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No doubt you remember Rick Ankiel, the once highly touted pitching prospect of the St. Louis Cardinals. He rose quickly through minors, succeeding at every single stop. But when he reached the majors, his control left him. In the playoffs no less.
But that isn’t the only misfortune he suffered.
Rick Ankiel did not grow up in a ticky tacky little box out of Agrestic, California. Instead, he scraped by along with his mother, who dealt with an abusive spouse that was serving a prison sentence. His dad was serving time for drug smuggling while Rick was being scouted heavily by every Major League team. His half-brother was also in jail, and was arrested 28 times in a 6-year span. If you think the past few years were rough, you have no idea.
Which is why I am not surprised that Rick Ankiel has persevered and is once again successful on a team that is struggling to be a playoff contender. Ankiel took his agent’s advice (none other than Scott Boras), and put baseball in the back of his mind for a while. He headed out to SoCal to get away from it all. Boras was there for Ankiel when he needed him most (unlike IMG for Jennifer Capriati). He hung out with Ankiel in Southern California, set him up with other players, and also linked him with a sports psychologist.
(For more on Scott Boras’s operation, see here.)
Today Charles Krauthammer cheers Ankiel’s return in the Natural returns to St. Louis. (or here.)
The kid is never the same. He never recovers his control. Five miserable years in the minors trying to come back. Injuries. Operations. In 2005, he gives up pitching forever.
Then, last week, on Aug. 9, he is called up from Triple-A. Same team. Same manager. Rick Ankiel is introduced to a roaring Busch Stadium crowd as the Cardinals’ starting right fielder.
In the seventh inning, with two outs, he hits a three-run home run to seal the game for the Cardinals. Two days later, he hits two home runs and makes one of the great catches of the year — over the shoulder, back to the plate, full speed.
Krauthammer correctly writes that this catch was so spectacular because Ankiel misjudged the ball. Despite the recent heroics, Krauthammer expect normalcy to return.
He made the catch. The crowd, already delirious over the two home runs, came to its feet. If this had been a fable, Ankiel would have picked himself up and walked out of the stadium into the waiting arms of the lady in white — Glenn Close in a halo of light — never to return.
But this is real life. Ankiel is only 28 and will continue to play. The magic cannot continue. If he is lucky, he’ll have the career of an average right fielder. But it doesn’t matter. His return after seven years — if only three days long — is the stuff of legend. Made even more perfect by the timing: Just two days after Barry Bonds sets a synthetic home run record in San Francisco, the Natural returns to St. Louis.
By learning a new position and to hit while already in his twenties Ankiel has accomplished something really rare. Is it the start of a very good second career? It’s too early to tell. But you must want him to succeed.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
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| Sunday, July 22, 2007 |
Atlanta Braves left fielder Willie Harris tied an Atlanta Braves record with six hits in last night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals. He was the first Brave to reach that mark in 26 years.
 On a perfectly pleasant night, in front of a regular season-record 53,953 fans turning Turner Field claustrophobic, the Braves and Willie Harris played up to the atmosphere Saturday night. How else to explain the outpouring of offense in a 14-6 pounding of the Cardinals, featuring Harris going 6-for-6? To run out the Cardinals fans?
NASCAR Night became ego-stroking night as the Braves crawled all over each other for the limelight. The scrappy Harris reached the top with six of the Braves’ 19 hits. The kid from Cairo singled four times, tripled twice, scored four runs and drove in six runs. He became the seventh player in franchise history to reach six hits in a game, the second to do it since the team moved to Atlanta. The other was Felix Millan in 1970.
[...]
Harris set career highs with his six hits, two triples and six RBIs. And he moved to center field in the late innings, so his left-field platoon mate Matt Diaz could get some at-bats, too.
Impressive, indeed.
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| Monday, July 16, 2007 |
The Philadelphia Phillies have reached a dubious milestone, becoming the first professional team in any sport to lose 10,000 games.
