13
2012
R.A. Dickey Wins 2012 Branch Rickey Award
An article by Hojo's Mojo
R.A. Dickey, star pitcher of the New York Mets, has been named the winner of the 2012 Branch Rickey Award, presented by AMG National Trust Bank. Jim Wilkins, founder of the award, made the announcement today during a press conference at the Denver Athletic Club. Dickey, currently one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball, will be inducted as the 21st member of the Baseball Humanitarians Hall of Fame™ during a banquet on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Marriott City Center Hotel in downtown Denver.
Created by the Rotary Club of Denver in 1991, the Branch Rickey Award honors individuals in baseball who contribute unselfishly to their communities and who are strong role models for young people. Each year, the Major League Baseball teams nominate one player from their team for this nationally acclaimed award. All of the nominees personify Rotary International’s motto, “Service Above Self.”
Dickey was chosen by a National Selection Committee, comprised of 350 members of the sports media, past award winners, baseball executives and Rotary district governors. All 30 Major League teams submitted a nominee for the award. Combining forces with a teammate from the bronze-medal-winning 1996 U.S. Olympic baseball team, Dickey helped found Honoring the Father Ministries, a benevolent charity that distributes baseball equipment and medical supplies around the world. He has personally traveled to Cuba five times, as well as visiting Mexico, Venezuela and Costa Rico to meet with young baseball players and give them instruction and equipment.
This January, Dickey climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, helping to raise more than $100,000 for the Bombay Teen Challenge, an organization dedicated to rescuing young women from forced prostitution in India.
Dickey, a high-velocity knuckleballer, is one of the best pitchers in the Majors this year with an 18-5 record, 2.68 ERA and 197 strikeouts. Before joining the Mets in 2010, he had played professional baseball for 16 years, mostly in the minors. The story of his long and frustrating journey to the pinnacle of pitching is chronicled in his recently released book, “Wherever I Wind Up, My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.” Dickey is the only Major League pitcher who now throws the knuckleball, a spinless pitch that is as difficult to master as it is to hit.
Previous Mets to have won this award include Al Leiter and Bobby Valentine.
About the Author: Rob Johnson
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You’ve come a long way, RA. Congrats!
This.
Nobody was more deserving than Dickey for this honor. How he managed to have such a great season in the middle of all his humanitarian and charitable accomplishments this year is simply amazing.
Congratulations to R.A. Dickey, a great person in addition to a great player.
Congrats to the player RA DICKEY, the same guy who whine about playing the yankees 6 times a year… SMH… Loser mentality…
Wow, are we not allowed to praise one single Met? Do you find fault in them all or just “certain” ones?
That might be the most lamest comment I ever read on any Mets site.
This.
Quite possibly the only Met fan that could find fault with RA Dickey.
Ok, wait…. When did i say i have a problem with RA DICKEY? I have a problem with WHAT HE SAID!!!!! YEs i do… I don’t want mets players to bitch and moan about facint a tough opponent. Losers do that!!
Sigh….
But of course, it’s my fault for engaging with someone like you, who have no knowledge of baseball and all you do is defend SA and blame the wilpons for everything your lord does wrong… Stupid me for even attemp to engage with the biggest S****er in here…
Quite whining Alex. It’s getting old.
Ohhh yeah?? at least i do it to your face… Unlike you who go to other sites to bash bloggers from here…..
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Right, sure i don’t…. Whatever i gotta say i say it here… Period. i don’t go out of here blasting people from this site in other sites.. Which, someone else does. But you guys from the desert seem to do that. Kinda like when kingman would get out of the desert to come blast people here and go back there to trash the people from here. Very funny stuff.
don’t go out of here blasting people from this site in other sites
Good. Neither do I.
Dickey’s complaint isn’t that they have to play the yankees – its that the rest of their division doesn’t have to.
MLB plays a division heavy schedule which puts emphasis on being good against your division opponents. Then having a balanced schedule the rest of the way. The problem is while the Mets were playing the Yanks 6 times a year, the Phillies were playing the Blue Jays. Giving the Phillies an advantage with the schedule.
