Wake Up With Rick Ankiel Making 2 Of The Best Throws I've Ever Seen
When you look up the word “Yips” in the dictionary, Rick Ankiel’s picture is starring right through your soul. I mean that guy just couldn’t put it together on the mound. The countless wild pitches, hitting the backstop, airmailing the catcher by 15 feet. He just couldn’t throw to the plate. I mean he literally couldn’t do it.
In the first round of the playoffs in 2000 he had five (5) wild pitches in one inning. The next round, he was taken out against the Mets in the first inning because he threw five pitches to the backstop, but only 2 were wild pitches because there were men on base. Fast forward to Game 5 of that series and yes, he had 2 more wild pitches.
He eventually would stop pitching and reported to Cardinals camp as an outfielder and in 2007 he hit 32 bombs in AAA and only had 7 errors in 95 games for the Cardinals affiliate. He was called up later that year to St. Louis and showed he could rake, and field as well. We do remember his bat and the power he had, but I think the most impressive thing was his arm.
Look at these god damn throws above, I mean the first one couldn’t be more perfect. He drops it in the basket and the third baseman is in perfect position to tag the runner. Just beautiful. The second throw was still a good one, high, but still a good throw. I mean it’s insane to make one of those throws, let alone two in the same game!!!
Ankiel really was a special player, and he showed that some of these guys are really, really good athletes. He obviously had there skill at one time to be a very good pitcher, but just couldn’t quite put it together, so he completely changed everything he was doing, and reinvented himself in a new position, and for a while was a pretty good player. Lots of things going on upstairs with him too, but good god did he have an arm.