Try separating your heart from your body. Take all emotion out of every decision that is made and force yourself to make the cold, calculating decisions that can be seen in the business world as necessary but in the social realm as cruel. Pending on who you are and what you do for a living, you may find this to be an easy or difficult task to handle. Fans of the New York Mets might see the trading of R.A. Dickey as another fumble on the part of the front office in connecting to the fan base. Others may find the trade to be the effectiveness of management in being able to identify an asset at its peak and selling it on the dollar. The importance is balancing the two perspectives and coming to grips to what is necessary for long-term success.
Sports Illustrated was spot on when they projected the Mets to come in 4th place in the NL East in 2010. If you haven’t ever read the SI baseball preview issue where different writers for the magazine predict the exact standings and who will make the playoffs, you should. In every annual issue they give in-depth coverage to each team and spotlight a specific player from each team who they think can be a difference maker. Typically, they highlight obvious players that most fans feel will make a difference, but they chose a unique player for the New York Mets in that particular issue. They chose R.A. Dickey.
It was odd choosing a 35-year-old knuckleballer still having trouble with control, and who was going to start out the season in the minors. For whatever reason I hated the choice and thought of several others who I thought could make a larger impact. Boy, was I wrong.
Dickey would eventually get a change to start on May 19th against the Washington Nationals. He pitched six innings and allowed only two runs, which would soon lead him to win his next six games to the tune of a 2.33 ERA. Dickey would go on to finish the season with a 1.2 WHIP and a 2.84 ERA. The stellar year was rewarded with a new 3 year $12.5 million dollar contract.
Continuing to build on his newfound confidence he turned in another season in which he accomplished more than what was expected of him. He was able to log more than 200 innings and kept his ERA under 3.30 for a second consecutive season.
It was at this point that Dickey started to develop some sort of connection to New York. The media saw him as a great speaker who was able to relay his feelings in an impossibly candid and sophisticated manner. Fans saw the competitive passion of a man who was finally beginning to embrace a team that felt mutual satisfaction for his job performance. Teammates found him to be a father figure, someone willing to go down into the bunker and fight but always having a calming influence about him. Most of all, we loved his infatuation with Star Wars.
Before the 2012 season started we heard that Dickey had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with Mets’ bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello and Colorado Rockies pitcher Kevin Slowey in an effort to raise awareness for the Bombay Teen Challenge. If that news wasn’t enough, Dickey came out with an autobiography before the season started. The book-a phenomenal read for all of those who haven’t taken the time to read it-was catharsis for Dickey in revealing his past history of being molested, suffering from depression and being left by his wife for a short period of time. The amount of media attention that Dickey would soon garner left many questioning whether he could shoulder the load of a number one starter while balancing his newfound public adoration.
With every start we began to see a pitcher that wasn’t just the best on the team, but the best in baseball. I can stress the moment in which he had back-to-back one hitters or the All-Star appearance or the 71 strikeouts he had in a seven game span, but that doesn’t adequately describe his CY Young winning season. You had to be there. To witness the baffling of the hitters and the mastery over a pitch that is seen as unpredictable. I tuned into every possible start, and he never disappointed.
The most optimistic of Mets’ fans might have tried to convince you of playoff aspirations last month but it just was never attainable. The outfield is a complete mess, they lack a middle of the lineup power source, have zero talent at the catcher position and the bullpen is still a bit shaky. They play in a division with the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves, who both look to be locks for the playoffs. They only had a surplus in the pitching rotation and with a 38-year-old coming off a year in which he may never duplicate and an expiring contract, it was primetime to trade him. I just don’t want to look at the facts because Dickey was one of the first players that the Mets had that I didn’t want them to look at the common sense side of the rationale.
That is why when general manager Sandy Alderson pushed a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays that helped the Mets land one of the premium catching prospects in baseball on top of a pitching prospect that becomes one of the best in the Mets farm system, he had to pull the trigger. Let us not simply look at this from a one sided standpoint. The idea is to recognize both sides of the equation. To look forward to a brighter Mets future while realizing that the Mets lost one of the greatest people and players in baseball. So I urge Mets fans to rip that heart from your body, it’s the only way you’re going to be able to enjoy longstanding success, even if it means some more pain.
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