New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey will go ahead with his charitable mountain-climbing plans despite the team’s objections, the NY Daily News reported Tuesday.
Citing “multiple sources,” the newspaper said Dickey won’t nix his ascension of Mount Kilimanjaro for charity, scheduled for next week, even though the Mets have sent him a letter late last season advising him that if he was hurt during the climb, his contract could be voided.
Dickey, a knuckleball pitcher who went 8-13 with a 3.28 ERA in 33 games (32 starts) in 2011 for the Mets, is scheduled to receive $4.5 million in 2012 — the second year of his two-year $7.8 million deal with the club.
Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson told The Wall Street Journa l the Mets have tried to talk the 37-year-old Dickey out of the climb, which he is undertaking to benefit the Bombay Teen Challenge – a charity that aids victims of sex trafficking in Mumbai, India.
“If we thought it was a good idea, we wouldn’t have sent the letter,” Alderson told the WSJ. “Beyond that, have we tried to dissuade him from going? It seems to me that the letter is enough of an effort to dissuade him, and he intends to go on nonetheless.”
Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa at 19,341 feet above sea level.
The Daily reports that Mets bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello and Colorado Rockies pitcher Kevin Slowey will also be joining R.A. Dickey on the Kilimanjaro climb.
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