2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Ankiel biting: Steroid-testing America
Only one October
Gregory Pratt
Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: Opinions
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Rick Ankiel was a young man in 2000 when he faced veteran Greg Maddux in Major League Baseball's playoffs. Ankiel was an up-and-coming pitcher at the time, considered by many a future superstar for the St. Louis Cardinals. Maddux? He was already a surefire Hall-of-Famer with the Atlanta Braves who made his name on the ability to control a baseball and throw it through a lifesaver time and time again.
Considering his control, what happened to Ankiel that night was one of the great ironies in baseball history, as Ankiel lost the ability to throw a strike during the third inning, walking four batters, throwing five wild pitches and allowing two hits before he was removed against the greatest puppet master baseball has ever known.
His playoff start a disaster, his career as a pitcher was effectively over: not because the St. Louis Cardinals gave up on him but because he couldn't get the curse of Greg Maddux out of his system, and was never again able to consistently throw strikes. He spent a small amount of time wandering in the wilderness until he decided to quit pitching and focus on becoming an outfielder; and he did just that, in time even managing to slug his way through the minor leagues of baseball. Eventually, he made his return to major league competition as an outfielder where he defied all odds by belting homerun after homerun, leading some to compare him to Robert Redford's Roy Hobbs in "The Natural," except that Ankiel was anything but - his use of Human Growth Hormone was revealed, shattering his image and breaking the hearts of those who followed his comeback over the years.
Let's get behind the ball before we throw it through the cut-off man, shall we? I love the game of baseball almost as much as I enjoy great conversation, good people, history and literature. While baseball is less than those loves, it is still a love, and love is love - although it has been a rather trying love.
See, I never fell into the spell that baseball fans fell into in 1998 or 2001, with regard to hulking monsters mashing. For one, I'm a man who prizes pitching above all; for another, I knew that something was wrong when people were doing what only Babe Ruth had ever done before as if it were an easy feat, but as every other fan pretended that it was all acceptable, I stewed until I began to view baseball's steroid era as a shameful microcosm of modern American society.
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Considering his control, what happened to Ankiel that night was one of the great ironies in baseball history, as Ankiel lost the ability to throw a strike during the third inning, walking four batters, throwing five wild pitches and allowing two hits before he was removed against the greatest puppet master baseball has ever known.
His playoff start a disaster, his career as a pitcher was effectively over: not because the St. Louis Cardinals gave up on him but because he couldn't get the curse of Greg Maddux out of his system, and was never again able to consistently throw strikes. He spent a small amount of time wandering in the wilderness until he decided to quit pitching and focus on becoming an outfielder; and he did just that, in time even managing to slug his way through the minor leagues of baseball. Eventually, he made his return to major league competition as an outfielder where he defied all odds by belting homerun after homerun, leading some to compare him to Robert Redford's Roy Hobbs in "The Natural," except that Ankiel was anything but - his use of Human Growth Hormone was revealed, shattering his image and breaking the hearts of those who followed his comeback over the years.
Let's get behind the ball before we throw it through the cut-off man, shall we? I love the game of baseball almost as much as I enjoy great conversation, good people, history and literature. While baseball is less than those loves, it is still a love, and love is love - although it has been a rather trying love.
See, I never fell into the spell that baseball fans fell into in 1998 or 2001, with regard to hulking monsters mashing. For one, I'm a man who prizes pitching above all; for another, I knew that something was wrong when people were doing what only Babe Ruth had ever done before as if it were an easy feat, but as every other fan pretended that it was all acceptable, I stewed until I began to view baseball's steroid era as a shameful microcosm of modern American society.
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