Midstate pitchers on brink of baseball immortality | Tennessee AP

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Josh Cooper | The Tennessean

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher David Price works against the Boston Red Sox during the ninth inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. Price struck out a season-high 13 in his complete-game victory. / Elise Amendola / File / Associated Press

R.A. Dickey and David Price are separated by one pitch, one generation, two area high schools and two rival universities.

Today, the two Middle Tennesseans are joined as finalists for the most prestigious honor a Major League Baseball pitcher can receive — the Cy Young Award.

The 38-year-old Dickey, a Montgomery Bell Academy graduate and former University of Tennessee standout, is one of three finalists in the National League.

The New York Mets’ right-hander reinvented himself in his 30s with the knuckleball and has found a way to harness and control the pitch’s unpredictable nature with prolific results.

The 27-year-old Price, a finalist in the American League, is the prototypical power pitcher. At Murfreesboro’s Blackman High School and then at Vanderbilt University, the left-hander become the most sought-after hurler in the 2007 draft and was selected first overall by the Tampa Bay Rays.

If Dickey and Price both win, it would be only the fourth time in MLB history two pitchers from the same state captured the award. The winners will be announced at 5 p.m.

Said Dickey: “Middle Tennessee baseball, man, it’s the best around.”