R.A. Stands for Ridiculously Awesome

Seaver, Gooden, Darling, Leiter. Now add Dickey to the list of Mets pitching heroes.

Last night R.A. Dickey, a 35 year old knuckleball throwing journeyman, solidified his place in Mets lore by shutting down the vaunted Phillies lineup in the first game of a pivotal series. But two things made Dickey’s performance even more amazing than the typical dominating start.

First, the Phillies should have had an advantage before the game even started. They struggled against another knuckleballer just two nights ago, so you would have thought the entire lineup would be watching game film and adjusting during their off day. Instead, it appears that Utley, Howard and Co. were too busy cavorting with their vomiting fans and checking out the latest in taser technology to study up on how to hit a knuckleball.

Second, Dickey was hit on the elbow by a line drive early yet still persevered through six shutout innings. Imagine if the same thing had happened to John Maine or Ollie Perez. Maine would have been pulled from the game, yelled at his manager for taking him out, and then been diagnosed with some sort of major injury unheard of by most of mankind. Ollie would have stayed in to pitch three more innings, gotten shelled, and then complained about how much the injury (and slight breeze) affected him.

But not R.A Dickey. Dickey proved that, despite the funny name and the fact that he has never won more than eight games in a season, he can be counted on by the Mets to win big games.

After all, he's not named Ridiculously Awesome for nothing.