Over the weekend, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post wrote a column in which he criticized departing New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey, calling him a “handful,” saying he was not well-liked by his teammates and generally painting a picture of a self-absorbed self promoter.
It was surprising for a couple of reasons. First, because no one had ever described Dickey in such terms and the timing suggested that perhaps the Mets were throwing him under the bus as he left the team. But it was more surprising coming from Davidoff, who is one of the best, most reasonable and most level-headed columnists around, particularly in New York. He just doesn’t write that kind of stuff very often, so it was kind of jarring to see.
Today, much to Davidoff’s credit, he writes another column, this one explaining the basis for his criticism of Dickey in his last one. The questions he asks and then answers such as “Why are we just hearing now about these aspects of Dickey’s personality?” and “Aren’t you just being a water-carrier for the Mets front office” echo ones we saw bouncing around the internet over the weekend. And Davidoff takes them head on.
You may still question Davidoff’s column and disagree with what he had to say about R.A. Dickey, but kudos to Davidoff to actually engaging his readers and critics like this. Would that more writers did the same.
