Even though R.A. Dickey didn't pitch well yesterday, it is hard to be upset. Early spring training--who cares. Early spring training for pitchers is only relevant for young guys--Matt Harvey or comebacks after major injuries--Johan. Though I didn't see yesterday's game--it got me thinking that there is no sport like baseball for second, third or even fourth acts. I mean the starting pitchers were R.A. Dickey and Chien Ming Wang--they have had more acts then Hamlet.
On top of that, I saw that Bartolo Colon pitched well for the A's yesterday. I mean Bartolo Colon is older then Chuck Hinton (looking for obscure Indians reference). There are a lot of reasons I love baseball and the love of comebacks of aging players is one of them.
R.A. Dickey is an incredible story. He was basically in the baseball scrap heaps until he developed and controlled his knuckle ball. Now, when he has it going, he is one of the toughest pitchers in baseball. Last year's record obscured the fact that he actually was very effective in a lot of his starts and had minimal run support (I know that is a shock with that potent Met offense). Plus he seems like a good guy which means a lot to me.
Maybe if things go South early this year, the Mets can tender some contracts to some former players. Heard that Mike Vail can still hit the ball, John Stearns (his nickname of Dude was way ahead of its time) can still steal a base especially for a catcher, Pat Zachary can give you some long relief innings--the possibilities are limitless.
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