This year’s award winners received their hardware, and of course, R.A. Dickey was the main event.

Dickey took home the 2012 NL Cy Young Award and was honored with the BBWAA’s “Joe DiMaggio Toast of the Town” award for forging a special bond with the New York fans.

R.A. Dickey at BBWAA Dinner

Before Dickey took to the podium, the dais featured some of the top players in the game today including Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, David Price, Buster Posey and C.C. Sabathia. Former Met killer Chipper Jones was also in attendance to receive the BBWAA’s “Long and Meritorious Service” award.

The 1973 NL champion New York Mets were honored for their 40th anniversary. Rusty Staub and Buddy Harrelson accepted the “Willie, Clipper and the Duke” award. Willie Mays was actually there too and was given a standing ovation.

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson was tasked with introducing the 1973 team. But before doing that, he acknowledged Dickey for his remarkable season.

“The contributions he’s made for the Mets not just this year but over three years, it’s been a privilege of mine to watch him perform over the last two,” he said. “I think everyone, Mets fans and baseball fans everywhere, will agree that last year was truly not just historic but in some ways a storybook finish to his career here. I hope it’s not finished. I hope that sometime down the line that we will meet again.”

However, he said he was not infringing on Blue Jays’ general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who was sitting at the table right in front of the podium.

Sandy Alderson, the comedian

Alderson must have thought he was a comedian, but many Mets fans in attendance were not too impressed with his routine. He said that he has been in contact with several outfielders that he “met on the Internet, one of which went to Stanford.” Naturally, he was poking fun at the Manti Te’o situation, but still Sandy, why don’t you go get us an outfielder rather than joking about it?

But Alderson wished Dickey well, even though he was the guy who sent him out of town.

“Perhaps R.A. will become the first back-to-back Cy Young winner in two different leagues representing two different countries,” he said. “I hope that happens.”

Dickey was introduced by Phil Niekro, the greatest knuckleballer in history who served as a mentor to Dickey as he learned to throw the mysterious pitch.

Niekro was honored to be part of the event and even said to his wife that if his wedding had been scheduled for Saturday, he would have postponed it in order to be in New York for R.A.’s special night.

When Dickey won the Cy Young, Niekro called right away, and Dickey kept saying, “We did it! We did it!”

“I said, ‘We didn’t do it. You did it. You were out there busting your butt from the first day of spring training to the end, you’re taking the signs and you’re striking them out, and you’re pitching one-hitters and shutouts. You did it.’”

But Dickey still said that it was a team effort.

Niekro said that he was so proud of Dickey, and he’s sure that the likes of Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield, his brother Joe Niekro, Hoyt Wilhelm, Tom Candiotti and Wilbur Wood would all feel the same way.

Phil Niekro introduces Dickey

“This has never happened to us before,” Niekro said. “No knuckleballer in the history of the game had won a Cy Young Award. You (Dickey) have brought us up to a level that none of us ever thought we’d get to.”

Dickey and Niekro embraced before it was R.A.’s turn to accept his award. He started with a litany of thank you’s to the Wilpons, Alderson and Mets’ public relations director Jay Horwitz.

“I have so many thank you’s for my Met family, and that’s what it really felt like when I was here,” Dickey said. “I don’t think I could have ever wished to play for a better manager than Terry Collins.”

Dickey of course thanked his wife Anne for sticking by him at his lowest times and traveling all over the country, Latin America and now Canada with him as he pursued his dreams. He talked about Cy Young’s wife, Robba, to put his thanks into perspective.

“For every Cy Young Award winner who has a mate and is married, there needs to be a Robba Young Award to go along side of it,” he said.

Dickey – a Star Wars buff of course – gave a special thank you to whom he calls the “Jedi Council of Knuckleballers” made up of Hough, Wakefield and Niekro. He said he remembers meeting Hough in 2005 as he was on his way out as a conventional pitcher.

“I was throwing 85 (mph) and didn’t have the control of a Greg Maddux,” he said. “I was serving up some balls that still haven’t landed.”

But he was grateful to his manager and pitching coach with the Texas Rangers, Buck Showalter and Orel Hershiser, for giving him the confidence to reinvent himself.

“75,000 knuckleballs off a cinderblock wall later, and here I am,” Dickey said. “I would not be here if it wasn’t for Charlie, Phil and Tim. This is an award to not only be celebrated with them but also the city of New York and the New York Mets fanbase.”

Phil Niekro and R.A. Dickey embrace.

Dickey only spoke for a few minutes since he likely had to feel a bit strange. Here’s a guy being celebrated in his former town for his accomplishments with his former team, but yet that team sent him packing even though he wanted to be back. Sure, the trade made sense for a rebuilding franchise, but it’s still tough to Dickey leave after such an inspirational season.

This year’s dinner marks the second straight year (Jose Reyes in 2012) that a Mets’ award winner accepted an award as a member of another team.

Even so, the night was a great event for baseball fans and one that Dickey will cherish for the rest of his life.

Yesterday, a trio of famous knuckleballers made their way to MLB’s FanCave to promote the movie “Knuckleball!” directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg.

Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, former Red Sox Tim Wakefield, and the Mets’ R.A. Dickey all fielded questions about the movie as well as being a knuckleball pitcher in the major leagues.