That’s not a loser mentality – that’s pointing out a flaw in the system
Well, i find fault on players with loser mentality. This is the type of player we should be signing to be leaders of the team? When they complain about facing a good opponent? How pathetic is that? I have no problem had he said the mets play the yankees too much for interleague, but to bitch and moan about it and whine like a little biatch makes him a loser?
Waaaa, Waaaa it’s not fair we play the yankees 6 times and the phillies don’t” Waaa Waaaa… LOser!!!!
For God sakes, change your name and dont post as Alex!
May I recommend Judas or Benedict?
Sigh … …. …
You and Tommy Gun should form a comedy team like Abbott and Costello.
I mean, am i the only one who has a problem with him whinning about playing the yankees 6 times and how it’s not fgair??? That’s loser mentality!!!! The O’s, Rays, Jays and red sox play them 19 times every year!!! Jeez, i have a problem with him whinning about it yes,… Hell, even wright more or less had a complained, yet, he used the perfect words for it: “(The Yankees) have a real good team, so it’s obviously beneficial for what we’re trying to accomplish that it’s (condensed). Not that we don’t enjoy that series, because at least I do, but the Yankees are always a good team. You play them four times and it gives the fans an opportunity to come out to both ballparks. It gives fans a taste of that interleague Subway Series, but at the same time it makes the schedule a little more, I don’t know if ‘fair’ is the word. … It will be nice to have a little more balance to the schedule.”
See that???? Even he knew how poorly those words were!!!!
Actions speak louder than words right? Out of all the Mets players do you honestly believe that RA Dickey has shown to have a losers mentality?
TRS, actions?? Are you going by what he’s doing this year?? because, in case you haven’t noticed, the man had a losing record prior 2012. Now, i am happy with what he’s done with us, but you cannot tell me his comments are loser mentality type comments!!!!
Hell, even DW agreed with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Alex,
Joe Torre said the same thing about not wanting to play the Mets six times a year, either – and let’s face it, that was more advantageous for the Yankees to puff up their won lost record.
Also, do keep in mind that this pitcher with the “loser” mentality also came out publicly last summer after KRod and Beltran were traded and said how the team believed in itself and knowing that the front office did not have faith in them was hard to swallow.
To me, that is the sign of a competitor, even though those comments have been dismissed by some as coming from one unable to realize his team was playing over its head whereas Sandy Alderson knew better.
The Branch Rickey Award honors individuals in baseball who contribute unselfishly to their communities and who are strong role models for young people. All of the nominees personify Rotary International’s motto, “Service Above Self.” I’ll take the opinion from one who reflects those virtues and uses his heart along with his head above what computer data might indicate every time.
To answer your first question: Yes
So you got no problem about a met player facing tough competition???? Wow… Just Wow!!
Nope, I’ve got no problem with RA Dickey, TC or one of the several others who have voiced their opinion about playing the Yankees 6 times a year.
Yeah, the GOLDEN boy even said it gives a competitive adv. i get that, but to bitch and moan??? Waaaa waaaaa it’s not fair … Waaaaaa…. LOSER!!!!!!
I don’t care what Met might now want to play the Yankees 6 times a year. I hate interleague play to begin with.
You complained about his ‘loser mentality’. I commented you are quite possibly the only Met fan to find fault with RA Dickey. Complaining about his ‘loser mentality’ is finding fault.
You are just so exhausting at times.
I’ll take RA Dickey or David Wright’s “loser mentality” over the person you’re arguing with’s “mentality” any day and twice on Sunday
You’ve been told to not reply or comment about me right? Do yourself a favor a comply with what’s been ask of you ok? You know my sentiment towards you and i do not wanna engaged in a war of worlds with a P0S like you…
srt you have the patience of a saint. However isn’t it funny when you are accused of knowing nothing about baseball from the one person who has shown the least aptitude on the subject?