Personal Life
Dickey is married and has two daughters and two sons. A born-again Christian, he helps operate the Ocala, Florida-based Honoring the Father Ministries which provides medical supplies, powdered milk and baseball equipment to the impoverished in Latin America.
A 2010 New York Times article reported that Dickey is an avid reader and that at the time, the stack of books in his locker included Life of Pi by Yann Martel and a collection of works by C. S. Lewis. Dickey has said that if he had not become a professional athlete, he would have become an English professor. Dickey named his bats for literary swords--Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver (from The Hobbit) and Hrunting (from Beowulf). Dickey mixed up Orcrist and Sting when explaining the origin of the name.
In November 2011, Dickey announced that he would risk his 2012 season salary ($4,250,000) to attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro; he credits this aspiration to his boyhood reading of Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro. While climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, he set out to raise awareness of the issue of human trafficking in India. His climb was in support of an organization called "Bombay Teen Challenge" that ministers to victims of human trafficking and their children in the heart of the red-light districts. Dickey returned from this trip in January 2012 with Mets bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello and the Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Kevin Slowey, and together raised over $100,000.
His autobiography, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, written along with New York Daily News reporter Wayne Coffey, was released in 2012. In the book, Dickey reports suffering sexual abuse as an 8-year-old child by a 13-year-old female babysitter, and later by a teenage male, and discusses his struggles with suicidal thoughts as an adult. It was announced on September 2012 that Dickey made a deal with Dial Press for three books. The books will include a children’s version of his memoir, “Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth,” scheduled for next fall.
Read more about this topic: R. A. Dickey
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