... says the man who writes about grown men chasing a ball around a field.

"The next several days will be polluted with chatter about whether or not R.A. Dickey should be the National League's All-Star starting pitcher, and that will be nearly as obnoxious as the agonizing last year over Derek Jeter's Miami mini-vacation."

I don't have any recollection of the Derek Jeter mini-vacation from last year's All Star break.


"Since baseball is yammering about this manufactured issue, we'll register a vote here: Whatever. Who cares? Doesn't matter one way or the other."

Agreed.


"We would prefer, when we think of Dickey, to celebrate the process that delivered him to this sublime place, and to circle back as often as possible to the issues of sexual abuse that he raised this spring - a more important contribution to the sports world than any of the 12 wins he brought into Thursday's no-decision against the Phillies and Cole Hamels, or the inning he will pitch next Tuesday in Kansas City."

You want to circle back as often as possible to the issues of sexual abuse?


"Despite allowing 11 hits and five runs in seven innings Thursday, Dickey's numbers argue that he does, although National League manager Tony LaRussa sounded unconvinced during a Thursday conference call. He might prefer to assign the knuckleballer to a veteran catcher in the middle innings, and start Matt Cain, Stephen Strasburg, or someone else instead."

You're yammering about a manufactured issue.


"Zoom out, though, from those pointless particulars. All-Star debates (like their annoying cousins, MVP, Cy Young and Hall of Fame arguments) are distractions from sports discussions of greater depth, and Dickey's emergence as a sensation this year came as a result of moment-to-moment mindfulness, not external rewards like this."

Depth!

Circling back to discuss serious issues of child sexual abuse!

Let's do it, man. I'm ready.

"Beyond that, there is the issue that should arise more often when Dickey is discussed, his revelation in a March memoir that he was sexually abused as a child. Published just months after the Penn State scandal opened a raw topic thread in sports, Dickey became a prominent face stumping for the removal of shame and taboos.

Privately, the pitcher suspects that his personal catharsis this year was related to his professional one. Freed of secrets, he could be more of a man-in-full while competing; sure enough, he soon saw the pitch that required nearly a half-decade of development land on a new plateau.

The liberating effect of revealing sexual abuse, though, does not make for an easy fan tweet or MLB Network talking point. Sports consumers looking to the games as an escape from harsh realities, rather than a valuable window into them, will want to argue Dickey vs. Cain vs. Strasburg instead.

That will be a waste. Let us not cheapen this story by caring about whether the guy pitches the first or third or fifth inning next Tuesday. Let us display the courage that Dickey himself showed by delving into the real discussions, the difficult ones."

Was that it?

Was that your deep dive into R.A. Dickey's psyche?


Let's zoom out, shall we?

Compared to child sexual abuse, the starter of the All Star Game is unimportant ... and so is the All Star Game ... and so is R.A. Dickey's performance on the baseball field in 2012 ... and so is baseball ...


Wow. Perspective is kind of a bummer. Let's zoom in again and leave the psychoanalysis to the psychoanalysts.