Ankiel Ends Pitching Career
Let me start off by saying my heart is in the right place here. I have the deepest sympathies towards Rick and the maddening turn his career took when he unleashed a stream of wild pitches against Atlanta in the 2000 playoffs. I was personally in attendance during his start against the Mets in the NLCS that same post-season, when he fared equally as badly, and it was devastating. The worst part was how close I was sitting to a couple of loud-mouthed Mets fans, proudly displaying their ugly orange and blue team colors and proclaiming that Edgar Alfonzo was the best hitter in baseball, and shouting, "Oh my God!" every time Ankiel wasn't able to find the plate; or even the catcher's mitt. It was agonizing, and I mean him no harm in saying the following comments. Before I continue, though, I would like to point out just how stupid those Mets fans were for thinking even for a second that Alfonzo was the best hitter in baseball. Just look at him now, you dolts. He barely manages double-digit home runs in a season these days.
When the world learned Rick Ankiel decided to quit pitching on March 9, 2005, I at first thought it was a joke. Surely he wouldn't give up now, right? Not after he had climbed all the way back up to the majors and proved he could find the plate consistently at the major league level, and still be devastating to hitters? Then after pitching another bundle of impressive innings over the winter, he felt a slight twinge, ended his winter-league season early, and didn't feel the same for the start of spring training. So now he's becoming an outfielder, at the age of twenty-five. If he was going to quit, why now? Why not two years ago? Why not four years ago when the initial meltdown occurred? Quitting now makes him a 25-year-old minor leaguer who has much to learn about hitting. In other words, he is of no value to the Cardinals or really any other team now. Some people feel if he kept trying to pitch he would surely suffer a nervous breakdown soon. I'm not so sure he already didn't, because he basically just ended all hope of continuing his major league career. What could possibly be going on inside his head? I don't know, because I'm only an unimportant singular fan. But I will attempt to break it down the best I can, recapping his career in a nutshell as I saw it from my TV.
I'm
still a teenager and I'm striking out major leaguers
regularly.
Oops,
now I'm crazy and can no longer throw strikes,
so here I am in Johnson City.
Finally,
after years of hard work, I'm back in the major leagues and throwing
pretty well.
Pitching
is ruining my life. I'll become a hitter and
ruin other people's lives instead.
Of course, there is precedent for promising pitchers to become every day hitters. That fat Yankee guy in the 1920's was a pretty successful pitcher, and when he stopped pitching to pursue a career as a position player, it worked out pretty well. There are, however, certain differences between The Babe and Rick Ankiel.
1)
Rick Ankiel is not named Herman, nor has he probably ever known anyone named
Herman. (I haven't.)
2) Rick Ankiel could never be portrayed in a movie by John Goodman.
3) Rick Ankiel is not a fat, hotdog devouring slob.
4) Rick Ankiel could not possibly end his career with the Boston Braves.
5) Rick Ankiel will never make a drunken gesture towards center field that
countless people will swear was a prediction of where the ball would land.
Those five reasons are good enough to convince me that Rick will not have quite the success Babe Ruth had as a hitter. In fact, the day he even stands in a major league batter's box during a regular season game as a position player should never come. He could become the next Babe Ruth for all I care; it still wouldn't mean as much to me as it would have if he had become the next Sandy Koufax like everyone said he would.
