As 37-year-old journeyman R.A. Dickey pitched his second consecutive one-hitter for the New York Mets, the internet collectively remembered “Linsanity,” the last time a New York sports figure with a unique name and a compelling back story became a national sensation, and embraced for a fever pitch of “Dickey” puns from hack writers and members of the New York media.
Jonathon Empirico, blogger and founder of the Mets Fan Site “Queens Quest” posted about the inevitable glut of cringe-worthy Dickey puns, saying, “Just like Linsanity, it’s only a matter of time before we get sick and tired of hearing about this feel-good story of an overachieving knuckleballer. Seriously folks, it’s going to get RA-Dickey-lous!”
The offices at the New York Post appear particularly busy, as dozens of interns can be found in conference rooms hashing out awkward and inappropriate puns to use for headlines about the 9-year veteran, with suggestions ranging from “Can Dickey Keep It Up?” to equally awful puns such as “Trickey Dickey,” “Dickey’s Playing Hard Ball,” and the especially painful “Dickety-Do-Da, Dickety-Yay!”
When asked for advice on how to avoid the groundswell of truly awful, and often offensive, puns, Knicks forward Jeremy Lin shrugged.
“The only chance he has to avoid a full year of awful puns is to either start playing very poorly, or just do what I did and come down with a season-ending injury,” said Lin. “Either way, it’s gonna be a rough stretch for old Dickery-Dock.”
By Jeff GoodSmith
