Once-promising pitching phenom takes a swing at being a hitter

Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Rick Ankiel's quest to make it back to the major leagues as an outfielder begins with at least one true believer.

Chris Maloney, Ankiel's manager at the St. Louis Cardinals' Double-A affiliate in Springfield, Mo., has a unique perspective in the saga. He also was making out the lineup cards at rookie league Johnson City, Tenn., in 2001 when Ankiel, allowed to dabble at hitting as something that would take his mind off excruciating pitching woes, hit 10 home runs as a designated hitter.

Four years later, Maloney remembers Ankiel as not just the best pitching prospect he's ever seen, but also the best hitting prospect in the league that year, too.

''Granted, it was rookie ball, but players have got to come from somewhere,'' Maloney said. ''You could tell he had that elusive 'it' we're all looking for. Great swing, good power, good idea up there.''

Four years later?

''He looks the same to me,'' Maloney said. ''He hasn't lost anything. It's just going to be a question of getting him in there, letting him get comfortable and getting swings under his belt.''

The experiment was off to a slow start. Through midweek, Ankiel had one hit -- a single -- in 19 at-bats, an .053 average.

Not that this would come as a shock, but the organization rates Ankiel as a ''plus'' arm in the outfield. Maloney gives him plusses for instincts, speed, defense, power and hitting as well.

So if anyone can follow in the dusty footsteps of Babe Ruth, a two-time 20-game winner with the Red Sox before becoming the game's greatest slugger, it may be the man who not long ago was perhaps the best pitching prospect in the major leagues.

''I wouldn't put anything past this guy,'' Maloney said.

Others in the organization are more circumspect.

''It's hard to make that transformation,'' said Bruce Manno, the team's director of player development. ''I don't know. It's only May and he just got started. And we're not that smart.''

For now, the Cardinals just want Ankiel to get comfortable.

''It hasn't been bad at all,'' Ankiel said earlier this week before playing his third game with Springfield. ''Having fun. Good team. Good team mix.''

The day Ankiel arrived there was the usual fanfare. Team general manager Matt Gifford telephoned all of the local media to get it on the 10 o'clock news.

''We were getting 10 calls and 20 e-mails a day,'' Gifford said. ''People wanted to know: When is Rick coming? When is Rick coming?''

Now comes the grunt work for a player in catchup mode.

''You just don't know how things will play out,'' Maloney said. ''There's been a lot of highly touted guys, they never got out of A ball, both hitters and pitchers. And he's getting his reps at 25 years of age, so it's definitely going to be a challenge for him to make up some ground.''

It's been six long years since Ankiel rode his electric but erratic left arm to the major leagues at age 19, four years since the downward spiral landed him with a thud in rookie league ball, nearly two years since reconstructive elbow surgery and two months since he threw up his hands in frustration the morning he was to have pitched in a spring training ''B'' game and said no more.

Now, the Cardinals' most scrutinized, most confounding, most untapped talent in recent memory is just another prospect on a team that could have a handful of future major leaguers even if Ankiel fizzles out.

Outfielder Reid Gorecki is on the 40-man roster. Ankiel isn't. Also arriving on the day Ankiel showed up last week was second baseman Aaron Herr, son of former Cardinals second baseman Tommy Herr.

''Now that he's here, he's one of the guys,'' Gifford said. ''I think Rick would want to be treated that way.''

The Cardinals are doing their best to allow Ankiel, who turns 26 in July, to blend in. Springfield is a safe distance from the glare of St. Louis, more than a three-hour drive, and for now he's batting a low-key seventh in the order.

No one appears anxious for instant results, either, from a player who earned a $2.5 million signing bonus out of a Florida high school in 1997. The team will allow this experiment, delayed by back spasms at the end of spring training, to evolve on its own terms.

''You don't know, you can't predict,'' Manno said. ''But we liked what we saw in spring training, and now it's a matter of getting him started again.''

Ankiel's rise through the organization as a pitcher was positively meteoric: two Class A levels in 1998, then up to the major leagues by midseason the next year. Only Ankiel knows what went so sour this spring after he had apparently reclaimed a spot on the staff.

''There's sadness on everybody's part,'' Maloney said. ''Nobody's in his shoes, in his skin.''

Ankiel knows better than to think it'll be that easy this time. He reminds himself he must be patient.

''I haven't thought about it, it's just day to day, trying to get better every day and let my experience sink in and let it all become second nature,'' Ankiel said. ''I think in everybody's competitive nature, you want to be perfect all of the time, but that's not the case. ''

Then again, he can't resist a halting, staccato sneak peek into the future and seeing where the Cardinals might need help soon. Their starting outfield is comprised of Larry Walker, 38, Reggie Sanders, 37, and Jim Edmonds, 34, and the backups are in the same age range.

''Looking ahead, if you look that far ahead, looking at our outfielders in the big leagues we have a lot of older guys,'' Ankiel said.

Ankiel missed the first few weeks of the minor league season recovering from back spasms and tightness that grew worse toward the end of spring training. He's already tired of recounting his latest stint on the shelf.

''I shut it down for a day and then came back and played a couple of days and it was the same thing,'' Ankiel said. ''After that I shut it down, saw the doctor, blah, blah, blah.

''To finally get here and get it started, it's a relief. It's fun. Hopefully, it'll continue to be fun.''