 Through the last-place finishes, September collapses and every agonizing failure over the past 125 years, no team has lost quite like the Philadelphia Phillies. Futility has followed them since the day they were born, and Sunday night was no different for the losingest team in sports history. Loss No. 10,000 came when Albert Pujols hit two of the St. Louis Cardinals’ six homers in a 10-2 rout.
Not surprisingly, this defeat resembled the thousands that came before. Bad starting pitching, brutal relief and hardly any hitting. And, of course, lots of booing. By the ninth inning, with the outcome inevitable, the boos turned to cheers. Fans in the sellout crowd of 44,872 thumbed their noses at the dubious mark, standing and applauding. One held up a sign that read: “10,000 N Proud” as NL MVP Ryan Howard struck out to end the game.
“I don’t know too much about 10,000 losses,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I try and concentrate on the wins.”
From Connie Mack Stadium to the Vet and Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies have had few moments to celebrate. The franchise, born in 1883 as the Philadelphia Quakers and briefly called the Blue Jays in the mid-1940s, fell to 8,810-10,000.
Next on the losing list: the Braves, with 9,681 defeats. It took them stints in three cities (Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta) to reach that total. Not even those lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs, come close at 9,425. And for those counting, it was the 58th time the Phillies have lost by that exact 10-2 score, the Elias Sports Bureau said.
While it’s a somewhat embarrassing record, it’s a bit misleading. For one thing, baseball teams play radically more games than in any other professional sport. Moreover, even the best teams will lose 35-40 percent of their games, amassing 60 loses even in great seasons. And the Phillies have been around longer than virtually all other teams.
Still, not a record to cheer.
The Philadelphia Phillies are on the verge of a record.
PHILADELPHIA – The only number that’s important to the Phillies is the length of their winning streak. Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand homered, Pat Burrell added four RBIs and Philadelphia avoided its 10,000th loss again by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 10-4 on Saturday.
*****
The six-run cushion was enough for Hamels. Ryan Madson and Antonio Alfonseca finished up and delayed Philadelphia’s inevitable 10,000th loss for at least one more game. If they win the series finale, the Phillies could reach the mark on their seven-game West Coast trip.
Philadelphia would be the first professional sports team to lose 10,000 games.
If not for the American League not starting up till 1901, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Phillies former Shibe Park co-tenant The Philadelphia A’s would be far off from 10,000 losses either. The A’s were almost as dismal as the Phillies for many years.(From 1934 to 1967 the team only had a couple of winning seasons.)
Jim at Bright and Early pointed out the Phillies date with infamous baseball history. In the process, I learned the baseball franchise doesn’t even know its own history.
No one could have realized it at the time, but when the Phillies were formed in 1883, history was in the making. Now, as the 21st century begins, the Phillies are the oldest, continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional sports.
In the 1940′s the Phillies were owned by Robert Carpenter. During that ownership period, the team changed names.
Carpenter’s first act was to try to change the team’s name to “Blue Jays.” However, “Phillies” continued to appear on the team’s jerseys. Students at Johns Hopkins University, whose teams have long been known as the Blue Jays, vehemently protested the change. They claimed that the Phillies’ attempt to use the name was an insult to their school, given the team’s reputation as a chronic loser. The experiment was dropped after only two seasons.
Only a hard core old Baseball nut would remember this name change. I doubt many living Phillies fans do.
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| Tuesday, May 1, 2007 |
On field performances took a backseat in the final weekend of major league baseball’s first month. The untimely death of Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock cast a pall over a rather extraordinary month of early season baseball. Cardinal fan Wil Leitch of the site Deadspin offered a touching remembrance of Josh, which captures the relationship that fans have to the men who play the games they love.
The relationship that we, as fans, have with the athletes we follow is as genuine as it is bizarre. Not a single day has gone by since Opening Day 2006, when Hancock first appeared on the Cardinals’ roster, that he has not been on our mental radar. We cheered him, we cursed him, we forgot about him, we repeated the process; he occupied a real place in our lives. We did not know him, and we were not particularly curious to do so; if he got batters out, he made us happy, and that was enough. His sudden departure — shocking, horrible, insane — makes us feel as if we have lost something that we never realized we had. We want to go back and cheer harder for him, forgive his mistakes more easily … treat him as human in a way we never did as a mere fan. He shifts from middle reliever to human being only in death; this can drive a fan mad with guilt and confusion.
