He hasn’t pitched in an MLB game in 14 years. Yet this 39-year-old is planning a comeback
Rick Ankiel announced Monday night on Fox Sports Midwest he’s making a baseball comeback at age 39.
Ankiel, who played the bulk of his Major League Baseball career with the St. Louis Cardinals, last played an MLB game in 2013.
Recently, Ankiel pitched in the Bluegrass World Series in Louisville, Kentucky. The tournament is comprised of college teams as well as some former big leaguers. The likes of Hall of Famer Chipper Jones (Braves) and veteran MLB players such as Nick Swisher, Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt and others participated, Ankiel said via an appearance on Fox Sports Midwest.
Ankiel reportedly went 2-for-4 at the plate, while striking out the only batter he faced from the mound in the game.
Ankiel, a left-hander, burst onto the big league scene in 2000 with an explosive fastball and nasty curve ball. However, five wild pitches during Game 1 of the 2000 National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves started to derail his pitching career.
Ankiel, who suffered from the yips and anxiety, last pitched an MLB game in 2004, and ultimately shifted into a power-hitting outfielder that saw him return to the big leagues in 2007.
From there, Ankiel hit a career-best 25 home runs with the Cards in 2008 and last played in St. Louis in 2009. He moved around with different teams including the Kansas City Royals, Braves, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros and New York Mets by the time his career wrapped up in 2013.
The Bluegrass World Series appearance on Aug. 1, led Ankiel to tell Yahoo Sports he was “considering pitching professionally again.”
On Monday night, Ankiel was no longer considering it. He’s decided to pursue it.
“I’m starting to get the itch,” Ankiel said on Fox Sports Midwest. “And you know, when I take a look at pros and cons, I can make a whole list of pros. I’ve got nothing on the cons. Zero.”
“My kids want to see me play. I’m at a place now, personally, I couldn’t care less if I throw the ball off the backstop. It really doesn’t matter. We’ve talked about it. And when you take a look at baseball, the game has swung back around to my style of pitching — you talk about the big curve ball, fastballs up. So I feel like, why not come back as a lefty reliever and put one more chapter in the book?”
Ankiel added he’ll spend three to four months in the offseason to get into the best shape he can to make a run at the comeback.
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This story was originally published August 7, 2018 at 11:17 AM.