Metsmerized Online was invited to the event for a special roundtable discussion and I was also able to get a a few minutes with R.A. to talk a little Mets baseball.

MMO: What do you think is harder when it comes to the knuckleball, throwing it or having to be the guy on the other end catching it?

Tim Wakefield: Catching, I hate when guys throw me knuckleballs. I’ll throw it to you but don’t throw it to me.

Phil Niekro: All I know is I got paid to throw it, and they got paid to catch it.

R.A. Dickey:I actually reached out to Doug Mirabelli (Wakefield’s catcher in Boston) to see if he could give Josh Thole some insight. It was really helpful because the first four balls I ever threw to Josh went off his body, it missed his mitt completely. After that we hooked him up with Doug and he was a lot better.

MMO: You guys are all unique pitchers, throwing the same pitch but all having a different way of doing it. Can you tell us what makes you all different?

Dickey: I think its just a product of embracing who you are with it. When I first became a knuckleballer, I wanted to become Tim since he was the picture I had. He was still playing and I just saturated myself with video of him pitching and mechanically, try to be him. It worked off and on but something was missing. I met with Phil and he got me a little more athletic with my body and I realized that I had something that was unique for me and thats when my career took off.

Niekro: Your really got to be yourself, you can’t be someone else. We would like to be someone else but we can’t when it comes to the pitch. We hold the ball a little differently or throw it a little harder or have a different arm release. I threw it as hard as Dickey but it would’t make it to the plate. All the knuckleballers are a little different but we are the same inside. This is the pitch, this will get me there and keep me there. I am a knuckleballer.

MMO: Do you think your success in Boston (Wakefield) and New York (Dickey) combined with this movie will inspire younger ball players to become a knuckleball pitcher.

Dickey: That’s what we hope. I think Tim and I don’t want the pitch to go extinct nor do I think it will. I have a few good years left in me and there some guys coming up that are going to break in. Hopefully there will be a movement and you will see it com back like it was early on. I remember a White Sox staff where four out of four pitchers were knuckleball starters. I don’t know if you will ever see that because today everything is so geared towards strength and velocity and power pitching, you would have to see a real shift but I think its coming.

After the roundtable discussion Dickey was able to answer a few quick one-on-one questions pertaining to the Mets and his personal life.

MMO: What do you think your future is with the New York Mets?

Dickey: I would love to be back. I mean there is a part of me that believes that it is the right thing to do to stay loyal to the team that gave you your shot. At the same time, at the age that I am, I want to win. I don’t know how much longer I will be playing, hopefully that could be for five or six more years as a knuckleballer but you never know. I would like to know that the team is going in the right direction and I think we have some pieces that are really good so hopefully we will be able to work something out in the offseason, but I love New York and the fans and have had a great time being a Met.

MMO: What is your best/most memorable moment from this season?

Dickey: I would say being in that streak of scoreless innings, it seemed like I had such a good feel for it at that time and I knew I couldn’t sustain it but at the same time week after week. I surprised myself which is hard to do at this point. Also the back-to-back one hitters, when I missed a no-hitter in Tampa by an infield single, that was a pretty fun game during that stretch.

MMO: You mentioned some of the pieces going forward for the Mets. One of those pieces is Matt Harvey. Even though there is a different pitching style, is there any way you mentor or advise him, being the ace and veteran in the rotation?

Dickey: Harvey is really mature for his age and his time on the big leagues. He has really shown me a lot as a professional. I am available for whoever wants to talk and I always look for those guys who ask questions because those are usually the guys that want to learn and he does that. There is a lot I think can lend from the mental aspect having been through a lot, simply not because I am good but because I have experience and you always turn to those people who have walked a mile in your shoes.

MMO: Your walk up music is the Game of Thrones theme, any particular reason why?

Dickey: I don’t know I am just moved by it. I fall in love with pieces of music that move you in some way. I like the medieval feeling it has and it makes it seem like “OK, here I come.”

MMO: You climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last year, plus the excitement from everything during the season, any big plans for this years off season?

Dickey: I think I just want to be a father and husband for an offseason. I really miss my children and my wife and to able to do that and engage them is important to me. Maybe a trip to India to follow up on the outreach that I supported when I climbed Kilimanjaro in January would be on the docket though.

MMO: Lastly, a New York Times Best seller, a Cy Young award, or a national title for Tennessee college football, which one would it be?

Dickey: Oh my, I guess I would have to say the middle one. Definitely the Cy Young.

The movie “KnuckleBall!” is playing in select theaters and is also available in Video On Demand. More information bout the movie can be found here: http://www.knuckleballmovie.com.

Message from Joe D.

I want to thank Michael for an outstanding job covering his first major event for us since joining our team at Metsmerized. Of course I also want to thank the producers and directors of Knuckleball! and the agents and our reps, Matt and Russ, for working with us and making us feel like VIPs right from the very start. And finally a big thank you to Phil Niekro, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey who were gracious to us back at the screening, again on Wednesday night at Citi Field, and then again on Thursday at the MLB Fan Cave in NYC.  Knuckleballers are very special pitchers who are part of a very tiny and exclusive fraternity. This movie is their story and their incredible journey. Go out and see Knuckleball! the movie, or order it on your cable or satellite provider’s Movies on Demand… You’ll love it!