If he can cut down on strikeouts, he'll be an above average outfielder.  He sure handled himself well last night....

Embarrased curtain call, nice tip of the cap to appreciative fans as he took the field in the eighth. I'll take all the positive things I can this year.

Good call on not "actually" posting that.  It felt way over the top and just not like your usual posts.  Yes the Ankiel story is heartwarming and great but one person can't absolve all that with one homerun in the middle of August in a situation that had no effect on the outcome of the game.  Great HR, great moment, great story for the grandkids but not a "shot heard round the world" type of thing.  Someone on Cards Talk wanted to place it in the top 5 of all Cardinals regular season moments.  Of the top of their heads and from the recent era people came up with:
Big Mac 62, 9th inning comeback versus Cincy (something like a 9-3 Cincy lead that ended 10-9 Cards), Pujols 3 HR Easter last year, Wrigley field comeback from 04, Tatis 2 GS in one inning, Bennett's GS versus the Cubs last season.  While the story isn't there behind those they will probably all be considered the same way in the books.

For me the story of Ankiel is more then just one homerun, if he is able to play even a few full seasons as a position player then it will be as good of a story as Musial's conversion (which I read for the first time yesterday, still catching up on the old time lore) and it will be a great accomplishment.  I say again that it was a good call to not open your story that way this morning Larry.

...I just read the entire post aloud to my (non-Cardinals' fan) wife, and whatever the ~sentiment~ in the piece, it's a wonderful bit of writing.

...was watching the reactions of TLR and the rest of the Cardinals to Ankiel's home run. This club has needed a "shot in the arm" for most of the season... here's hoping that "Slick Rick" provides that!

Not to rain on anybody's parade, but faggedaboud those "Young Musial" comparions... "The Man" pitched and played the outfield in the Cards' low minors, becoming a full-time position player after hurting his arm late in the 1940 season. In 1941, Musial started the season at Class "C" Springfield... and finished it in "The Show" with the Cardinals!!! He did this at the age of 20!!!

So, by the time Musial was Ankiel's age now, he'd been a big-leaguer for seven years (minus service time). I'm not knocking Rick... but there's only one "Stan The Man"!

I like the honesty in the post. my sentiments are similar. ive never felt the emotional attachment to ankiel's plight. i truly am happy for rick, and i even felt some heart-strings being tugged watching the highlights and post-game last night.  La Russa's emotional investment in him was touching. i give him some credit for being a father-like figure to some one who is lacking in that department.  But personally, i see ankiel as just another player - with question marks regarding plate discipline and mental makeup. my reaction when i read about his callup was 'what can he provide to the team?'  this morning i questioned myself as to why i wasn't as excited as others. perhaps it is an age thing.  i remember returning from college in 96 and being able to see the return of Mr. McGee.  he recieved loud ovations when he cam to bat.  both on tv and at the stadium, i welled up when witnessing it. it was something deep and visceral to me... a glorious return, a display of affection.   I had an emotional attachment from my youth that wasn't present for the ankiel return.  

All that being said, between LaRussa's reaction, the number of intelligent and thoughtful comments here today, and this lengthy post... I'm intently rooting for more success for Rick, but the emotional investment just isn't there.

This guy failed -- as miserably as anyone ever has -- on national TV, twice.  His biggest comparable in the public's mind -- Steve Blass.  Not very complimentary.

He could've quit and almost did.  Almost anyone else would have but it seems that he just loves playing the game.  He is what we all wish we could be -- living the dream that we lived when we were 8 years old.  He's much more mature -- older, married, wiser -- but, in many ways, he's still 8 years old.  Maybe I shouldn't speak for anybody else, but as we all get older and realize we can't turn back the clock to those days when we were just out playing the game that we loved, we see Ankiel doing just that.

We're living vicariously through Rick.  I hope he has 4000 more AB's but, if he doesn't, or if he only turns into a 4th OF and pinch-hitter, he has triumphed over everyone who said that he couldn't.  And, make no mistake, almost everyone said that he couldn't.  He had become a laughingstock to some and someone pitied by others.  Now, he's living his dream and we're all living it with him.  He's given us all a memory (and himself one, too) that we'll take with us for a very long time.

