masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgFor his next trick, Orioles outfielder Joey Rickard will try to hit a knuckleball off a pitcher 17 years his senior. He’ll bat leadoff tonight and face 41-year-old R.A. Dickey as the Orioles play the Blue Jays at Camden Yards.
Rickard has played in 359 games in the minors but said this afternoon he has never faced a knuckleball.
“I lot of guys have been giving me advice,” he said. “But at the same time, it is very foreign to me. They told me just stay back and don’t try and think too much….

For his next trick, Orioles outfielder Joey Rickard will try to hit a knuckleball off a pitcher 17 years his senior. He’ll bat leadoff tonight and face 41-year-old R.A. Dickey as the Orioles play the Blue Jays at Camden Yards.

Rickard has played in 359 games in the minors but said this afternoon he has never faced a knuckleball.

Rickard-Swings-White-Sidebar.jpg“I lot of guys have been giving me advice,” he said. “But at the same time, it is very foreign to me. They told me just stay back and don’t try and think too much. So I’m going up there with the same approach as always and will try to treat it like every other breaking ball.

“If he’s throwing a good one, there is not much you can do about it if it’s working. So you just stick to your approach and hopefully one doesn’t dance as much and you can put a barrel on it.”

So far this year Dickey has not pitched past five innings, going 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA over three starts.

I asked Rickard if he might take the “if it’s high, let it fly and if it’s low, let it go” approach.

“Yeah, that came up when I was asking around. If you see it up, you know it will come down, so take a good hack at it and be patient,” he said.

Rickard went 1-for-4 in last night’s series opener. He is batting .300 with a homer and four RBIs over 12 games. He has hit safely in 11 of the 12 games. It has been a little quieter for Rickard as the season has gone on. Less interviews and less attention for the Rule 5 pick. Finally.

“Of yeah, that was a hectic first week with all my family and friends around. But it has definitely died down and I can focus a little more on baseball. It’s been a fun ride,” he said.

Meanwhile, manager Buck Showalter was asked during his pregame press conference if he’s ever found a consistent approach for his hitters to take when facing a knuckleballer?

“Well, the catcher can just wait until it stops rolling and pick it up,” he quipped. “R.A. has a good one, too. What people miss about him, he throws a real slow one and real hard one. His tempo, he changes his tempo around on you. He’ll go real fast and throw the slow-and-go real slow and throw the fast one. Most good knuckleballers have one they can throw for a strike, one they can probably get you out with and one where it is just a matter whether the catcher can catch it or not. When they get into trouble is when the break on the knuckleball is predictable. When a ball is not spinning and it’s hitting air, it is going to be (mostly) unpredictable.”