MLB: The Movie, Casting R.A. Dickey

When I look at R.A. Dickey, I see only one thing — and that thing is not even R.A. Dickey himself.

This man climbed Kilimanjaro.

Instead, I see Steve Little.

This man climbed Kenny Powers’s ego.

While Dickey is gaining a cult following amongst baseball nerds after posting two excellent seasons with the New York Mets and climbing one of the tallest mountains on earth (for charity), there’s pretty much nothing out there on Steve Little except that he plays the beloved Stevie on HBO’s Eastbound and Down, has done a good amount of voice acting, and has nothing to say to children. Unlike comparing Louis C.K. and Kevin Youkilis, it’s impossible to find similarities in the biographies of Dickey and Little.

Still: the parted ‘dos, the droopy eyes, the face scruff, the head-to-toe softness. They just look too much alike. Steve Little says he had to audition “the old-fashioned way” for the part of Stevie — showing up twice to meet with people he never met (though it’s impossible to picture anyone else in that role now). But for the role of R.A. Dickey, in MLB: The Movie, I’m seeking Stevie out from the get-go.

Knuckle balls on the reg’.