My Underlines ... "Wherever I Wind Up"

When I read a book ... a really good book that I am reading to learn from ... I underline, circle, and make notes.  Here are the passages from R.A. Dickey's "Wherever I Wind Up" that I noted (lots of plan, routine, deliberate practice, hard work, and good thinking below, you will see):


"The best pitchers are the guys who have a plan and know how to execute it -- who know how to compete and never stop doing it."    

"The mental is to the physical as four to one."


"I keep throwing, and keep thinking of Larry Bird in his number 33 Boston Celtics uniform as I throw. Bird did an interview once where he talked about never letting himself be outworked, about being haunted by a fear that somebody, somewhere, was taking shots while he was resting.


"I don't want anybody to outwork me, either.  I may not make it as a big-league knuckleballer, but it won't be from lack of effort.  So I keep throwing against the cinder blocks, picking out a particular block to hit with every pitch, knowing that whatever happens, I will never regret not putting in more time.  Even when I'm not in Uncle Ricky's gym, I am working.  I keep a baseball in my car and drive around Nashville with only my left hand on the wheel so I can practice my knuckleball grip with my right hand."


"It's another one of Charlie's [Hough] suggestions.  There's no substitute for having the ball in your hand.  I still keep a baseball in my car.  You never stop working on your grip."


"I am not obsessing about how good I have to be to get back to the big leagues, or what numbers I have to put up, or about the time pressure because of my age.  I am focusing not on the next month or year or uniform but on the next pitch, putting all my energy into the process of pitching."


"You get the best results not when you apply superhuman effort but when you just are -- when you let the game flow organically and allow yourself to be fully present."


"I'm just pitching knuckleball to knuckleball and surrendering to the results."


"You have lived your whole life as a survivor, doing what you need to get by, to flee from pain, to seek safety.  Now I want more.  I want much more.  I don't want my life to be about settling.  I don't want it to be about avoiding pain.  I want it to be about pursuing joy."


"I learn from Tim [Wakefield] that not every [pitch] has to be perfect.  I drive myself batty trying to make every one perfect.  They just have to be good enough to get an out, Tim says."


"Ichiro's routine is calibrated to the minute, from the time he gets to the park every day to when he uses the bathroom before the game.  He takes the same amount of swings in the cage during batting practice.  He eats the same pregame meal (a salmon rice ball) at the same time (ninety minutes before game time).  His stretching routine is so thorough and intricate, you wonder if he moonlights as a contortionist for Cirque du Soleil. ... Ichiro's approach over 162 games never varies.  Nothing changes regardless of the results.  The man is so vigorously regimented that all you can do is simply surrender to the fact that you can try to match his discipline, but you never will."


" ... if I have it in me to be fully present in one realm of my life, I know it will overflow into the other realms.  The only way to prove it is by showing up every day and being someone who is worthy of trust."


"The effort, it occurs to me later that night, is really what matters the most, isn't it? Outcomes can get completely convoluted, buffeted by all manner of forces and factors.  You honor yourself and your game when you pour all you have into it, when you live in the athletic moment."


"You manage them [regrets] by forgetting them as soon as the ball leaves your hand, or leaves the park, and turn 100 percent of your intensity and your competitiveness to the next pitch.  It's the only pitch you can throw, after all."


"I like to keep a very specific routine before I pitch, because it helps lock me in for the competition to come. ... This is my routine and I don't deviate from it."


"If you aren't willing to face your demons -- if you can't find the courage to take on your fear and hurt and anger -- you might as well wrap them up with a bow and give them to your children.  Because they will be carrying the same thing ... unless you are willing to do the work."


"God, you've blessed me in so many ways this year, and I am so grateful for that.  As I prepare to take the ball for the last time this year, please help me to be trustworthy one more time and to be in the moment every pitch, to glorify you in in everything I do.  Amen."


As you can see from the foregoing quotes, this book is full of wisdom about baseball, about faith ... about life.  I encourage you to read the whole thing and get on with the hard work in your life and game.


See you on the field,