Rick Ankiel: Feel-Good Story of the Summer

On August 10 COED gave you a quick piece about Rick Ankiel, the former St. Louis Cardinal rookie pitching star who at age 21 retired from the game after a pitching breakdown in the 2000 Playoffs, only to return to the majors 7 years later as a power-hitting outfielder.

In his first game back to the majors on August 9 Ankiel hit a 3-run home run to win the game. Even though this was a solid indication of his potential as an outfielder I assumed he would be a fluke. Simple enough right? Feel good stories like this meant are for the movies… just watch The Natural.

If you haven’t been watching SportsCenter regularly then you have been missing out on the story of the real-life Roy Hobbs and what ESPN and other outlets are calling the “Feel good story of the summer.” 21 games into his outfield career Ankiel is hitting .358 with 9 home runs, 29 RBI’s and has been making “Gold Glove” plays in the field on the regular. To top it off last night Ankiel went 3-4, with 2 home runs, 1 double, and drove in a career-high 7 RBI.

With the 2007 season reaching an end it will be interesting to see if Ankiel’s success will be able to carry over into 2008.

Here’s a video from 2001 about his train-wreck pitching career just to prove how bad it was.