OPINION
OLD SCHOOL B Y A A R O N M AY
a a ro n @ s p o r t s s p e c t r u m . c o m | F o l l o w @ p p l c a l l m e b l u e
Review: Wherever I Wind Up
R.
A. Dickey has done a lot in his life; he’s been a top collegiate pitcher for the University of Tennessee, he’s pitched for Team USA in the 1996 Olympics, he’s played for four different major league ballclubs, he’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and now he’s written a book. Wherever I Wind Up is a story of overcoming obstacles, persevering and trusting God. Through all of his struggles, R.A. has found redemption and healing through Christ. Athletes write books all the time. But this one is different. Instead of only seeing the surface level that most athletes give us, we get into the mind of Robert Allen Dickey. He shares the thoughts, the worries, the doubts, and occasionally, the triumphs. “I’d trusted myself and pitched with conviction during my warm up...I was fully in the moment. And when I started, I hid...As I let each pitch go that night, I had voices in my head saying, ‘Please let it be a strike,’ and ‘Please don’t let them hit it.’” “It is no way to pitch, no way to live.” In Wherever I Wind Up, you are on the journey with R.A. as he provides memories in precise detail, reliving his thoughts and actions throughout the book. His photographic memory provides a picture of his life as a child and certain moments in his adult life and baseball career. He vividly recalls the games he would play with other boys at the minor league ballpark in Nashville, and what his thoughts were while meeting with Texas manager Buck Showalter and pitching coach Orel Hershiser about becoming a full-time knuckleballer. He even recounts the layout of bars he was taken to as a child with his once-alcoholic mother. R.A. is a great wordsmith, and Wherever I Wind Up makes it really easy to put yourself in R.A.’s shoes. Dickey has always been a fighter. He writes about getting into plenty of fights as a kid, and often he was the one starting them. It explains his persistence in trying to make it to the big leagues after many others typically give up. He spent seven years in AAA at Oklahoma City and didn’t play a full season in the big leagues, without a stint in the minors, until last season. As you might expect, the journey was filled with ups and downs, much like his signature pitch, the knuckleball. Dickey isn’t a knuckleballer by choice; it was a pitch he turned to as a last ditch effort to save his career. In 2005, Dickey had lost the velocity on his fastball, dipping below 90 mph, and the Rangers coaching staff told him he would not make it back to the big leagues if he continued to be a conventional pitcher. Thus began Dickey’s journey to become a full-time knuckleballer. At first, he writes, he was a little resistant, but he decided he would give it a try. He wrote, “Who cares about throwing 90 miles per hour? I’m tired of being average or worse. Tired of being lost, hiding on the margins of life and the Texas Rangers’ roster.” I think it’s really cool to hear the thoughts of a baseball player in this book. So often we get such calculated statements from 6
SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2012
PENGUIN GROUP
guys in interviews after games. When guys go through slumps, they insist they have not lost any confidence, or have no worries about tomorrow’s performance. Yet, everyone knows those answers are a bunch of baloney. R.A.’s honesty is the key ingredient that makes this book such a good read. Dickey often talks about how he would doubt himself while standing on the mound or waiting in the bullpen. It lets you know that professional baseball players are indeed human while on the diamond. R.A.’s journey has not been alone. God has been with him. Throughout the book, R.A. writes about his prayers to God. When R.A. was in seventh grade, after attending a few weeks of FCA meetings with his friend Bo (whose sister, Anne, R.A. would later marry), R.A. decided, “I want a relationship with Jesus Christ.”