RICK ANKIEL’S COMEBACK
Scott Jacobs
Former all world pitcher, successfully makes transition to outfielder. Truly amazing.
Do you remember Rick Ankiel? The guy SI and many other media outlets targeted as the scariest pitching prospect to storm through the majors in years. The guy that was going to be huge, going to dominate the bigs for years with his vicious stuff. Well, he’s back. Just not under (P), and there’s no innings pitched under your scorecard. Instead, he’s roaming the outfield for the St. Louis Cardinals,a team thrilled to see Wild Thing get a second chance.
Wild thing. Man, that might be putting it nicely. Ankiel had all the goods to be a superb Major League Baseball pitcher. But what he had in talent, he lacked in control, and it drove him into the ground. It’s difficult to forget that fateful game one in the NLDS a few years ago against the Atlanta Braves when Ankiel had no control whatsoever.
Given a six run cushion, Ankiel threw an amazing five wild pitches, completely coming unraveled. This from the guy who was given a 2.5 million dollar bonus, one of the largest ever at the time for a baseball player. His rise through the minors was astonishing, and just four years after his drafting, the Cardinals brought him up.
In a NLCS game versus the Mets in 2000, Rick threw 20 pitches, five wild.
The guy was talented. No one doubted that. He was a train wreck on the field though.
Now though, after a hard two year run as an Outfielder, he went through the Cardinals system, and today, he hit a homerun after being called up to replace Scott Spiezio. Truly an amazing story. He was the guy who threw away all the talent. But low and behold, he’s back on the field. Hitting home runs. Amazing.
If you don’t remember the story, maybe this video will help.
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