RA Dickey: Superhero

We're all familiar with the small, tight-knit fraternity of MLB knuckleballers - mostly because of the wonderful career and community service achievements of Boston's own Tim Wakefield. But I'm sure you've all heard of the 2012 NL Cy Young Award winner, RA Dickey, formerly of the New York Mets, and a member of the Toronto Blue Jays starting this season.

Dickey had a phenomenal season last year, all the more so because of the fickle nature of the knuckleball, but this post isn't about his baseball statistics. No, this post is about something far more serious than baseball, so stop reading now and come back tomorrow if that's not what you're looking for right now.

RA Dickey is currently in Mumbai, India, volunteering with an organization called the Bombay Teen Challenge, which aims to save some of the estimated one million women and children forced into sexual slavery in that country alone.  Dickey wrote about his own sexual abuse in his book, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, and was also profiled in an excellent piece by Sports Illustrated (also featuring Kayla Harrison, gold medalist in judo) on sexual abuse and athletes back in December.

Last offseason, RA Dickey climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, raising over $100,000 for the Bombay Teen Challenge, and this year he's continuing his contribution in probably the best way he can: by getting over there and getting the word out. Charitable contributions are a big part of being a professional athlete: players have a serious soapbox to sound off on whatever issues are most important to them, and Dickey isn't about to waste that chance.

If you'd like to know more about Dickey's service trip, you can check out this story from the AP on ESPN. If you want to find out more about the Bombay Teen Challenge, please visit their website and/or like them on Facebook. Because of the brutal nature of the crimes that BTC is trying to fight against, there's a sort of culture of silence surrounding the whole issue - and it's time to end that silence. 

The Indefinite Steroid Era?

The Miami New Times has dropped a bomb on professional sports with an exposé by Tim Elfrink entitled, "A Miami Clinic Supplies Drugs to Sports' Biggest Names." Among many, many others, Alex Rodriguez's name appears multiple times in the article, and in the records of alleged steroid distributor Tony Bosch.

In addition to some fantastic investigative journalism, I want to give kudos to the New Times graphic design department for the hilarious cover art displayed with the online article:

I can't decide whether the syringes are meant to resemble literal missiles being dropped at the quaint community depicted, or if they're meant to look like a telltale rainbow? Either way, it's almost enough to distract from the incredible substance of the article.

Lending credence to the evidence of A*Rod's continued drug use are certain names of the Yankee superstar's MLB peers, who have been caught and punished for using a banned substance - like Melky Cabrera, who was suspended for 50 games this past season for testing positive for some illicit drug. Old friend Bartolo Colon is also among those listed in Bosch's records - and was also suspended last season when MLB drug tests revealed his use of synthetic testosterone.

A*Rod, of course, denies the allegations, and the Yankees have released a statement saying that they'll leave the investigation to the Commissioner's Office (which has obviously never bungled a steroid problem before, so THAT'S A RELIEF).  However, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe speculates that the Yankees might sue to have A*Rod's gargantuan contract finished early if the allegations can be proven - which is a shame for me on a personal level because I was really enjoying the buckets of money that the Yankees were paying Rodriguez as we all watched his health deteriorate before out very eyes.

Sadly for Rodriguez, he's out for an extended period of time due to his perpetually bad hip (surely another coincidence, and not a side-effect of many years of steroid use), and as such won't have the chance to be tested by MLB and then get on the field in an attempt to prove he can play clean.  

But even with MLB testing for HGH fr the first time (in season) in 2013, can the results be trusted? Even players making just the major league minimum salary have the money to pay for the newest undetectable drugs, and to hire someone to monitor their regimen.  Even a clean testing record is relatively meaningless in an era where the newest designer PEDs are all but undetectable for the right price, and baseball is full of multi-millionaires.  The article fromthe New Times just reminds us that we're really nowhere different from a decade ago: anyone could be using, and there may never be a way for fans to know for sure who's clean.

But there is one thing we can all be pretty sure of: A*Rod - like Cabrera, and Colon, and Manny Ramirez before him - is not.

[I highly recommend heading over to the Miami New Times website and reading the whole article if you have ten minutes to spare - it's really a good piece of journalism.]

Reader's reluctance and Tito's new book

I got my copy of Francona: The Red Sox Years, right on time on its release date from Amazon.  It is currently sitting, unopened, on my bedside table.  I'm sure it will be well-written, as everything Dan Shaughnessy has a hand in writing has a certain style, and I'm sure it will be interesting, because Terry Francona's arrival in Boston coincided with a very exciting time in Red Sox history.

So why haven't I opened it yet? It's not because I'm in the middle of another book (surely a lackadaisical winter reread of Harry Potter can be put aside for a new release like this one), nor is it because I don't have the time - indeed, I have a shameful amount of free time lately.

No, my reluctance to dive into what is sure to be a page-turner has more to do with a halfhearted attempt at preserving my illusions. I know that there were players who were difficult, even during the magical 2004 and 2007 seasons (the sections on Manny Ramirez alone must be pretty hefty). But I'm not ready to lose my mental pedestals for players whose indiscretions might have flown under the radar of the fans - if, for instance, there's a passage about anyone that at all resembles the Roger Clemens anecdotes from Joe Torre's The Yankee Years, I might just lost it.

I've heard good things about the book, and I'm sure that once I manage to start it, I'll be through it in a matter of days.  I'm equally certain that the book will have me feeling some serious nostalgia for the good old days of the Pedey/Tito bromance.  Have any of you guys read the book? Am I being nervous for nothing? Let me know here in the comments, on Twitter, or on the Facebook page!