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SAN DIEGO -- From his vantage point in center field, for Rick Ankiel, every day is like driving through his boyhood neighborhood. Right there up ahead is the place where he grew up, the pitcher's mound.
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| Ex-pitcher Rick Ankiel is proving to be a defensive stud with his glove and arm for St. Louis. (AP) |
He misses it about as much as you probably miss those days of weeding your parents' flower beds.
"Boring," Ankiel says.
Some folks are nostalgic, and some aren't.
Ankiel? He moved out of his old place and never looked back. Survival usually trumps nostalgia, anyway. Now hitting .289 with eight home runs, 23 RBI (a .370 on-base percentage through Tuesday) and two of the most remarkable outfield assists you'll ever see this season, Ankiel has accomplished the near-impossible.
He has re-made himself from a novelty act into a legitimate, featured, everyday attraction.
"To be this good as a position player takes remarkable talent," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa says. "To take where he's come from, it demonstrates tremendous toughness, character and determination.
"If you don't take into account his prior history, if you don't know anything about him, you just see a true major league prospect. Bat speed, the way the ball acts off of his bat, everything about him tells you he's a prospect."
And if you do take prior history into account?
Yeah, sure. Like this could ever happen.
Really.
"It's been a pleasant surprise," says Ankiel, 28, who collected the first pitch-hit homer of his career in St. Louis 11-3 win here Wednesday night. "I believed in myself. The biggest thing with hitting was to be consistent every day."