Wouldn't we all give damned near anything to have a moment like Rick did last night?  He'll continue to live his dream until he can't any longer but, when it's all over, whatever the BA, however many homers or K's -- it'll be a triumph.  He has persevered and triumphed and the best part is, his dream isn't over with yet.

he story is the stuff movies are made of. rough upbringing, glorious blue chip prospect goes bad, restarts his life as a hitter. it's an odds overcoming story. even if he doesn't become a successful major leaguer, i would pay to see that movie. it was a glorious moment of a person overcoming the odds, that's what i'm celebrating. if that's all he did, i'd still pay to see that movie.

that said, here's hoping he does go on to be successful. i'm trying to be realistic, not totally expecting him to set the world on fire. in my real expectations, i expect him to hit .260/.305/.500 going forward. that's still better then what we're getting out of more then most of the regular lineup. and it's also a darn fun story to follow.

we're not talking about is that Rick reconnects us to where this franchise was in 2000-2001.  I remember how excited I felt about having Ank, Pujols and JD Drew getting ready to dominate the NL for a decade.  About having Matt Morris back on the mound and threatening to win a Cy Young.  One of the finest collections of young (REALLY young) talent I had ever seen on our team.

Remember that?  Those were exciting times!  (But the intervening years have been pretty cool too.)

With this post title and the P-D Ankiel article written by Derrick Goold, I really want to see a post called the 'The Rickstasy of Goold.'

That's just the bad pun side of me talking though, I suppose.

and we are all ga-ga over his big league moment. It was a touching and positive highlight in a dreadful season.

Now, here is the real question that needs to be asked. Will management get off their asses and make some kind of waiver deal for JuanEnc?

Four scenarios that I can possibly see.

1. Waiver deal to strengthen the club for the remainder of this season to make a playoff run.
   
2. Waiver deal to strengthen the club for the future.
   
3. Waiver deal for a straight up salary dump.
   
4. Sit on their ass, do nothing and hash over the JuanEnc vs. Ankiel for the rest of this season and next.
   

If I am not seeing the big picture or am missing something with my points, I am sure that you guys will be more than happy to call me on this.

Rick Ankiel's triumph last night is all about the fundamental human drive we all share to bring out the best in ourselves, and each other, to fulfill our highest potential.  It is a universal human motive.  We all strive for it, and we all fall short in some ways, at least some of the time.

Ankiel's return last night was a mass tribute to the human spirit that keeps us striving to reach our potential even in the face of our setbacks and failures.  Once we've tasted failure and disappointment, the taste of success is infinitely sweeter, because our redemption compels us to fully appreciate how special the moment is, not only for the euphoria of the moment but for the affirmation of the spirit that keeps us alive, that makes us care, that replaces the discouragement, emptiness and ennui we fall prey to, at times, with the realization that we really do care, even when we deny it, that what we do with our lives really does matter to us, deeply and profoundly, and among those with whom we share a bond of affiliation or affection, we care about each other in the same way.  

What else is life for if not to bring out the best in ourselves and each other?

for the various responses to this post. i gotta step offline for the rest of the day --- will have a game thread up this evening, but will be in the car for sev'l hours. the kids and wife are dragging me off to the mountains. . . . .

clear to me that ankiel joins anthony reyes as a juicy VEB totem --- however he makes us feel, he makes most of us feel something.

1.  the remarkable nature of the event.  redemptive or not (certainly well-discussed in previous posts), the nearly unbelievable nature of ra's entire story/journey.  it's virtually indescribable.
2.  the juxtaposition (as suggested in joyart's post above) between the national ambivalence around bonds' 'achievement' and the genuine, nearly unabashed joy people felt around rick's phenomenal story.  just consider the difference in reactions you may have witnessed.  uncertainty, if not confusion regarding how we feel about bonds vs. different degrees of feeling good about ankiel.  

I really do feel sorry for all of you that aren't just tickled to death.

I guess maybe some of us have lost sight of the fact that this is entertainment.  Or, maybe your measure of entertainment is different than mine.  I suppose that is a possibility. Hmmm.  Maybe some of us just aren't entertained unless we're in first place or the team's OPS is .850.  

Anyhoo, how can we be more entertained than we were last night?!  I mean, DUDE!  

When my friends and I heard that Ank was getting called up yesterday, I said that alone is success.  It really didn't matter to me what he did after he got here.  How many people in this world can go through injury, mental meltdown, and family issues, and still manage to make it to the major leagues twice?!  

If all that stuff had happened to me after the wild pitches in the playoffs, you would have seen my name in the police blotter eventually.  I don't think I would have the mental fortitude to withstand it.  But Rick did, by God.  