But we did not know him. Many did, in far more depth than our parents’ fleeting encounter 10 days ago. To those, he was never a middle reliever. He was just Josh, quiet, friendly, reserved, living the contradictory life of a Major League Baseball player who toils in relative anonymity. We cannot pretend to have known him, or to understand the anguish of those who did. We can only know that we have lost something small but real, and hope and pray that those who lost more than that can find some sort of peace.
I encourage you to read the rest.
Returning to the exploits on the field, Mark Buehrle and Troy Tulowitzki both joined very exclusive baseball fraternities. Buehrle hurled the 16th no hitter in White Sox history.
Mark Buehrle became the first White Sox pitcher since Joe Horlen in 1967 to throw a no-hitter at home, and the first in USCF [US Cellular Field] history. He was tantalizingly close to pitching the 18th perfect game in major league history. A 5th inning walk to Sammy Sosa was the lone blemish on Buehrle’s pitching line, and he would erase the baserunner two pitches later by picking Sosa off of first base.
Tulowitzki turned the first unassisted triple play since Rafael Furcal nabbed a line drive touched second and then caught the runner retreating to first base. Only the thirteenth such play in the 107 seasons since 1901, but the fifth since 1992. David Pinto has the details, plus a the link to the list of all 13 unassisted triple plays.
Troy Tulowitzki turns the rare unassisted triple play against Atlanta. His play prevented Atlanta from scoring in four straight innings, and the Braves ended up losing in eleven frames 9-7.
Baseball’s leaderboard at the one months mark has a few surprises. The Brewers, a fashionable spring training pick to win their division are proving to be fashionable, leading the six team division, with the defending World Series Champion Cardinals five and a half games off the pace tied with Houston and the Cubs in the cellar. In second place the Pirates, even with Adam LaRoche and his abysmal batting average. Cincinnati can’t decide who they want to be, contender or pretender. Check back in a month and they may still be a game under .500, and still vacillating on competing.
The new-look Diamondbacks are pacing the field, in the NL West, a division that only two seasons ago almost didn’t have a team over .500. This year only the Rockies have won fewer than they lost. The Dodgers, Giants and Padres are all chasing the youthful leaders.
Atlanta is enjoying a revival in the NL East, with the Mets keeping pace with them. Florida and Philly are off the pace, but both have enough talent to make a run. The Nationals are as bad as advertised, illustrating that just because a team plays in RFK doe snot mean that baseball has returned to the Nation’s Capital.
In the junior circuit, The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Orange County, California, USA, Earth, have won eight of their last ten to sit atop the heap in the West. Oakland’s solid rotation and regular second half dashes keep hopes up in the other city by the bay. Seattle’s collection of aging-veteran-has-beens and youthful rushed-to-the-majors-never-will-bes are keeping Ichiro company in what might be his last season in Seattle. Texas rounds out the field in what may be the weakest division in baseball.
The Central by contrast looks to be the strongest. Kansas City is scuffling, again, for what the fifteenth straight year? Meanwhile Cleveland has gotten off to a good start, showing the promise of the team that nearly hunted down the White Sox in 2005. The Twins and Tigers, last season’s central division post season participants are both a game and a half back. The White Sox are a game further behind. The ChiSox have to worry about the slimness of their run differential at this point. At one game over .500, their record is a little better than it should be with a 95-97 run scored versus runs allowed ratio. And remember Buehrle’s no-no night also feature multiple homeruns from Jim Thome (now on the DL) and a grand slam from Jermaine Dye.
