New York Mets pitcher RA Dickey shared his triumphs and struggles in and out of baseball and how God has inspired him when he spoke in Allen Arena Dec. 6.
Dickey was on campus as the featured speaker for the 2012 Forehand and Friends/Golden Bisons Luncheon.
Dickey is the first knuckleball pitcher to earn the National League Cy Young Award, the highest honor in pitching, and he was recognized by Lipscomb’s College of Business as part of its “Heroes of Business” series.
Dickey spoke about overcoming obstacles in his career, his path to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and how it all helped him solidify a great relationship with God.
Dickey announced the climb in November 2011, following his inspiration from reading Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro. He completed the climb and returned to his team in January, risking his 2012 season salary with the Mets.
The Mets threatened to void his contract–a salary of $4.25 million, but Dickey said he wasn’t intimidated because there were bigger things at stake.
“They told me, ‘if you get hurt and fall off that mountain, we’ll void your contract.’ I said, ‘If I fall off that mountain, that’ll be the least of my worries.'”
Dickey climbed in support of Bombay Teen Challenge, an organization which ministers to victims of human trafficking and their children in the heart of the redlight districts. Dickey and other members of his team raised over $100,000.
Ascending Kilimanjaro was much less a physical challenge for Dickey but more of a spiritual reinforcement, he said.
Dickey described a moment at the mountain peak when he looked out over cloud shelves to the world below and was awestruck.
“You’re captivated by the majesty of God in a way that you feel incredibly small, and it feels so good to be so small,” he said. “And that’s how you feel, and it feels just euphoric. And it’s a real neat experience to think that God created all this and cares about it in detail.”
Dickey details this and more in his autobiography Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.
In the book, he shares his struggles through life and how God and his loved ones helped him keep going.
“I’m the product of a lot of people who’ve loved me,” he said. “I’ve been at the bottom of the bottom and had people reach down and grab and pull me up when I wasn’t even reaching back, and I’m just the product of that.”
For Dickey, when things looked their bleakest, he still found motivation through God. “He gave me the motivation to keep going to keep moving because he saw worth in me.”
Dickey also shared the science, secrets and inspiration for his knuckleball pitching.
“My first exposure to the knuckleball professionally was with Charlie Hough,” he said. “Charlie Hough was probably like a Yoda to me. He was the guy that helped me most, originally.”
Dickey explained that he is a combination style of Hough and two other knuckleball pitchers, Phil Niekro and Tim Wakefield.
“What I learned from Charlie was the grip, what I learned from Phil was kind of how to be an athlete with the knuckleball, and what I learned from Tim was a repeatable mechanic,” he said.
Dickey said he took what his mentors gave him and infused his own style into his knuckleball. “I’m adding velocity to that, because that’s what my personality is with the pitch.”
Dickey said what makes him adept in the art of the knuckleball is a full commitment. “To get the sensation of that out of your hand 110 times a game takes a lot of practice.”
The session ended with Dickey taking questions from the audience. In response to one question, Dickey shared the extreme challenges of climbing Kilimanjaro.
“When you’re climbing the mountain, there are certain things that physically make you want to quit,” he said. “I mean when I was on the trip, two people died.”
“It’s not a place that requires technical climbing skills, but there are a couple of passes that are very narrow,” he continued. “If you slip or fall off or your backpack is too heavy or you don’t get good footing…it’s not going end up good.”
“And so I was nervous, on a couple of parts,” he said. “And I started having hallucinations at about 16,000 feet. And I started really thinking, is it worth it?”
He related the climb to struggles in his life and career, saying he had some of the same feelings.
“Is it worth it to keep going? Is it worth it to be away from my family, is it worth it to put my family through what I’ve put them through?”
After a season of playing 162 games in 182 days, including 44 days of spring training, bringing the total to over 200 games, he was away from his family and his home. And he asked again: “Is it worth it?”
The answer in both situations was the same. “Yes it’s worth it,” he said, “but, you’ve got to have people that love you through it.”
Following the Q-and-A session, Dickey stuck around to give autographs to the fans who attended.