R.A. Dickey claims National League Cy Young Award

Despite playing for the National League East’s fourth place team, New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey was a bright spot across the MLB landscape with a Cy Young Award winning performance. Even more amazing was the fact that Dickey won the honor as the only player to utilize the knuckleball as his predominant pitch. Dickey finished the season with a 20-6 record, 2.73 earned run average and 230 strikeouts.

But just prior to the season, it was Dickey’s autobiography Wherever I Wind Up that made the biggest impact. In his book, Dickey, who signed with Toronto during the offseason, discussed the abuse he endured as a child and shared his experience of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for human trafficking in Mumbai.

“I really felt that God gave me a very unique story and it took awhile for me to get the equipment to process it and the vocabulary to communicate it,” Dickey told Beliefnet earlier this year. “When these things started to happen, I felt a compulsion from God that he wanted me to share my story, even though it was very painful.”