Finally, baseball’s overhyped division, the American League East. The Red Sox are off to a hot start, behind a very stingy pitching staff. Their combination of good pitching and acceptable hitting has them ahead of the Blue Jays, Orioles and Devil Rays, oh and the last place Yankees. With the talent that New York has, they are unlikely to remain cellar dwellers for long, but the potential Vesuvius that is George Steinbrenner has let it be known the play of the Yankees to date has been unacceptable. Heads may roll in New York, which would spell the definitive end of the calm years of Yankee success that began in 1995 and produced the great Championship teams of the late 90′s. Teams, that featured homegrown stars and complementary role players and unlike the current Yankee incarnation did not have the bloated payroll, and aging all stars at every position.
May begins with a full slate of games tonight. And baseball’s season continues forward.
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| Sunday, April 29, 2007 |
Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock was killed in a car accident.
 St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock has been killed in a car accident, the team says.
The Cardinals said they were told of the 29-year-old reliever’s death by the St. Louis Police Department. The team’s home game against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday night was postponed. The team said the accident happened in St. Louis, but no other details were disclosed. The Cardinals and police are expected to make a statement this afternoon at Busch Stadium.
Hancock has pitched for four major league clubs. He went 3-3 in 62 regular-season appearances for the Cardinals last season and pitched in three postseason games. He was 0-1 with a 3.55 ERA in eight games this season. Hancock joined the Cardinals before the 2006 season. He has pitched for Boston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati.
Horrible news.
The Cincinnati Reds have reached their April 12 off day with a 5-4 record, which is good enough for a tie with the St. Louis Cardinals for first place in the NL Central. In the early going, it looks like parity will again rule the roost for the Central, which means the race is wide open yet again. Do the Reds have enough to win it?
The rotation has looked solid in the early going. Returning aces Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo have again delivered solid performances, and mid-rotation guys Kyle Lohse and Matt Belisle have delivered like mid-rotation guys. The question has been the fifth spot, currently handled by high-salaried veteran Eric Milton. Milton started the season on the DL, then was cuffed around a bit in his first start. His next start will be delayed, as he is being held out of the Cubs’s series this weekend. The word for public consumption is that the lefty Milton is being delayed to avoid the Cubs’ heavily right-handed lineup. Hiding a starting pitcher is not often done with a highly-paid free agent, but that seems to be what is happening here. The over-under on when Milton is displaced for highly-touted youngster Homer Bailey is the All-Star Break.
The bullpen has done well so far, although there is little public commitment to a closer. In practice, David Weathers has taken over the 9th-inning duties, although the lack of a public naming of Weathers as closer probably relates to a fear that Weathers will slip into one of his annual slumps somewhere in mid-season. Eddie Guardado’s comeback is on a fluid timetable, but the Reds also have veteran lefty Mike Stanton and youngster Todd Coffey available to close games, and Victor Santos has had a lot of success so far as the go-to guy for the middle of innings with runners on base. Weathers will get the saves for now, but things could change rapidly, especially if Weathers blows a few and someone else is going well.
The offense is a cause for concern. Adam Dunn has broken out of the gate quickly, and at age 27 could be ready for his career year. Ryan Freel is doing his sparkplug thing in the leadoff spot and playing center field. There are high hopes for the health of Ken Griffey Jr. in his less-demanding right field spot. And Edwin Encarnacion has the makings of an RBI guy. However, Dave Ross has started the season in a slump, and may struggle to reach last year’s 25 homers even in more playing time. Brandon Phillips has looked like the guy who was in a second-half slump rather than his impressive first half of last year. And SS Alex Gonzalez isn’t on the team for his hitting. Jeff Conine is doing well in his reserve role, but Scott Hatteberg has shown little power.
The wild card here is Josh Hamilton, the former #1 overall draft pick and recovering drug addict. Hamilton didn’t get any starts last week due to the flu, but has produced two homers in two starts this week. Performance like that will bring more opportunity, so Hamilton will see more lineup time. So far he has spelled Freel and Griffey once each, and replacing each once a week could be good, but if the kid is really going to break out he will need more time than that. How that will be handled remains to be seen.
Hamilton is especially important, because for the Reds to grab the division will require more offense, and Hamilton is a potential source for that offense. His position in the lineup will be the problem. If the Reds can get some hitting, other pieces are in place.
