R. A. Dickey

This segment originally aired live on June 17, 2014. An edited version was included in a best-of episode of The Brian Lehrer Show on August 15th. The unedited audio can be found here. 

R. A. Dickey, the first knuckleballer to win the Cy Young Award when he played for the Mets in 2012, now with the Toronto Blue Jays, and the author of the children's book Knuckleball Ned (Dial, 2014) illustrated by Tim Bowers, talks about his new illustrated book for preschoolers featuring a knuckleball named Ned and an anti-bullying message.

Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey was on the Leonard Lopate Show to talk about his memoir and to explain how to throw a knuckleball (it involves digging your fingernails into the ball behind the horse shoe and releasing it at the perfect moment to keep it from spinning).

New York Mets knuckleballer R. A. Dickey details his transformation from a reckless, risk-taking loner to a grounded major leaguer. His memoir Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball reveals how despite his ups and downs on the field, his Christian faith, the love of his family, and a quest for self-awareness helped him emerge as one of the premier pitchers in the National League in 2010.