Today was probably pretty entertaining for any fan that was fortunate to be at the Mariners training complex today. The drills were highlighted by “live arm hitting” which means we got to see Mariners pitchers pitch to Mariners hitters. It only happens a couple of times and is always fun to watch.

John McLaren told us this morning that he didn’t expect that we would see many swings because hitters typically like to just watch, “track the ball” as they get their eyes used to that speed and movement again. Edgar would often step in and not take a single swing, but with the exception of Ichiro, the guys that I saw were swinging away.

For example, Richie Sexson swung at the first offering he saw from Shawn Green. Grounder to short. The pitchers are undoubtedly ahead of the hitters right now, and one pitcher had a big advantage. Yep, I am talking about the knuckleballer, RA Dickey.

It was fun to watch. Fun for us, the hitters no doubt thought differently. Jose Lopez who is in camp after being delayed by visa problems actually laughed at a couple of pitches he saw. He also got a bat on a couple. Dickey throws a hard knuckler, not a floater like we see from Tim Wakefield. When he got going there was quite a bit of movement. Willie Bloomquist jumped out of the batters box as one approached, then realized, maybe he should have hung in there. “One of them I thought would come inside then it kind of started to come inside but then it went back the other way. Burke actually said it was a strike. It was a tricky, tricky first guy to face. I’m glad he is wearing blue.

Jamie caught Dickey and that wasn’t a first as he actually caught him a couple of years ago in the minors. Burke switched to a bigger glove midway through the throwing session. Dickey travels with his own knuckleball glove but the catchers say it isn’t quite broken in yet. Equipment manager Ted Walsh also brought one down. The glove has no doubt an interesting story; we just don’t know what it is. Ted found it in the back of a cupboard at Safeco Field. It was covered in dust and he has no idea who used it last as no one can remember a Mariner knuckleballer.

As for Dickey, he’s a rather interesting fellow whose career has taken an interesting path.

I had a conversation with him earlier this spring which you can hear here. I was impressed with how he was able to talk about the conversion from being a guy who threw conventionally, relatively hard, to what he does now. He was the 18^th player selected in the 1996 draft and spent good parts of six seasons in the big leagues. His career was on a downward trend when he made the decision to do something drastic. Learning to let go may have been harder than learning the pitch itself.

“It’s haaaaard.” He said in his Tennessee drawl. “It required leaving a portion of who I was behind and really trying to commit to being something new. In life it’s hard and it’s no different when you are pitching because what I have known for 18, 19, 20 years pitching conventionally, I had to not necessarily discard but I had to leave behind enough to where I could really grab hold of what it really was to be a knuckleball pitcher and that was hard. Painful, but hopefully I am on the other side of the pain, at least the perpetual pain (laugh) that came with it originally.”

RA started out throwing a soft Wakefieldlike knuckler, but found his true success with a harder knuckler.

“I didn’t feel right throwing it (soft) because I still had the arm strength and I had to back off quite a whole lot. So for me, I just kind of tried to discover my personality with it and it’s a harder knuckleball. Once I embraced that, things started to click. I am hoping to carry that over with the Mariners and make it a long career. A lot of guys, knuckleballers, when they hit 32, 33 they have the maturity to be able to handle the pitch and the ups and downs that come with that pitch so I am looking forward to hopefully six or seven more good years.”

Dickey is exactly what this team needed last year. A swing guy, innings eater, bullpen saver, whatever you want to call it. It would appear that he would be a very useful arm to have this year as well.