Robert Alan Dickey

[bmfc1]

Tonight--Buffalo wins 4-0. Dickey gave up a lead-off single and then retired the next 27 batters in a row. 1 hit, 0 walks. 90 pitches--68 strikes, 22 balls. That's 90 pitches over 9 innings, not 5. Time of the game: 1:45.

http://buffalo.bisons.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t422&t=g_log&gid=2010_04_29_dubaaa_bufaaa_1

[metirish]

Good starting pitching all over the org....kudos Dickey

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's a HOLY CRAP of a game.

[seawolf17]

Edgy DC wrote: That's a HOLY CRAP of a game.

No kidding! Thrilled for him. I wonder if a knuckleballer's ever been that close to a perfect game?

[smg58]

I'm guessing that nobody in Buffalo is complaining about the team they have this year.

[Gwreck]

seawolf17 wrote: No kidding! Thrilled for him. I wonder if a knuckleballer's ever been that close to a perfect game?

Hoyt Wilhem, had a no hitter against the MFYs in 1958. 2 walks.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Batting cleanup for your Durham Bulls was Hank Blalock, slumming at AAA and batting .404 going into the game.

Ruben Tejada also hit his first AAA homer.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Dickey gives Bisons a mound masterpiece
By Mike Harrington
NEWS SPORTS REPORTER
It was far from a perfect night for baseball Thursday at chilly, wind-whipped Coca-Cola Field.

Didn't matter to Buffalo Bisons knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. He was just about perfect.

"I felt like I could throw another nine [innings] right now and have the same result," Dickey said after tossing a spectacular one-hitter in the Bisons' 4-0 win over the Durham Bulls. "That's a good feeling."

Dickey, 35, allowed a leadoff single to short right field by Durham center fielder Fernando Perez � and then retired the next 27 Bulls to break the Buffalo franchise record of 25 straight set by Bartolo Colon during his 1997 no-hitter here against New Orleans. That remains the only no-no in the ballpark's 23 seasons.

Pitching against the International League's top offensive team, Dickey was oh-so-close to Buffalo's first perfect game since Dick Marlowe befuddled Baltimore in 1952.

"Oh, don't say that," Dickey said with a pained smile. "That was an 0-2 hit too. So maybe you can give me an error on it, like a mental error of some kind and we can call it a no-hitter. ... That knuckleball was probably the worst one I threw all day. I didn't throw many bad ones today."

The game took just 1 hour, 45 minutes. It was the Herd's first nine-inning, one-hit shutout since Kevin Blankenship blanked Oklahoma City in 1991.

Dickey threw 90 pitches, 68 for strikes. He went to a three-ball count just one time, got 12 groundball outs and struck out six. Most of the pitches never got above 75 mph. No inning lasted longer than 13 pitches.

The only even remotely tough outs were Ryan Shealy's topper to Mike Hessman at third in the eighth and Angel Chavez's chopper that a leaping Dickey speared in the ninth.

"After the first hitter, he threw a perfect game," manager Ken Oberkfell said. "What can you say? That was the most dominating performance I've ever seen. Not just from a knuckleballer. From almost any pitcher."

Dickey (3-1), signed as a free agent after spending most of last year as a reliever for Minnesota, picked up the knuckleball in 2007 as a career saver at Nashville and won 13 games to earn Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year honors.

"I'm still learning a lot. I really feel like I'm about 25 in knuckleball years," Dickey said. "I feel like I got maybe five or six more if I get up with the big-league team and stick there. I really feel like I'm passionate about it and still want to learn about it."

Dickey has been Buffalo's workhorse. He's pitched at least eight innings in four straight starts and leads the IL with 38⅔ innings pitched.

There have been only three complete games in the IL this season. One was Wednesday's no-hitter by Norfolk's Chris Tillman at Gwinnett. Dickey has the other two.

There's a reason for it, too. Dickey has no ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That's the one typically replaced in Tommy John surgery; it either was missing at birth or has disintegrated.

A 1996 U.S. Olympian, Dickey was a No. 1 pick of the Texas Rangers and was about to get an $810,000 bonus. But a team physician saw a picture of Dickey on the cover of Baseball America and thought his arm looked funny. After another exam revealed the oddity, the Rangers gave him only $75,000. But because of it, his arm has tremendous resiliency. No need to ice it after starts. No need to worry about elbow strain.

"Life is not without that sense of irony," Dickey said. "To not have that ligament as a conventional pitcher really allowed me to be resilient. It's that much more as a knuckleballer because I'm operating out there at 75 percent. If I'm at 100 percent, I'm going to be throwing the ball all over the place.

"I pick my times to really try to hump it up and throw a really filthy, hard nasty one," Dickey said. "The rest of the time, I just want to feel like I'm playing catch with it, taking spin off the baseball and manipulate the baseball like I want to do."

