LA N D OF OPPORTU NITY
64 CARDINALS MAGAZINE
navy and gold ensemble in his hotel room
and walking down the corridor to the
elevator and through the lobby in full
uniform. Laundry service is provided by
the hotel, and he picks up a neatly folded,
nicely wrapped, and completely fresh
uniform before each game in the private
banquet room where the team offers daily
buffet-style meals.
There’s also a unique hook the days
immediately before and after his starts.
In Japan, starting pitchers who have no
chance of getting into a game are left
off the active roster in favor of extra
bats on the bench. That means they’re
not allowed in the dugout during those
games. At first, Dickson found the
arrangement awkward; it deprived him
of the camaraderie gained from cheering
alongside his teammates. Then he
discovered a beneficial upside.
“It’s great for family time,” he explains.
“Especially when you have little kids.
Instead of getting home at 11 when the
girls are already in bed, I’m able to come
home early enough to put them in bed.
I still feel connected to the team because
I watch the rest of the game on TV at the
apartment. I like the fact that I can have
supper at a decent time, too.”
His most meaningful adjustment
probably has come on the mound. Since
the move overseas, Dickson’s knuckle
curveball – which carries a velocity in the
80s – has become his signature pitch, one
he can deploy in any situation.
“I’d say my catchers call for it about
50 percent of the time,” he says, laughing
at the thought. “Our catchers love that
pitch. For the most part, when I’m
throwing it well, the batters just don’t
square it up too much.”
Dickson had the pitch in the Cardinals
system, but he rarely used it because the
emphasis during his development was
on throwing fastballs. The organization
wanted to see its young pitchers get
comfortable throwing fastballs low and
with movement to induce the coveted
groundball and minimize pitch counts.
When Dickson got to Japan, though,
Finding sustained success overseas is
not the only unconventional highlight on
Brandon Dickson’s resume: He’s also the
rare player to ascend to the big leagues
without ever having been drafted.
He was passed over not just as a high-
schooler, but also in the amateur player
draft the summer before his senior year at
Tusculum College, a Division II school in
eastern Tennessee, where he was wrapping
up a degree in math with an emphasis in
computer science.
But that August, the pitcher’s phone
rang. It was a Cardinals scout, who’d heard
about Dickson from 2005 draftee Cory
Rauschenberger – Dickson’s best friend when
they were growing up in Alabama.
On Rauschenberger’s recommendation,
the scout called Dickson. He invited the
young righthander to drive up to Faulkner
University in Montgomery, Ala., and throw
a bullpen session as an audition. The scout
brought along his son, who got behind the
plate to catch Dickson.
That evening, Dickson’s phone rang again.
The Cardinals were making him an offer.
“The draft had come and gone, just like
any other day,” Dickson says. “I didn’t expect
to be drafted because nobody had talked
to me with any real interest. Now, all of a
sudden, the Cardinals were offering me the
chance I had always dreamed of.”The club offered him a minor league
contract, and a kicker: It wanted him at
rookie ball in Johnson City, Tenn., the next
day. Dickson had no agent to negotiate the
terms; his senior year of college was merely
weeks away. But whatever the obstacles, he
had the one weapon he needed to combat
them: conviction.
“I knew my dream was to play
professional baseball,” Dickson recalls.
“I talked to my parents and I said, ‘Look,
this is what I’ve always wanted to do, I have
an opportunity to do it, I’m going to give it
my all, and this is what I’m going to do.
If it doesn’t work out, it’s not going to be
because I turned it down, it’s going to be
because I wasn’t good enough. I’m not
going to pass this up.’ They were behind
me 100 percent.”
Two decades later, Dickson’s conviction
remains strong – even on another continent.- Brad Lefton
In his first full season as a pro, Dickson
threw 144 innings and was tabbed a
Midwest League all-star with Quad Cities.THEROAD LESSTRAVELED