Rick Ankiel Is A Jackass

This week's winner was the feel good story of the year. He was the comeback
kid, the amazing turnaround, the unthinkable. He also turned out to be a
Jackass. I'm talking about St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel.
Many of you may know the Rick Ankiel story, but let me give the summary of it
to those who don't know it. Rick Ankiel was a highly touted prospect starting
pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals Organization back in 1999 and 2000. He put
up pretty good numbers his rookie season as a starting pitcher in 2000 at the
tender age of 20. He helped the Cards make the playoffs that year. During
those playoffs Ankiel set a record for wild pitches. He threw five wild pitches
in one inning against the Braves, setting an MLB record. He joked about the
event after the game and shrugged it off as an isolated event. However, his
very next start in the playoffs, he was yanked in the first inning throwing five
pitches past the catcher again, two being scored wild pitches as the other
three came with no runners on base. Things started looking bad for Ankiel.
He was given a relief appearance a few nights later and threw two more wild
pitches, things were getting ugly here! His season was over. In 2001, the
Cards brought him back to start the year on the big league club and he threw
5 wild pitches in his first 24 innings and was demoted to AAA. He threw 4.1
innings in the AAA minor leagues that year and in those 4.1 innings he threw
12 wild pitches! His mental stability when it came to pitching was clearly
shattered! He then missed all of 2002 with an injury and came back in 2003 to
pitch 54 innings in the minor leagues, throwing 10 more wild pitches and got
hurt again for the entire year. After an unsuccessful 2004, Ankiel decided in
2005 he was switching from being a pitcher to an outfielder. Yeah right, how
often do pitchers turn into hitters? It's basically never. Well, Ankiel slugged
his way through A, AA and AAA in 2006 and the beginning of this year. In fact
he was hitting so well at AAA this year, he led the league in home runs and
was called up to the majors on August 9th. Since August 9th he has been
tearing up the major leagues, hitting 9 home runs in less than a month! He's
had some diving plays in the field, he's hit around .285 with the
aforementioned power and he's been the talk of the league. This former
pitcher, now 28, turned outfielder ripping through the majors like this, after
all he's gone through was such a great story! Well, it got ruined last week.
This is where the jackass part comes in. It turns out that in 2004 Ankiel
obtained a year's worth of Human Growth Hormone from a online "pharmacy"
based out of Florida. HGH is illegal, and it would certainly explain his ability to
switch from a pitcher to slugging power hitter. The numbers he's put up now
are diminished, disappointing and cheap. This amazing comeback that we all
thought he made is tainted, and ruined. Rick Ankiel basically cheated to
become what he is and I say that stinks. I was really rooting for this guy, I
thought it was amazing, he fooled us all. For his actions, Rick Ankiel is the
BSN JACKASS OF THE WEEK!