MLB Notes: Rick Ankiel

This year we at the Subversive Garden have written about Josh Hamilton and Jon Lester as great American sports stories. Hamilton, overcoming drug addiction and Lester overcoming cancer, both stories of tremendous magnitude and odds and now along comes Rick Ankiel.

Ankiel does not have the drama of addiction and cancer and certainly does not wish to be compared to these two men, but instead he had to completely remake himself as a player. Ankiel was a phenom who came up with the Cardinals as a 20 year old. He pitched his first full season in 2000 at the age of 20 (second youngest in the league), in which he posted an 11-7 record and a 3.50 ERA (ninth in the league) and 194 strikeouts (seventh in the league) in 30 games started for St. Louis. Ankiel threw a fastball in the 94-97 MPH range, and also possessed a heavy sinker with great movement, as well as his main strikeout pitch, a devastating 12-to-6 curve ball. Comparisons to Randy Johnson were abound and his upside was nothing short of greatness.

But, that year in the League Division series he ran into trouble. He suddenly could not find the plate. A lot of pressure was on this rookie starting the League Championship series. With a 6-0 lead he began walking people and throwing monumental wild pitches and was pulled giving up four runs in two innings, walking five. He came back in the League Championship series against the Mets. He was removed in the first inning after throwing just 20 pitches, five over the head of his catcher. Ankiel returned to the majors in 2001 but again had issues controlling his pitches, walking 25 batters and throwing 5 wild pitches in 24 innings, and was sent down to AAA. Here his problems became incredibly dramatic. In 4.1 innings, Ankiel walked 17 batters and threw 12 wild pitches, accumulating an ERA of 20.77.

Ankiel was sent to the rookie leagues in the Cardinal organization and seemed to gain some of his old form, not the least of which was hitting: sporting a .638 slugging percentage with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs in 105 at bats. After injuring himself in 2002 missing most of the season with an elbow sprain. In 2003 he had an ERA of 6.20 and then underwent Tommy John surgery to repair his left elbow. Ankiel did not return the majors until September of 2004 and pitched well in the end of the year in which the Cardinals were swept by the Red Sox in the fall of that year in the world series.

He pitched just 34 innings in the majors after that 1st disappointing game, walking 26, hitting five batters and throwing six wild pitches before missing all of 2002 and most of the next two seasons with arm problems. He tried one final comeback in the spring of 2005 but, still troubled by pain and wildness, he eventually confessed to Cardinals General Manager Walt Jocketty that he couldn't handle the disappointment any longer.

Suddenly, in the fall of 2005 he decided to start all over and switch to the outfield. Ankiel indeed could hit quite a bit as a pitcher. He shot through the low levels of the minor league system impressing with slugging percentages in the .500 range and was invited to spring training in the 2006 as an outfielder, but again had to have season ending knee surgery, yet another disappointment.

In 2007, however in which the Cardinal organization was experiencing a dreadfully disappointing season after the World Series win last year Ankiel is the story.

Ankiel was named a starting outfielder for the 2007 Triple-A All-Star Game. Through August 8, 2007 he had 32 home runs, 89 RBIs and was hitting .267, including a 3 home run performance on June 16th at Iowa. He was the current Home Run leader in the Pacific Coast League at the time of his call up, plus tied for second in RBIs. Ankiel was called to the majors on August 9, 2007.

In his first at bat in his return to the big leagues, Ankiel was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation from the appreciative St. Louis crowd. In his fourth at bat in the seventh inning, he hit a three-run home run off Doug Brocail to right field to help the Cardinals defeat the San Diego Padres, 5-0. This made him the first player since Clint Hartung (1947) to hit his first major league home run as a pitcher and then hit a later home run as a position player. The player before Hartung who accomplished this feat was none other than Babe Ruth. After the game, manager Tony La Russa said that his only happier and prouder moment in a Cardinals' uniform was when he won the World Series in 2006.

Two days later, against the Dodgers on August 11, Ankiel drew four standing ovations with both his batting and fielding. At the plate he went 3 for 4, with two home runs and 3 RBIs. And in the eighth, a spectacular catch in right field saved an almost certain extra base hit.

After surrendering a Home Run to Ankiel on Saturday Derek Lowe of the Dodgers said it best: "I don't think he's getting enough credit for what he's doing. It wouldn't matter if he started out 0 for 16. To be a pitcher and say, OK, I'm going to become a hitter and make it to the major leagues? I'm amazed at what he can do. It's a phenomenal story."