UpdatedJul 14, 2012 11:58 AM ET

The curious thing about hitting rock bottom, New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey discovered, is that it is not literally made of rock.

I remember it as a dark black clay, a wet, wet clay, said Dickey, recalling the bottom of the Missouri River in which he nearly drowned after vainly attempting to swim across it. It had a sucking feeling to it, but luckily not so overpowering that I was unable to push off it.

On June 9, 2007, Dickey was in the midst of an underwhelming season with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, his 11th overall in the minor leagues. His marriage, after his wife Anne learned of his infidelity, was in peril.

So while the Sounds were in Omaha, Neb., for a series against the Royals, Dickey decided to take on the daring stunt.

Maybe if I somehow get across, swim like a madman through the turbidity, he wrote in his recently released tell-all memoir, Wherever I Wind Up, God will help me close the prodigious gap between the man I am and the man I want to be.

Five years later, Dickey sat in front of his locker at Citi Field and talked to The Daily about that period of his life.

When I was sinking I had resigned myself to death, Dickey said. The fear had come and gone.

It has all led to a rebirth for the 37-year-old right-hander, who has reinvented himself as a knuckleball pitcher after spending parts of 14 seasons in the minors. He was selected for the All-Star Game for the first time this year. Meanwhile, his personal story of being molested as a child has put him in the national spotlight.

Continued here:
Dickey cedes control, finds success