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| Friday, March 30, 2007 |
Let the games begin!
Baseball season returns to the scene of triumph, one of baseball’s truly great cities and its newest ballpark to open the 2007 campaign with a rematch from last season’s National League Championship Series. The New York Mets who had the best record in the National League are visiting the Cardinals, winners of the 2006 World Series.
Sunday night will be a night for the Cardinals to celebrate their Series victory one last time. The rings will be handed out and the new players joining the Cardinals roster can get a taste of the triumph from the previous autumn. The Mets will get an idea of what they missed and it will make them hungry.
Tom Glavine faces Chris Carpenter in the mound matchup. Glavine who gave the Cards fits in October will look to miss bats and keep the potent St. Louis lineup at bay. Carpenter meanwhile wants to pickup where he left off last season, shutting down batters and getting easy outs.
The Mets bats showed signs of clicking, thumping a split squad Dodgers team yesterday but have been more pedestrian in other clashes as the spring season has worn down. New York needs their lineup to carry them. April poses significant challenges for hitters. Pitchers benefit from colder weather typically and it is easier to disrupt a hitter’s timing int he days immediately following the trip north.
For the Cardinals the hope is to get out to a quick start. Their starters have looked strikingly good this spring, and while the games don’t count, the amazing rotation of Carpenter and four other guys has produced an ERA of 1.89 in 119.3 spring innings. Those four other guys have been Kip Wells, Adam Wainwright, Braden Looper and Anthony Reyes. Wells’ sparkling 1.16 ERA is only bettered by Wainwright’s 0.98.
St. Louis has used internal promotion, crafty trades and bargain free agents to good effect. This rotation may be the best example of Walt Jockety’s work to date. Staff ace Cris Carpenter rewarded the early patience of St. Louis, who signed him to sit out a season after Tommy John surgery, four years ago. Wells was a relatively cheap signing this past November. Looper worked out of the bullpen last year, the first of a three year contract he had signed in 2005. Reyes, a home grown Cardinal, has been touted by Baseball America and other propsect watchers for the last few years. Wainwright, who may be the best of the lot, came over from Atlanta when the Cardinals dealt J.D. Drew to Atlanta in 2003. Four years in the making, this rotation has potential to be great.
Sunday’s game is the first one to mean anything since October for either team. Welcome Back Baseball.
The St. Louis manager was found asleep at the wheel in Jupiter Florida.
JUPITER — Police arrested St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor, after he was found sleeping at a green light in his Ford SUV about midnight today at Frederick Small Boulevard and Military Trail.
Police grew suspicious when the SUV was stopped at a light that went through two cycles of green and a driver behind it had to go around, police said.
Police found La Russa slumped over in the driver’s seat of the running SUV, which was in drive. La Russa had his foot on the brake and did not respond to knocks on the window, police said. He finally woke up and parked the car.
Police said they noticed the smell of alcohol on his breath, and a field sobriety test was conducted.
La Russa was sent to the Palm Beach County Jail, where he provided breath samples, which measured at a .093 blood alcohol level, police said.
Memo to Tony- Get a cab next time.
The Veteran’s Committee will announce the latest entrants today.
NEW YORK – Gil Hodges and Ron Santo top the players’ ballot and Doug Harvey and Marvin Miller head the officials’ hopefuls in the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee vote to be announced Tuesday.
Since the Veterans Committee was revamped for the 2003 election, no one has been chosen by the voters — mostly living Hall of Famers.
Players appear on the ballot every two years, and officials go on a composite ballot every four years. Twenty-seven players are on this years ballot, along with among 15 managers, executives and umpires.
Two years ago, Hodges and Santo each fell eight votes shy of the necessary 75 percent. They both were picked on 52 of 80 ballots (65 percent), followed by Tony Oliva (45 votes), Jim Kaat (43), Joe Torre (36), Maury Wills (26), Vada Pinson (23), Luis Tiant (20) and Roger Maris (19).
