When R.A. Dickey really tried to fool Mike Trout

Have you ever seen a sidearm knuckleball? I don’t think I had, until Thursday night when I saw this .gif (via Blue Jay Hunter Tumblr):

Of course that’s R.A. Dickey pitching to Mike Trout. I guess Dickey figured nothing else was working, so whatever. It’s just too bad the pitch wasn’t close. Otherwise maybe he would have tried it again.

In case you’re wondering just how far from usual that delivery was, here are Dickey’s release points in that game, via Brooks Baseball:

Can you spot the lone sidearm offering? I thought so.

It’s certainly possible that Dickey’s tried this before, but I don’t recall it. I don’t recall ever seeing a sidearm knuckleball, although Dan Quisenberry fooled around with a submarine knuckleball during his prime. You know, because he was a submariner. As I recall, he gave up a couple of home runs off his knuckler and immediately junked the pitch forever. Let’s hope Bobby Dickey doesn’t behave quite so rashly after this too-brief tryout.