The New York Mets have had some illustrious pitchers who have won the Cy Young Award, and they even had one, Tom Seaver, who made it to the Hall of Fame. Many Mets fans believe pitcher Dwight Gooden should be in the Hall as well, but Gooden’s personal issues kept him from making much headway on the ballot.
There is one Cy Young Award winner who’s part of a very unique club, however. Pitching R.A. Dickey won the award for the Mets in 2012, and the club he’s in consists of players who have received just a single vote for the Hall of Fame.
Dickey’s history in this category was part of a story written by Zack Meisel and Sam Blum of The Athletic, and it contains some of the most entertaining anecdotes you’ll ever read. There are actually two ex-Mets in this club, and one is journeyman David Segui, a first baseman who played for the Mets in 1994-5.
“My mom didn’t get to vote,” Segui said when he speculated about who the voter might have been. “That had been my first guess.”
The other was Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, who covered Segui in Baltimore during the 90s, but Rosenthal denied giving the first baseman the token vote.
“I had my days where I was a Hall of Famer,” said Segui. “And I had my days where I was horse—-. I was just glad that I had enough (good) days where they kept me around that long.”
As for Dickey, he, too, was the definition of a journeyman. He pitched for 17 seasons, but it was only when he temporarily mastered the knuckleball that he was able to go on a run that produced a 20-6 season with a 2.73 ERA in 2012 that earned him the Cy Young Award.
Dickey learned about the vote in 2023, when he got a cold call from his agent, Bo McKinnis.
“‘You’re kidding,’” Dickey responded, and the two men met shortly after the call for a celebratory lunch.
“He was trying to pump it up like, ‘To even be considered with one vote, that means somebody out there thinks that you’re worthy and wants your legacy left at that level.’”
Dickey learned last week that the vote came from Texas Rangers writer T.R. Sullivan, who covered the pitcher when he was with the Rangers back in the 90s, and Sullivan who also cast a vote for former Angels reliever Huston Street.
“I’m not gonna sit here and argue that (Street and Dickey are) Hall of Famers,” Sullivan said when asked about his vote. “But I’m not going to apologize for voting for them, because I don’t think those guys need to be forgotten. I think they deserve a little bit of respect.
“I take my vote seriously. I work hard on my vote. I generally vote for guys who legitimately deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. But if I got one or two extra votes, I’m gonna do this.”
Dickey has no illusions about who he was as a player. He had a career WAR of 23.1, according to Meisel and Blum, and that’s about half the number normally required for consideration.
“I don’t meet the standard,” Dickey said, and he added that Sullivan’s vote indicates just how hard it is to get to the top level of the sport.
“I won a Cy Young. I had over 100 wins in Major League Baseball, and pitched over 10 years,” Dickey said. “And still only got one vote to be in the Hall of Fame. That shows you how hard it is and how good these guys are that get inducted.”