Ankiel Brings Heart Back to Sports
Last week I wrote about Bonds’ historic home run being the massively ironic feel-good story in sports this year due to the fact that it took the NBA referee scandal and the Vick dogfighting case off of the front page of the sports section, at least momentarily. Immediately after writing it, however, Rick Ankiel gave sports fans a truly great feel-good story with his dramatic, Hollywood-style career resurrection.
Originally an excellent young pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, Ankiel suffered a spectacularly bad meltdown in game one of the National League Division Series in 2000. In the third inning, he threw five wild pitches and allowed four runs on two hits.
After a long rehab stint in the minors Ankiel was recalled to the big leagues last week as a right fielder, and hit a home run in his first game back last Thursday in true story book fashion. Yesterday, the saga continues with two home runs and three RBIs versus the Dodgers. Finally, in this cynical age with cheating and felonies being the talk of the sports page daily, it’s refreshing to finally get a story that reminds us why we grew to love sports in the first place.
mlb, baseball, Cardinals, Rick Ankiel
