After the last two games of one hit shutout victories, R.A. Dickey is quickly becoming a household name.  The soon to be 38 year old pitcher has finally caught his groove and made a name for himself over the past two years in his 9^th and 10^th big league seasons with his 4^th team.  Last season his stat lines were respectable outside of his win/loss record which was largely a result of a horrid Mets team, but this year, he is on pace to win the MLB pitching triple crown and could run away with the Cy Young award.  Matt Cain and Brandon Beachy have pitched incredibly this year, but neither can hold a candle to Dickey.  The knuckle ball pitcher is leading all starting pitchers in pitch percentage inside the strike zone.  That is a far cry from the knuckle ball stereotype perfectly summed up by Bob Uecker when he said, “How do you catch a knuckle ball?  You wait until it stops rolling and you pick it up.”  Take a look at Dickey’s stats, go ahead, but do yourself a favor, don’t look up the NL leaders, look it up as the MLB leaders.  ERA, he is tied with Beachy with an ERA of 2.00.  Wins…his 11-1 mark tops the bigs.  Strikeouts…103 ties him with the major league lead with JUSTIN VERLANDER!!!  WHIP…yeah, his 0.89 leads baseball.  He is even tied with Morrow and Verlander with in complete games.  Finally you will come across a stat he doesn’t lead, that is opponent’s batting average…he is fourth with a .194.  So, the guy who throws one of the most unique pitches in baseball has learned how to control it better than anyone ever has and is making one of my favorites, Tim Wakefield, look pedestrian.  In fact, this season is arguably better than any hall of fame knuckler, Phil Niekro or Hoyt Willhelm, has ever had.  I personally will put aside my New York hatred and root for Dickey to keep it up because watching a guy demonstrate such incredible mastery of a pitch and his profession is something special, and I can’t wait to see more.