June 14, 2006
Waiting For Ankiel
Rick Ankiel is sidelined for the rest of the season to recover from his knee surgery.
At what point does it become worthless to wait for this play to develop into anything? After all, he debuted in majors in 1999, almost seven years ago. At some point, he's just going to be too old to have any kind of decent career. If he's happy playing minor league ball, that's fine, but at this point the chance of his having any kind of major league career is pretty slim. Maybe Ankiel should use part of this time off to see if there's something else he'd like to do with his life. For whatever reason, major league baseball doesn't seem to be in the cards for him.
Posted by David Pinto at
01:05 PM
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Injuries
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Well, listen to Negative Nancy.
Good thing he isn't as pessimistic about his career as you are.
Anyways, the ending of the entry would have been much better if you had capitalized 'Cards'.
I actually did at first, then thought it would be just too cute.
well david, theres guys who stay in the minors into their late 30s. so if he'd rather play minor league ball than quit and some minor league team will have him, why not?
While I agree that the tone is rather pessimistic, David may have a point in that Ankiel's career has been a consistent struggle psychologically and now physically. Depending on Ankiel's mindset, he can take two actions: 1. Retire if it's becoming a grind because his chances of a real MLB career are slim, or 2. Not being able to throw straight and being the 21st century Steve Blass was a far worse ordeal than a knee injury, so keep fighting because just getting back to the majors (as an OF, no less) would be the real triumph.
Ankiel's gotta decide that. At least that's what I'm taking from this.
Hey, I am more the pessimist than you; I had Ankiel giving up the organizational ball racket a few years ago. My thought was: a guy who has the ability to be a terrific pitcher, but who just can't handle the spotlight, should find another day job and pursue his first love via the Indy Leagues. The absense of pressure should result in a happier man.
