Why New York Mets’ R.A. Dickey deserves CY Young Award for 2012 regular season?-Part 3
Dickey was not handed the job of starting the All-Star Game despite the fact that the pitcher who was preferred over him had not performed at-par with him. The National League Manager was too scared of touching upon the novel idea of getting a knuckleballer
to start such a high profile game.
Dwarfing the splendours that Dickey delivered in the season in the guise of this move, he was more concerned about making sure that nothing deviates from the conventional norms of the All-Star Game. As if the fear of becoming scapegoat in case the experiment
of using a knuckleballer does not work, took a heavy toll on his mind, he found it safer to be doing something within the realm of acceptable practices.
However, those considering the decision unjust and against the spirit of the ASG were fairly objective in their criticism because after all the hot favourite of the fans was not placed in the exhibition upfront.
While Dickey was snubbed back then, there should be little reason for the voters this time to deprive him of the honour of the CY Young Award. In the case of the ASG the specific requirements of the match may have shackled his quest for the prestige of starting
the game but the matter of CY Young Award presents a whole different story.
Irrespective of how strong a candidate Dickey is for the award, he is least concerned. Far from claiming to make an intentional effort toward achieving it, he finds more satisfaction in continuing his present run of form in the season.
"Awards or numbers of games won, that needs to be an organic thing," Dickey said. "It needs to happen as part of a process of going out there every day, preparing your body to throw 200-plus innings and give your team a chance to win every time. If I can
be in a place where I know I've done that, I can breathe easy."
The award basically tilts toward the hurlers that have shown consistency in their way of hoodwinking batters and have pulled off victories from the situations where the general expectations were at the lowest ebb.
The starter who has not looked back even with few good outings and instead has stepped forward every time makes a strong case for this.
Unlike those pitchers who do not dare to build on their success out of the knowledge that they have already achieved more than they wanted and thus scale down their goals mentally, the CY Young Award candidate always seeks excellence and puts no limit to
the range of distinctions he works to attain.
Dickey is not far from this criterion. The matches which saw him throwing complete games with little number of hits allowed are actually the testament to what he has searched in the season.
Even during the second half when the discussion about the fantastic expedition by him in the season was subsiding, he hardly let anyone to forget him altogether. The speed with which he retires batters kept enthralling the fans and thus making him one of
the most distinctive memories that the fans will depart the season with.
Another feather in the cap of Dickey can be the way he carved his way out of the couple of unimpressive outings and turned out even better.
Continued in Part 4
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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