Harvey, a former NL umpire, topped the 2003 composite ballot with 48 votes, 12 short of the needed 75 percent. Former Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley had 38 votes, and Miller, the former head of the players’ association, had 35.
Lefty O’Doul, Al Oliver, Cecil Travis and Mickey Vernon were added to this year’s players’ ballot, and Elston Howard and Smoky Joe Wood were dropped.
Holdovers also include Dick Allen, Bobby Bonds, Ken Boyer, Rocky Colavito, Wes Ferrell, Curt Flood, Joe Gordon, Mickey Lolich, Sparky Lyle, Marty Marion, Carl Mays, Minnie Minoso, Thurman Munson and Don Newcombe.
The composite ballot also includes Buzzie Bavasi, August Busch Jr., Harry Dalton, Charles O. Finley, Whitey Herzog, Bowie Kuhn, Billy Martin, Gabe Paul, Paul Richards, Bill White, Dick Williams and Phil Wrigley.
The 84 eligible voters on the Veterans Committee include 61 living Hall of Famers, 14 Frick winners selected for major contributions to baseball broadcasting, eight members Spink winners picked for meritorious contributions to baseball writing and one holdover from the previous Veterans Committee.
The choices to me are pretty simple. The composite ballot has some good choices in Kuhn, Herzog, White, Williams and Wrigley. It also has Bravasi and gag…gag…Gabe Paul. Should I start re-telling 1970′s and 80′s Cleveland Indian jokes?
Like the little girl who is at a custody hearing. The judge asks her
Judge- “Do you want to live with your Mommy?”
Girl- “No Mommy beats me.”
Judge- “Do you want to live with your Daddy?”
Girl- “No, Daddy beats me worse than Mommy.”
Judge- “Who do you want to live with?”
Girl- “The Cleveland Indians.”
Judge- “Why the Cleveland Indians?”
Girl- “They don’t beat anyone.”
There’s more jokes but I’ll spare you the experience.
As to the players, it is an easy choice for me. I’m a Met fan and always have been. The Mets of 1969 were the luckiest team in baseball history and Hodges was the manager. He was a good not great ballplayer. I’m not letting sentimentality rule, but Gil Hodges is not a HOFer. If Gil had played in Philadelphia rather than Brooklyn, he may not have gotten this far.
So who are my choices? Ron Santo and Ken Boyer. Both of whom are are among the top 10 players at third base in baseball history. Up till World War II, 3B was a position for defensive players just like shortstop. Dominated by players like Willie Kamm, Pie Traynor, Ossie Bluege and others. The new era at 3rd base didn’t start till after the war, though Harland Clift, a member of the St. Louis Browns in the 1930′s and early 40′s, was a harbinger of what was to come.
Santo and Boyer were excellent glove men and good hitters. Both had long productive careers. They were also arguably the best third basemen at the time they played either in the National League or all of the majors.(Boyer faces the tougher argument there, he went up against Eddie Mathews for much of his career) Comparing these two players to the others on the ballot shows how clearly almost all the others are lacking.
After Boyer and Santo, the next best choics are Marty Marion(the premier glove man at SS in the 40′s), Joe Gordon(excellent 2B from the same era as Marion), Hodges, Jim Kaat who won 280+ games and Sparky Lyle. Relief pitchers are probably the most subjective position to rate in baseball, the standards are almost non-existent. Lyle was very good for 5-6 years and won a CY Young award. On the other hand, is the New York factor at play again?
Don’t make me laugh by mentioning Lefty O’Doul. He had a couple of good years in the inflated hitters years of the late 20′s and early 30′s. My father, who knew O’Doul slightly after his playing days were over, wouldn’t even be advocating him for the HOF. If we put O’Doul in who is next, Wally Berger? Babe Herman? There are already too many players in the HOF from that overrated era. If you count them up, there are like six or seven players at one postion(RF I think) in the HOF who were starters in 1929.
One last note- I have no objection to umpire Doug Harvey being voted in. He was probably the most respected umpire there was for much of his time in baseball.
Update- The votes are in. No one is being added to the HOF.
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