Mets' Dickey: I was sexually abused

Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey has revealed in a new autobiography that he was sexually abused as a child. In an excerpt published by Sports Illustrated, the Mets knuckleballer says he was 8 years old when a 13-year-old female babysitter began sexually abusing him. Dickey said in the book, "Wherever I Wind Up," he didn't reveal the abuse to anyone until telling his wife, eight years after they were married. "The babysitter chucks the pillows and stuffed animals out of the way," Dickey wrote. "She looks at me and says, 'Get in the bed.' I am confused and afraid. I am trembling. The babysitter has her way with me four or five more times that summer, and into the fall, and each time feels more wicked than the time before. "Every time that I know I'm going back over there, the sweat starts to come back. I sit in the front seat of the car, next to my mother, anxiety surging. I never tell her why I am so afraid. I never tell anyone until I am 31 years old." The right-handed knuckleballer also revealed he once saw a syringe in the Texas Rangers clubhouse. "The sight of it makes me cringe, the shiny, thin needle lying randomly on the tile floor," Dickey wrote of the 2001 incident. "My mind races with thoughts about how and why it got there. "I know as much about needles as I do about jewelry, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a sewing needle. I don't know if this syringe injected a Ranger with insulin or cortisone or B12 or anabolic steroids, though you can hazard a guess when you run through the roster of my muscle-laden teammates. He went on, "The mere sight of it makes me feel as though I am looking straight at Evil -- like seeing a weapon somebody left behind at a crime scene." The 37-year-old Dickey made four appearances with Texas that season, but spent the bulk of the year in Triple-A. The book, written with author Wayne Coffey, is set to be released Thursday.