Cy Young Winners Share TN Roots, Diverge on Path to Pitching Prowess

New York Mets knuckleballer and Nashville-native R.A. Dickey spoke to reporters before at previously scheduled talk at Lipscomb University. Photo credit Blake Farmer/WPLN

What are the odds that this year’s Cy Young Award winners would both be from Middle Tennessee? That’s what Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey asked when he got word Wednesday night. He and former Vanderbilt star David Price took very different routes to being the top pitchers in Major League Baseball.

Price – who plays for the Rays – was a first round pick and an ace from the start.

Dickey languished in the minors for 14 years, forcing him to transform his throwing style.

“For the world to be able to see that you’ve got a left handed pitcher throwing 97 miles an hour to win a Cy Young and you’ve got a 38 year old right hander who throws a knuckle ball that wins a Cy Young, it gives the world a lot of hope that you can do it more ways than one.”

Dickey is now the only knuckleballer to win baseball’s top pitching prize.

He grew up in Nashville, playing baseball at Montgomery Bell Academy, then the University of Tennessee.

Before Vanderbilt, David Price was a standout at Murfreesboro’s Blackman High School.