a pitch with absolutely zero spin—and that happens once or twice a game—then it is luck. The part that requires skill is being able to impart maybe a quarter of revolution of spin from the time it leaves your hand to the time it reaches home plate. If you can do that, you have a real good idea where it's going, how it's going to break and where to start it.

  "You can stay behind it a little longer, to make it go down and in to righties. You can get on the side of it a little bit to sweep it away to righties. There's lots you can do with the pitch, once you throw it awhile and get a good feel for it.'' (Jim Souhan-Minneapolis Star Tribune-6/28/09)

• In 2010, R.A. finally figured out how to be effective with his unusual style of pitching.

  "In knowing him now, I can see how he challenges himself on a daily basis and competes on a daily basis and probably searches on a daily basis, and to finally find it, I think he knows how to keep it," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. "I think all the work he's done over the years and experimenting with different things, and he's finally found it. And he's been so persistent in trying to find it, that he'll probably keep it."

• Committing to throw the knuckleball 80 percent of the time has been the real challenge.

• In 2012, Dickey won the National League Cy Young Award.  He became the first knuckleball pitcher to win the Cy Young Award.

• 2015 Improvements: Dickey believes he has a solution for the command issues that have plagued him the past two seasons.Dickey admits there were times he became too preoccupied with the velocity of his knuckleball. When he tried to increase the speed, it led to his mechanics getting out of whack, which affected location.

  That's one of the main reasons why Dickey spent a lot of time this spring getting comfortable with a slightly slower knuckleball that will remain in the zone longer."I think it's just so much more of a comfort thing, what speed am I comfortable at," said Dickey. "I know when I step on the gas, when I do that, I get a little bit outside of my mechanics and I can generate a little bit more velocity."I know what that feels like. Really, proactively, practicing staying in that comfort zone is what's going to help me most of all." (Gregor Chisholm - MLB.com - April 7, 2015)

• July 19, 2017: Dickey reaches milestone, logging 2,000th inning. The Braves knuckleballer became the  26th pitcher to accomplish feat since 2001.

• As of the start of the 2017 season, Dickey has a career record of 110-108 with a 4.01 ERA, having allowed 238 home runs and 1,840 hits in 1,883 innings.

• Dickey has a reputation for a superb pickoff move.

  And a knuckleballer must hold runners and field his position. From 1982–1990, Charlie Hough was tied with two lefthanders for the most pickoffs in the Major Leagues during that stretch.

• R.A. has some fast feet within his pickoff move. He has one of the best, if not the best, pickoff moves for a righthander in the Majors.
• In 2013, Dickey won his first Rawlings Gold Glove. He also won a Fielding Bible Award, which was voted on by a 12-person panel of baseball analysts.

  Dickey, who had just completed his first year in Toronto, led all AL pitchers in assists with 40, and he finished tied for third in range factor per game at 1.50, according to Baseball Reference. He also ranked first in the A.L. with seven defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs, and he limited the opposition to just eight stolen bases despite being a knuckleballer.

There are so many quips about the knuckleball. The following are my favorites (David Caldwell, Player Profiles):

• Former hitting coach, the late Charlie Lau: "There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Neither one works."
• Former Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek: "Catching the knuckleball is like trying to catch a fly with chopsticks."
• Richie Hebner, former big leaguer and now a hitting instructor in the Blue Jays organization: "Hitting the knuckleball is like eating soup with a fork."
• Hall of Famer Willie Stargell: "Throwing a knuckleball for a strike is like throwing a butterfly with hiccups across the street into your neighbor's mailbox."

• May 1997: Dickey was shut down with his bad elbow. But this was actually a bone spur that required surgery to remove. Some doctors say R.A. tore his right UCL as a youngster. Some doctors say he was born without the UCL in his right elbow. Dickey believes the latter.

  "Because if it would have torn," Dickey said, "they said I definitely would have felt it. I mean, that's a major deal." And Dickey has had no major deals in the elbow injury department, other than bone spurs, a common pitcher's problem.

• June 26-July 20, 2004: R.A. was on the D.L. with a strained right rhomboid.
• July 30-August 23, 2004: Dickey was back on the D.L., again with a strained right upper back (rhomboid muscle).
• April 13-May 25, 2005: R.A. was on the D.L. with inflammation in his right triceps.
• May 18-26, 2006: Dickey was on the D.L. with tendinitis in his right shoulder.
• May 27, 2011: Dickey, who is famous for playing his entire career without an ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, began an attempt to pitch with damaged connective tissue in his foot.

  An MRI exam revealed a partial tear of the plantar fascia in Dickey's right foot, the result of a sudden movement in a game against the Cubs. Doctors told Dickey that he can do no further structural damage to his foot, allowing the knuckleballer to proceed with his normal routine between starts.

• October 3, 2012: Dickey revealed that he'd been pitching since April with a torn right abdominal muscle, which flared up in his last start of the season on October 2, and would require surgery. Despite that issue, the knuckleballer submitted by far the best season of his career, capping his Cy Young resume with a six-inning, three-run, eight-strikeout performance at Marlins Ballpark.

  "I was on my knees about it many times, hoping that it wasn't going to get more significant than it was," Dickey said. "My wife and I prayed quite frequently together about that because I was in the middle of a good season."

  Relying on the team's medical staff to dull his stomach pain, which was rarely severe, Dickey took the mound every fifth game; at one point he even considered pitching every fourth. It was not an entirely unusual situation for the knuckleballer, who played the final five months of the 2011 season with a torn plantar fascia, later revealing in his autobiography that he received a painkilling injection before every start.

  R.A. underwent surgery on October 18, 2012 in Philadelphia.

• 2015: The offseason took on a different tone for Dickey, as he spent the first two months recovering from surgery on his right knee. He needed the procedure to repair a torn ligament in his knee and faced a recovery time of four to six weeks.