Notebook | R.A. Dickey can't forget past as he looks to his future

OAKLAND, Calif. — The past is never far from R.A. Dickey's mind as he prepares for what he hopes will be his future.

Dickey takes the mound for the Mariners tonight against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, embarking on a second life as a starting pitcher in a major-league career derailed a number of times before it ever really got started. The 33-year-old father of three, armed with a couple of new knuckleballs and a stubborn belief in himself, will try to resurrect a career that seemed to have died in 2006.

"There's a time when the reflection will stop," he said on Thursday. "But now, I think about it a lot. It's my story. It's kind of who I am."

That story was never more devastating for Dickey than on what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life. The Texas Rangers had made Dickey the 18th overall pick of the 1996 draft and invited him down to Arlington that August — right after he'd pitched in the Olympic Games in Atlanta — to sign an $875,000 contract and throw out the first pitch of the game.

Dickey flew from his home in Nashville, Tenn., to Arlington for his special day. But upon arrival, he was called to the office of general manager Doug Melvin for news that floored him.

A routine MRI scan had found that Dickey was missing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. That ligament is the critical one that pitchers often have Tommy John transplant surgery to repair.

Melvin told Dickey the team was rescinding its offer. A news conference was canceled, there was no first pitch thrown out and instead, Dickey was put on a plane back to Nashville. The next day, Dickey, his father, Lee, and his future wife, Anne, drove to Alabama to see renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews, who confirmed the missing ligament diagnosis.

"It was devastating," Dickey said. "In retrospect, being honest about my feelings, it was hard. It was really hard not to be callused and bitter."

Melvin phoned Dickey the night before he was to report to classes at the University of Tennessee — which would have sent him back to the draft the following year — and offered him a $75,000 contract.

Dickey snatched it up, knowing he might never get another shot at professional baseball.

"I think he thought that if it was his son this was happening to, he couldn't let it happen," Dickey said of Melvin. "I guess he kind of took pity on me."

The events of that summer have never left Dickey. He says he spent his first two years of pro ball trying to prove everyone wrong about how he couldn't pitch without the crucial ligament.

Then, after finally making the Rangers at age 28, he spent four seasons shuffling between starting and relieving.

Now, with a lone Seattle relief appearance last week already behind him, he'll take his 15-19 career record and 5.70 earned-run average to the hill tonight and embark on another starting career. This time he'll try to leave a lasting impression with two knuckleballs, about 20 mph apart, that he honed in the minors the past two seasons.

Dickey figures he'll stop thinking about the past in the hours leading up to the game. But for now, with all that's going on around him, he can't do it.

"In the end, it might have helped me," he said of the signing ordeal. "It forced me to become a survivor."

Notes

• Mariners pitcher Miguel Batista looked on with interest on Thursday as the age controversy surrounding Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada continued to unfold. Tejada admitted Thursday that he is 33, two years older than he is listed in the team's media guide.

Dominican native Batista says it's nothing new for players from his country to lie about their age, something the sport has cracked down on in recent years as U.S. immigration laws became tougher. He says today's younger players from his country face pressures to lie because scouts have unrealistic expectations of them.

"They expect a kid who's 16 or 17 years of age to have a 95 mph fastball," he said. "How many Americans can do that? They're forcing kids to lie."

Batista says it wasn't the same way when he was coming up in the early 1980s. Back then, at age 15, he had only a 79 mph fastball but couldn't sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates because he was too young. He waited another year and landed a professional contract.

• Richie Sexson sat out Thursday night's game with a sore leg and shoulder and was replaced by Greg Norton.

"Richie's had a sore leg, a sore shoulder," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "I wanted to calm things down a bit."

McLaren added he wasn't certain Sexson would play in tonight's opener in Anaheim.

"I don't know," he said. "You know him. He wants to play every day. But he's got some soreness."

Norton committed a fielding error in the third inning Thursday but also drew a key walk in a five-run Seattle rally in the top of the frame. Brad Wilkerson and his slumping bat also got a night off against lefty pitcher Lenny DiNardo, with Willie Bloomquist taking his spot.

• McLaren said he doesn't plan to speak to Hernandez about his propensity to try to bare-hand balls that are hit up the middle. Hernandez has done that a few times this year and was fortunate to escape injury on Wednesday when he took a shot off the fleshy part of his hand.

"He doesn't listen on things like this," McLaren said with a laugh. "It's an instinctive thing. We don't like our pitchers to be sticking their hands out, but ... it's easier to talk about than to actually follow through on."

• Injured closer J.J. Putz will throw a simulated game Saturday in Anaheim.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners