Talk:R. A. Dickey

tommy john
apparently he doesn't have a Ulnar collateral ligament (elbow). wtf —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.162.177.37 (talk) 08:00, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Any relation to former player Bill Dickey
Is he related to former player Bill Dickey at all?

Personal
The SI article that came out on Dickey dated March 27,2012, that Dickey and his wife Anne have four children, not three. (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/magazine/03/27/ra.dickey/1.html) Krejaton (talk) 03:04, 28 March 2012 (UTC)krejaton
 * So then go ahead and fix it please. Nothing to fear.-- brew crewer  (yada, yada) 03:12, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

content for current year starting to get a little scrambled
With increasing numbers of editors taking an interest due to Dickey's growing notoriety, the info detailing his current string of success is starting to get a little scrambled. Clearly the book is not finished on his 2012 season and there will be many revisions to come but I think we should strive to keep the section readable and encyclopedic at all times. Please if you make a change try to keep the references and citations attached to the facts they represent (I'm referring to a few edits made last week, not so much more recent ones).--Threephi (talk) 18:44, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

R.A. vs R. A.; Alan vs Allen
1) I propose moving this article to R.A. Dickey with redirects as appropriate. In the absence of objections I will do so in a few days.

"R.A." without spaces between the initials is how it appears on the cover jacket of his recently-released autobiography, on the Mets' official roster, and in the vast majority of other references to him. I have not found any explicit source, but given this is the spelling as shown from sources representing a direct business relationship, and on his personal twitter profile, it seems unlikely to be an accident or coincidence. I feel it is safe to assume this is how he prefers his name be spelled, and IMO the article title should reflect that.

2) His individual MLB roster page and every MLB.com news article that gives it shows his middle name as Alan, not Allen. Same goes for the NYT: there's one article in its archive giving Dickey's full name and it is Robert Alan Dickey.  I'm going to go ahead and make this change. --Threephi (talk) 23:37, 22 June 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) You should probably discuss that through WP:RM rather than moving it on your own. There's a wiki policy somewhere about having a space between the initials, though I'm not sure where it is.
 * 2) Good, no objections there. – Muboshgu (talk) 00:10, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for that advice, I will do some research and bring it up there. I know page moves are something of a big deal which is why I wanted to wait before doing it. I did notice that there is a bunch of "hidden" content in the article wikicode eg. sort name, persondata, etc. that uses "R. A." so I'd like to understand the repercussions before pulling the trigger, or whether any of those would or should need to be changed if the page were moved. --Threephi (talk) 01:15, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

At first glance there doesn't seem to be any impediment from policy. WP:NCP generally advises to "use the most common format of a name used in reliable sources". Regarding spaces between initials, it states there is no consensus either way and merely observes that most articles use a space. To me this seems only a manifestation of the likely fact that most people with such names do use the space; R.A. Dickey just seems to be in the minority in that regard. There was nothing relevant in WP:NC-BASE, and from my reading of WP:MOVE it also appears that a request would not be necessary (FWIW I have done page moves before). I am however going to look into the ramifications of the move for sort keys etc. before doing it. --Threephi (talk) 02:38, 23 June 2012 (UTC)


 * It looks like the Wikipedia policy has changed with respect to spacing between initials in a person's name. Previously it stated there should be a space. I assume that's why most Wikipedia articles have a space between the initials. From my experience, outside of Wikipedia, most references to people's names do not have a space between the initials. So I don't think Dickey is in the minority in that regard. IMO, we should keep it as is with the spaces, but I suppose there really isn't a good reason why I feel that way.
 * It's funny you are having this discussion. I only made the edit I did to add the spaces because I saw a reference to Dickey in the USA Baseball Olympic Team roster. — X96lee15 (talk) 17:25, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Well as is no doubt apparent, I am against the space in this case and my intention is to move the page. As I see the evidence, R.A. is the most authoritative spelling as well as the most common (although granted R. A. is used quite a lot by secondary and tertiary sources). My take on it is that in the absence of superseding interests, structural details such as this should be correct. People come to Wikipedia as an authoritative source on its own and that fact will amplify usage of whichever rendering is found here.

