Wherever I Wind Up

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAR 12, 2012

Most professional baseball players pen a memoir after they retire. But pitcher R.A. Dickey who spent four seasons with four different Major League Baseball teams and is MLB's only active knuckleballer boasts a story compelling enough to be told forthwith. A heralded 1996 first-round draft choice, Dickey's $810,000 signing bonus with the Texas Rangers was yanked after doctors discovered the right-handed pitcher was missing an ligament in his right elbow. Thus began a dramatic up-and-down journey through the professional ranks, sustained by Dickey's determination, as evidenced by the book's proverbial Latin epigraph, "Dum spiro, spero" "While I breath, I hope." He and co-author Coffey (The Boys of Winter) write with startling candor not only about the game Dickey's fellow players, steroids in baseball, his disdain for rookie hazing , but also about his tumultuous upbringing being a victim of sexual abuse as an 8-year-old at the hands of his babysitter, growing up in Nashville with an alcoholic mother, sleeping in vacant houses as a teenager, and becoming a Christian. Dickey credits his faith with overcoming myriad trials both personal and professional, but it never feels as if he's preaching. Once an English-lit major and now a starting pitcher for the New York Mets, the author emerges as one of baseball's good guys, and someone who can write as well as he pitches. Dickey has set a new standard for athlete autobiographies. Color photos.