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As we continue tearing through a 2012 season where R.A. Dickey lays waste to everyone's conception of what a knuckleballer is supposed to be, meanwhile making most of his conventional-pitching peers look like common hobos, it's fun to put this transcendental performance into historical perspective. At least where the Mets are concerned, the two greatest single-season starting pitcher performances were Tom Seaver's 1973 campaign and Dwight Gooden's 1985 season, both of which were rewarded with Cy Young hardware.
Through fourteen starts, here's how Dickey '12 compares to Seaver '73 and Gooden '85:
| IP | ERA | K | BB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seaver '73 | 114 | 1.97 | 99 | 28 |
| Gooden '85 | 110 | 1.79 | 116 | 29 |
| Dickey '12 | 99 | 2.00 | 103 | 21 |
We're actually talking about fairly similar run-scoring seasons, so the usual vagaries of cross-era comparison are attenuated somewhat. Here are the MLB runs per game for each season:
2012: 4.29
1985: 4.33
1973: 4.21
In short, R.A. Dickey's 2012 season compares very favorably with the two most dominant starting pitching performances in franchise history. We'll post updates on Dickey's pace as we go along.