This list has come about due to me watching ESPN highlights while working out at the gym last night. I was watching and there was a highlight of Rick Ankiel hitting two dingers for the Nats last night and it got my mind to wandering, as it usually does, about the 2000 season, and how strange a career this guy has had. And then, of course like an ADD riddled adult, I started thinking about all the strange careers in baseball history. So that’s the list, the Top 5 strange baseball careers.
5 - Rick Ankiel (’99 to present; STL, KCR, ATL, WASH)– In the 2000 season, the Cardinals were a strong playoff team; due in large part to the pitching of their rookie star Rick Ankiel. He was 11-7 with a 3.50 ERA and 194 K’s, a tremendous rookie campaign for a pitcher. Here’s the odd part, somewhere along the way, during the 200 season right before the playoffs, Rick Ankiel forgot how to pitch….LITERALLY. I remember watching him make a start against the Mets during the 2000 NLCS, and in the 1st inning alone he hit the backstop like 4 times. It was bizarre to watch. Immediately after that start he was taken out of the rotation and then worked in the minors for the majority of the next season. After an injury plagued ’01-’04, it appeared as if Ankiel was going to hang them up and retire. Then out of nowhere, in 2007, Rick Ankiel remerged as an outfielder; an outfielder with a bat. Ankiel came back to the Cards in 2007 and hit .285 with 11 homers and 39 RBI in 45 games. Ankiel quickly became one of the best stories in baseball. In 2008, Ankiel had his best season with 25 homers and 71 RBI. After the 2008 season, Rick has kind of bounced around as a bench player, and not a very good one. His best season out of the past three was in ’09 when he hit .231 with 11 dingers and 38 RBI. Rick Ankiel has shown flashes of brilliance in both areas of the game, but they were short lived, and strange to say the least.
4 - Joel Youngblood (’76 to ’89; Cin, STL, NYM, Expos, SF) – Joel Youngblood had somewhat of a normal career. He was a solid fielder and hitter, an All Star for the Mets in 1981, and he was always sought after during the trade deadline. But one day and one day only is what landed Youngblood on this list. On August 4th, 1982 the Mets traded Youngblood to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later; that’s not the odd part. On this day, Youngblood became the only player in MLB history to get a hit for two different teams, in two different cities. After hitting a two run single in the 3rd inning for the Mets at Wrigley field in Chicago, he was pulled from the lineup and replaced by Mookie Wilson. He arrived in Philly for a night game and ripped a single in the 7th inning of that game. The most interesting part of this story is the two pitchers he hit safely against on that day were Ferguson Jenkins and Steve Carlton; both Hall of Famers. A very strange day for a somewhat ordinary career.
3 - Terry Leach (’81 to ’93; NYM, MIN, CWS, KCR) – Terry Leach might have had the most confusing career on this list. Leach was considered a very solid reliever for the majority of his career, but in 1987 while pitching for the Mets, at the age of 33 he was asked to start for half the season due to injuries and a rotation at the bottom of the Mets staff. Leach in ’87 went 11-1 with a 3.22 ERA in 12 starts. He had a better record than David Cone (a borderline Hall of Famer). Now all of this isn’t necessarily interesting per say, the strange part is he made only 6 more starts during the remainder of his career (7seasons). I would figure, unless he objected or suffered an injury (he averaged 50 appearances a season for the remainder of his career) why wouldn’t you give this guy a chance to start? To me, it’s a very strange career move, but that’s just my opinion.
2 - Chuck Knoblauch (’91 to ’02; MIN, NYY, KCR) – First off, I find it odd that 3 out of the 5 player on this list played in KC; maybe that’s a strange place? Anyway, Chuck Knoblach may be the most tragic, and strange career of this whole group. Chucky was an All Star four times, a Rookie of the Year, and well on his way to a Hall of Fame career in 1998 when he went from the friendly confines of Minnesota to New York City to don the Yankee pinstripes. He had three solid seasons in NY and then the wheels came off. He seemed to lose the ability to throw the ball to first base. For an outfielder, that might be OK, but he was one of the premier 2nd basemen in the game in 1999 when this went down. This kicked off a very steep decline of a career that seemed destined to end in Cooperstown. After averaging .300, 10 homers and 60+ RBI per season for his first 9, his last three were plagued by defensive issues which translated into terrible hitting slumps and the eventual premature end of a once brilliant career. Maybe he needed to “read” some Playboys or Frederick’s of Hollywood mags to get his head straight like Rube did in “Major League II.”
1 - Babe Ruth (1914 to 1935; Red Sox, NYY) – Babe Ruth may not seem like the type of player you would find on a list of “strange careers,” but I believe it fits, and it might be the most strange career of them all. First off, he was 6’2”, 300+ pounds at one point during his career (even though he’s listed at 215), he started as a pitcher and was dominant, and then became head and shoulders the best player in the history of the game. He must have looked and felt like a complete physical freak of nature when he hit 60 homers in 1927 and outside of Gehrig, nobody in the league hit over 17. He was traded for cash in a time in pro sports when players didn’t move very often, and he was considered one of the best, so a trade must have seemed strange. There is still controversy over the “Baby Ruth” candy bar naming and whether or not it was named after Babe Ruth. He hit over 700 homers and had an ERA of 2.28 in his career and almost 100 wins. He was the worst thing to ever happen to pitchers, and just as good as them as well. Babe Ruth was truly a once in a lifetime type of player, and that is what makes his career the strangest of them all. We’ve seen many talents come through pro sports, and many have been anointed as the next coming, but much like Jesus there is only one, Babe Ruth.
Did I miss a strange one? Send me your list at thesportsriot@yahoo.com, or follow us on twitter @thesportsriot.
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