Imagine you worked your entire life toward accomplishing your dream of being a professional baseball player, and at age 20 your dream comes true. The adjectives used to describe you are countless and, in your first year, you live up to all the hype. Then, unexplainable to everyone, the next year you completely lose control of your ability. In the blink of an eye, you’re out of the Major Leagues and labeled a bust. But instead of listening to the critics you decide learn a brand new position and make a vow that you will be back in the Major Leagues. Sounds unrealistic right? Well it’s not, it’s Rick Ankiel’s life!
Many people don’t remember the late 90’s and early 2000’s of Major League Baseball for anything other than steroids and home runs, but for those of us that remember other stories, a 20 year old “prodigy” pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals was one hell of a story. When Rick Ankiel came up for the Cardinals in 1999, his potential and talent was on par with Stephen Strausburg’s (besides the 100mph fast ball). In Ankiel’s rookie year, his first full year as a starter, he went 11-7 with a 3.50 ERA and struck out 9.98 batters per 9 innings (second in the NL, only to Randy Johnson). He threw a 94-97 MPH fastball and had a knee-buckling curve. Ankiel looked destined to be the next great Cardinals pitcher. That was until the 2000 NLDS against the Atlanta Braves. When many baseball fans hear the name Rick Ankiel, this series is the first thing they think of. Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa chose the 20 year old to start game 1 of the series against future Hall-Of-Fame pitcher Greg Maddux. Ankiel didn’t allow a run in the first 2 innings, and looked unphased by the pressure. Then came the 3rd inning. That one inning was the catalyst behind the end of Rick Ankiel’s career as a Major League pitcher. In that inning he allowed 4 runs on 2 hits, walked 4 and threw 5 wild pitches!! After the game, Ankiel acted as if the performance was no big deal, but in his next start, game 2 of the NLCS against the New York Mets, Ankiel only lasted 20 pitches throwing 5 to the backstop. Rick Ankiel was never able to regain control of his once devastating repertoire of pitches, and it looked as if his career as a MLB baseball player was over….. But it wasn’t!
While Ankiel was up in the big leagues as a pitcher, he was a decent hitter. Being a good hitting pitcher isn’t always the most telling sign about a player’s ability at the plate, but Ankiel showed promise by batting .250 and hitting 2 HR’s in 73 at bats during his first full season. During the 2001 season,
Ankiel was sent to the minors after just 6 major league appearances in attempt to correct his control. He was sent all the way down to rookie ball, where he was the team’s designated hitter along with trying to revive his pitching career. Ankiel continued toward reviving his pitching career, until in the spring of 2007, when he decided that he would become a full time center fielder. Many people laughed at the idea and thought he had a decent bat but not the overall game to be taken seriously as a CF. To the surprise of basically everyone except Ankiel and Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa, on August 9, 2007, Ankiel made his debut as an outfielder for the Cardinals. In the 7th inning of that game, Ankiel hit a 3 run Hr, his first major league HR since 2000.
Just take a minute to think about how few players actually make it to the major leagues. Rick Ankiel did it at TWO DIFFERENT POSITIONS in the span of seven years. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers has a very similar story as he was once the #1 prospect in all of baseball, he quit the sport due to an addiction to drugs and alcohol, and now, in 2010, he is one of the leading candidates for MVP. Hamilton gets all the headlines for his rise back to the top, of which he is most deserving. But Hamilton was always a power-hitting outfielder; he didn’t need to learn a new position to get back to the big leagues. In my opinion, Ankiel’s place in the history of comeback stories was solidified this year as he was the starting CF for the NL Wild Card winning Atlanta Braves. In game 2 of the NLDS against the San Francisco Giants, Ankiel hit a mammoth 11th inning game winning HR into McCovey Cove. In a little over 11 years, Rick Ankiel started a playoff game as a starting pitcher and as a center fielder in the highest level of baseball in the world. At the end of the day, fans of baseball, and sports in general, should be ashamed that they haven’t given Rick Ankiel the praise he has undoubtedly earned.
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