Petrovic
First Round Draft Pick

Hey Petro, good to hear from ya buddy. Yeah this season even if we just end up 82-80 has been a success.

How is your fantasy league team?

Thanks for the invite Petro. I would like to but I can't really keep up on a fantasy league right now. Keep in touch man, like to talk sports with you.

Sounds like fun stuff. LOL Glad to see you back posting again. Yeah I agree Collins who wasn't given a chance to anything by many has certainly got this team heading in the right direction.

LOL, I just figured out what you were talking about! You're now "Petro" in the congregation.

Can I throw in the "ro?"

???

Thanks Petro, it's only fitting afterall. I really believe the end is near for the Wilpons and their reign of terror in Queens.

Is no big deal dude.

Hi Pet:

I think I am and here's why:

When the Mets first announced they had signed him to a minor league contract, I had my fun over signing a seemingly incompetant knuckleballer with a phallic last name as much as anyone did.

And early in the season when they needed to bring up a starter, I implored them not to bring up Dickey. I hate knuckleballers, I said. They're erractic at best. Plus, he was 34 years old and had done squat. Why not bring up a younger pitcher with more upside?

That all changed when I saw him pitch in Buffalo in a game telecast by SNY. He gave up a leadoff hit and then was perfect the rest of the way. A total of 28 hitters. Now, in baseball, oddities can happen but I was more impressed by the way he went about pitching than the results. He did something I had never seen anyone do before and I've been following this game for more than 40 years: He changed speeds on his knuckleball.

Knuckleballs are generally thrown very slowly. A good knuckleball has hitters flailing like fools trying to hit it but you never see one catch a batter off-balance. But that was exactly what RA was doing. I was mesmerized. Changed my opinion of him on the spot. Plus, he worked fast, the anti-Steve Trachsel. Hitters never got comfortable in the box. One by one they put up terrible at bats. And (unless I'm mistaken), this was against the best hitting team in the league.


When I saw him pitch with the Mets, he was the exact same pitcher I saw wearing a Buffalo uniform and the results were nearly just as good. Then I started to read up on him. Turns out he's only been throwing the knuckleball for the last 4 years. He's also exceptionally bright and has a teflon demeanor in that nothing bothers him.

Well into his first month s a Met, posters in the PSD Forum were calling him a fluke based on his past numbers. That's when I started proclaiming myself the Bishop of the C of D. I had seen and I was believing.

But I digress: if you take just one point from this tome it's this: The Dickey you saw last season and the Dickey you read about in Milwaukee are two entirely different pitchers. Back then, he was still trying to figure it out.

Last season, in Buffalo and New York, he suceeded.

One last thought: Imagine someone who is a natural right handed thrower trying to pitch with his left hand. If after much failure he switched back to his right hand and had sudden success, you wouldn't say, "He's a fluke! Look how bad he was before!"

That is a good metaphor of Dickey's success.