In many ways, this is exponentially better than what happened to Musial.  At least Stan could blame injury for his failure as a pitcher.  Rick had nobody to blame but Rick (personally, I have held LaRussa responsible for Rick's oddesey but that's a different story).  I mean, he got on the biggest stage of his LIFE, and COMPLETELY FELL APART!  

Rick, what a great start, and I will echo Larry on this one.  May you have 4000 more plate appearances just like last night.

As for what this means for the team, who cares right now?  If we lost last night's game 31-5, I still would have been completely entertained and extatic for Rick.  

I was at the game when McGwire hit 62.  It was a neat moment.  This tops it by a TON.

For me the Ankiel homerun was one of those stories/moments in baseball that is usually only seen in a movie. It was like the perfect ending to a feel good Disney picture.

Of course the reality is what Rick does for the rest of his career is yet to be told, and it may not end like the final scenes of a Disney movie.

But for one night in the heat of August we as fans, Rick and Tony and alot of his teammates got to live out that feel good Disney movie in a year where where it has seemed like one bad horror flick after another.

Sitting at the game last night in what I can only assume is Karmic payback for something good I've done, I had the opportunity to share "The Rick Ankiel Saga" with my girlfriend, who, while a White Sox fan, is not necessarily a "Baseball Fan."

As a, until recently anyway, jaded and disinterested White Sox fan, she was content to catch the score on ESPN's bottom-line and really not too concerned if she didn't.

When he was announced for his first at bat, her "Who's that?" launched me on one of my story-for-the-ages baseball tales. His quick rise, his even quicker descent, his second chance, his transformation, and last night...his pinnacle.

And when he hit his homerun, even she -- who in her life has paid attention to baseball just enough to see her White Sox sweep in 2005 and her adopted-out-of-love-for-boyfriend Cardinals do it in 2006 (and, although she won't admit, the team that now holds her loyalty) -- even she was impressed to the point of admiration. And not so much with the feat, but the fact that he worked (and I stress 'worked) so stubbornly for the chance to achieve it.

For lifelong Cardinals fans like myself and most of you here, this story is obviously amazing. But to see how it translates to, not only fans of other teams, but to those who really have no vested interest in or love of this game...when put in those terms, it's extraordinary.

respectfully submitted, barbeauski.

Those of us that have grown up in the shadow of the Don Denkinger call don't remember seeing Musial hit, or Gibson pitching, or even Lou Brock stealing a base.

Instead, what we've seen has been a series of stories involving heroes and villians, all flawed and imperfect.  The history of the Cardinals past 1985 has been a series of morality plays, as you have guys like Ozzie and McGwire building themselves up to untold heights only to find their legacies diminished and tarnished afterward--Ozzie for the pride of his accomplishment, Big Mac for the way he did what he did, and then later shirked from the consequences.

And then, on the other hand, you have guys like Willie McGee and Matt Morris, who continually struggled to live up to their promise, and come through in ways that were often unexpected, and seemed to play the game with joy and verve.  

And then you came to Rick Ankiel, who would seem to be the symbol of this sojourn of promises just barely not kept--he seems to be a parefect example of the player that had his legend precede him, and rose to dizzying heights, only to fall.  

Only then he got back up again.  

The World Series win expelled the curse of just-close-enough failure experienced by my generation, but seeing the most disappointing failure of the era come back and succeed...

well, that did, too.

Those with more perspective, who have seen the team succeed more, probably don't see it this way, but I kind of do.

I've been wondering if it was just me or not...

MLB.com. Just go to the team site and pull up the recap and they usually offer a few highlights of the game you can click on to...

Now that we have Pineiro, do we refer to a 1-3 putout as "Jo-el to Kal-El"?

Eckstein, SS
Duncan, LF
Pujols, 1B
Edmonds, CF
Rolen, 3B
Ankiel, RF
Molina, C
Wainwright, P
Kennedy, 2B

Pujols will take tomorrow off.  

Since LaRussa said that Rolen won't play 4 days in a row, that means he'll likely get Sunday off.

With Speezer out, I guess that Duncan will play 1st tomorrow.  Wonder if Juan plays LF or if he still sits.

aaaahhh, no game thread.

Baseball always has a way of sending messages and after months of the agonizing Barry Bonds chase and Bud Selig's frowns, we get Rick Ankiel.  I can't think of a better way to remove Bonds from the front pages than Ankiel's story.  

Bonds just saw what a real home run moment means.  No build up, no commissioner, no national press --just a great and real story.

Thanks Rick and let that be the first of many.