This little exercise has led me to a greater appreciation of the richness and depth of WP policy. The various cases in which it is advised to spell a name differently than the "official" version are well-explained and reasonable. I would also just add that spelling it the way Mr. Dickey himself spells it seems by my reading to satisfy every requirement in WP:ABOUTSELF. --Threephi (talk) 20:24, 26 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Just came back to this page after some time away. It seems the sources on Alan vs. Allen have been updated since the above discussion and Allen appears to be the authoritative spelling. --Threephi (talk) 17:00, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Page move
Completed as per above discussion. I'm going to start in on cleaning up the page links now. --Threephi (talk) 15:02, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

Picture
This really has little importance but it drives me crazy that the same picture for R.A. from his first Mets appearance is still up? Can anyone please update it to something a little current? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Metfan722 (talk • contribs) 18:54, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Undue weight
I haven't been on this page in a while, but I can see that the section covering 2012 has ballooned out of proportion, even given the fact that he won the Cy Young for that season. – Muboshgu (talk) 20:26, 3 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I would agree... at a quick glance the stuff about Adam Greenberg and Johan Santana should be taken out as they arent really about Dickey.. way too much game by game detail and the stuff about the Mets winning and losing streaks isnt relevant either. Spanneraol (talk) 21:37, 3 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Agreed. The Greenberg and Santana sections are one sentence mentions, so that wouldn't reduce much, but it would take out tangential/coat-racking details. There's also the bit about his coaching an 18 year old knuckleballer. I think that would be more appropriate in a "Pitching style" or "Personal" section as it's not really pertinent to the 2012 season. Then there's the game by game detail and Mets' performance, as you said, which is the majority of the cruft here. – Muboshgu (talk) 22:03, 3 December 2012 (UTC)
 * As of the June 28th, 2013 I don't see a problem with it. If there are no inaccuracies I don'[t see the issue. It is a very special and rare moment and this is the way baseball is with the stats and streaks and such. It's a very baseball section IMO. Now if it was detailed like that for anything but a spectacular season I would see the issue. But this is about the a rarity that has not been seen in the MLB. The chronicle is a bit detailed but again so is baseball. Despyria (talk) 10:48, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
 * It's still pretty wordy and could at least have the prose cut back into more efficient use of space. Could probably cut back 20% or more simply by reducing the amount of extra prose in there. And I don't think we need to include "he's expected to be ready for 2013 spring training" at this point.... Echoedmyron (talk) 14:19, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Sporting News Pitcher of the Year
Why does someone keep on taking the Sporting News Pitcher of the Year award out of the list of accomplishments? The SN Pitcher of the Year is a more prestigious award than the Cy Young? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.123.52.248 (talk) 17:01, 15 December 2012 (UTC)
 * It is the consensus at WP:BASEBALL to only include MLB-sanctioned awards/honors in the infobox. The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award is not MLB-sanctioned, or anywhere near the Cy Young Award in terms of prestige. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:41, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Pretty funny, MLB Cy Young award is voted on by baseball writers so they of course make it sound like it is the best award. I will not change the info box but you would think that Wikipedia would be an encyclopedia not a advertising for MLB. The info box should be for awards given out for performance in baseball not for awards given for baseball sanction by MLB. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.65.149.246 (talk) 13:10, 8 January 2013 (UTC) Only MLB Sanction awards in the info box??? Is Branch Rickey and Fielding Bible Awards sanction by MLB???? Why is there such prejudice on this page?

December not November
"On November 16, 2012, it was reported that the Mets have agreed to trade Dickey to the Toronto Blue Jays in a seven player deal. The deal is contingent on Dickey and the Blue Jays agreeing on a contract extension before a 2 p.m. ET deadline on November 18."

That happened this month, not last. And they've agreed on the extension -> http://sports.yahoo.com/news/r-a--dickey--blue-jays-reach-deal-on-contract-175044742.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.160.130.14 (talk) 18:29, 17 December 2012‎
 * Pictogram voting wait.svg Already done – Muboshgu (talk) 19:42, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

It wasn't when I wrote this, smart guy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.160.130.14 (talk) 19:48, 17 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I didn't mean to come across as condescending. I simply meant that it was "already done" by the time I noticed your comment and looked to address it. – Muboshgu (talk) 20:41, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

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