Only about 300 bundled-up fans saw the gem (there were 4,599 tickets sold). The Bisons got a run in the fourth on Hessman's groundout, two in the seventh (one on Chris Carter's single), and an insurance run in the eighth on 20-year-old shortstop Ruben Tejada's first Triple-A home run.

[HahnSolo]

Was this the game broadcast on SNY that I skipped past without a second thought? it looked like there were about 12 people in attendance.

[Frayed Knot]

"It was far from a perfect night for baseball Thursday at chilly, wind-whipped Coca-Cola Field."

Verducci: 'It was the wind that did it'

[Guest attgig]

good for dickey. although I doubt he'll see much of flushing this year.... or I could be wrong!!! :-)

Edited April 30, 2010 by Guest

[MFS62]

A knuckleballer with no walks is the thing that jumped out at me.
I wonder how much Thole enjoys catching him? Its a crash course for a young receiver trying to hone his catching skills.
Of course, if there are no baserunners, there can't be any passed balls.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

My six-point limit can't contain the Dickmaster.

Dickey 6.70
Tejada 1.67
Hessman 0.98
Thole 0.45
Carter 0.20

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

MFS62 wrote: Of course, if there are no baserunners, there can't be any passed balls.

If a knuckler whooshes in Binghamton, does it make a sound?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Kind of funny reading all our naysaying, in retrospect. It's fun to be wrong sometimes.

Anyway, Dickey talks with Dave Waldstein about the impending loss of an old, leathery friend.

[smg58]

When the glove finishes its career with a perfect game, it will get an express ticket to Cooperstown. One can dream...

You're right about the naysaying, though. I think attgig should edit that unhappy face.

[Guest attgig]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Kind of funny reading all our naysaying, in retrospect. It's fun to be wrong sometimes.

so glad I was wrong. Seems like the upper management made pretty much all the moves that we were talking about when breaking camp. They may have been a few months late, but... they got it, and we're finally reaping the joys from it.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Kind of funny reading all our naysaying, in retrospect. It's fun to be wrong sometimes. Anyway, Dickey talks with Dave Waldstein about the impending loss of an old, leathery friend.

I love those kinds of sports stories. Too often all we get are game stories and the behind the back bickering and "another scout said" kind of crap.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Kind of funny reading all our naysaying, in retrospect. It's fun to be wrong sometimes. Anyway, Dickey talks with Dave Waldstein about the impending loss of an old, leathery friend. I love those kinds of sports stories. Too often all we get are game stories and the behind the back bickering and "another scout said" kind of crap.

The Pelf Father's Day story is good that way, too.

[G-Fafif]

Lookalikes, sort of, 32 years apart: Pat Zachry in the 1978 highlight film (just shown by SNY) and R.A. Dickey these days. Tell R.A. to not kick the dugout steps (or give up a record-tying hit to Pete Rose)

[Guest Edgy DC]

9-2, 2.45 ERA, 20 BB, 68 SO between the major leagues and the minor leagues.

Not quite Strasburgian, but not that far off either.

[Zvon]

Edgy DC wrote: 9-2, 2.45 ERA, 20 BB, 68 SO between the major leagues and the minor leagues. Not quite Strasburgian, but not that far off either.

Strasburg couldn't fill his gloves.

[metirish]

I find I really enjoy watching him pitch.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Deserves ASG consideration.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Deserves ASG consideration.

6-0, 7 starts, with 2.33 ERA and 1.29 WHIP, 2:1 K/BB ratio. He'll have two more chances before the roster is chosen.

Knucklers typically develop late, right? I'm more excited that maybe-- just maybe-- we've stumbed onto the new Tim Wakefield here... or, better, Niekro with a fastball. This guy could be here for a bit.

[Zvon]

Deserves ASG consideration. 6-0, 7 starts, with 2.33 ERA and 1.29 WHIP, 2:1 K/BB ratio. He'll have two more chances before the roster is chosen. Knucklers typically develop late, right? I'm more excited that maybe-- just maybe-- we've stumbed onto the new Tim Wakefield here... or, better, Niekro with a fastball. This guy could be here for a bit.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Oh, shitmonkeys, I didn't even include tonight's data.

10 W, 2 L, 107 IP, 2.27 ERA, 22 BB 72 SO

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Deserves ASG consideration.

Considering that the hype started today for Strasburg to the ASG, Dickey would be a better story - particularly since even those promoting the Strasburg angle pretty much admit that it's mostly for pr reasons.

[Zvon]

Edgy DC wrote: Oh, shitmonkeys, I didn't even include tonight's data. 10 W, 2 L, 107 IP, 2.27 ERA, 22 BB 72 SO

Amazin'.
Who would have thunk?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

All that said... he's pitched 40-something ML innings this year.

There are something like 15 NL starters with sub-3 ERAs and 5 wins... each of those guys having pitched 12-15 starts. It'll take some doing.