Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
OAKLAND — A weekend that, in theory, is dedicated to players’ free expression led to some pointed free expression from Alex Dickerson. Freely expressed right at Major League Baseball.
Baltimore’s Richard Bleier had “Dick” across the back of his jersey. Dickerson, denied his first choice, had “Grandpa.”
“It’s a blatant double-standard that they’re doing right now. It is what it is, I guess. Apparently I’m not allowed to use ‘Dick’ on the back of my jersey. Someone else is and I’m not,” Dickerson told KNBR before Saturday’s series opener at Oakland Coliseum.
“They said they couldn’t come to a conclusion on time. Some BS like that. … It’s a pretty common nickname worldwide. I’m a little at a loss for words about what they were finding so offensive.”
The Giants rallied around “Dick” since he joined the team June 21, his bat energizing the lineup and his name becoming a running joke — that he very much appreciates — around the clubhouse and the fanbase.
Dickerson said it has been his nickname as long as he can remember. “When somebody calls me ‘Alex,’ it throws me off.”
“Grandpa” arose in the aftermath of a high school surgery, a name only a few of his “Poway brethren” know him by.
Dickerson would understand if Major League Baseball denied the nickname wholesale. But Bleier was given the OK, while MLB apparently found Dickerson’s too juvenile. A spokesman for MLB didn’t immediately get back to KNBR when asked for comment.
According to Dickerson, he appealed to MLB and only heard “in the last day or so” that no decision could be reached, and thus he would be “Grandpa.”
“I guess the main thing is that now — the way that they’re wording this to me — it makes me think that anybody that is nicknamed ‘Dick’ out there — any Richard that goes by Dick — they’re saying that they should be offended by their own name, which blows my mind,” Dickerson said.
How absurd this all is is not lost on Dickerson.
“It’s silly, it’s stupid in my mind, and I gotta follow the rules,” he said. “… It sucks. Giants fans wanted to see it. It is what it is.”
