The ulner collateral ligament is a pesky elastic band that stabilizes the elbow joint. Baseball pitchers heavily rely on it — and often tear it, which leads to Tommy John surgery.
R.A. Dickey doesn’t have one.
“[Orthopedist James Andrews] said he had never seen anything like it in his career,” Dickey once said. “He said realistically I shouldn’t be able to turn a doorknob without having some discomfort.”
But this is old news — as is the fact that the missing ligament cost the right-hander his original signing bonus with the Texas Rangers in the 1996 amateur draft. And that Dickey — after a back injury derailed his career and zapped his fastball — reinvented himself by learning how to throw a knuckleball. All of that has been widely chronicled.
So what on earth was Dickey doing on the back page of Thursday’s New York Daily News? Well, on Wednesday night he threw eight innings of shutout ball to lead the streaking Mets past the Detroit Tigers, improving his record to 6-0 and lowering his ERA to 2.33.
Once thought to be done after John Maine and Oliver Perez landed on the disabled list within 10 days of each other, the Mets entered play Thursday leading the NL wild card race. And they owe a large thank you to their 35-year-old scrap heap knuckleballer, who is providing an unlikely, um … shot in the arm … to a team that was in desperate need of one.
