The Most Interesting Man In Baseball

 R.A. Dickey exits the New York Mets’ Pentagon City hotel, jaywalks across South Hayes Street and makes his way underground to the Metro platform. “This thing,” he grumbles, stepping gingerly down the broken escalator, “is never working.” He’s not in a bad mood, per se — just a serious one.

It is Tuesday afternoon, and Dickey, 37, is headed to a therapy session — relationship therapy. Dickey and his knuckleball, they are making great progress these days, their understanding of each other growing deeper and richer. But the work must never stop, lest they drift apart again. Later that afternoon, in the bullpen at Nationals Park, they will take their places and pick up where they left off last time.

“It’s definitely a relationship,” Dickey, who carries the best record in the National League (8-1) into Thursday’s start against the Nationals, says before throwing his standard, between-starts bullpen session. “Sometimes we fight. There will be times where I’m yelling at the baseball — like, ‘Do I really know you?’

Read the rest here.