Former big leaguer Rick Ankiel, out promoting his new book, says Cardinals All-Star catcher Yadier Molina is ‘the best.’
When Rick Ankiel improbably found himself pitching in rookie ball less than a year after starting a playoff game for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of his teammates was an 18-year-old catcher name Yadier Molina.
In the intervening years, Ankiel’s career took several twists and turns – Tommy John surgery, a return to the majors as a pitcher, time in the minors to become an outfielder, another return to the majors and retirement. Molina, meanwhile, still catches for the Cardinals.
“He’s the best. I think we’re looking at a Hall of Fame catcher,” Ankiel told me recently when he was a guest on the podcast Baseball by Book.
The former pitcher-turned-outfielder has a new book, “The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life.” It chronicles Ankiel’s struggles with a mysterious anxiety disorder that caused him to lose the ability to pitch strikes.
Ankiel returned to the Cardinals as an outfielder in 2007, and Molina once again was his teammate.
“Yadi, when it comes to the mental side of things and controlling and understanding the game, is the best I’ve ever seen at it.,” Ankiel said. “Yadi can give a sign to the pitcher and the first baseman and a sign to me in the outfield to let me know what pitch is coming. That way, I know where to position myself. It doesn’t matter if nobody is on base, if somebody’s on second or the bases are loaded, he never forgets. He’s always in control of what going on out in front of him.
“You’re taking about one of the greatest all-around catchers that there is,” he said of the seven-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner.
Here are some more excerpts from the interview:
ON THE CAUSE OF THE YIPS: “It would be great if we all could know why, but ultimately it seems like it’s never going to be figured out … even in 2017, with all the science we have, we still can’t figure it out and nobody has. It would definitely be more than interesting to know why. But who knows if we ever will have that ‘why.’ And sometimes there isn’t a why.”
ON PITCHING A GAME DRUNK IN 2001: “Two hours before the game starts, I went to Darryl Kile, who was a mentor and a dear friend of mine. I went to him privately and said, ‘Hey, I have no chance out there. Is there any way you could go out and find me some alcohol and put in a water bottle?’ And he did, he said, ‘I understand, you gotta do what you gotta do.’
“When I was talking to Steve Blass, he told me that he drank wine during one of his starts. It just tells you how dark and deep it gets. You’re desperate, and all you want to do is become yourself and be able to be you and get out on the mound and compete against other guys and not have to deal with all this anxiety, which is debilitating and doesn’t allow you to compete like you used to.”
ON KILE’S DEATH IN 2002: “It was really hard. He was one of the biggest mentors I had when I was on the team. Even though I wasn’t in the big leagues, I still talked to him routinely for advice. Our friendship had really blossomed into a beautiful thing. It was so sad to see him go, he was such a good person and so much fun to be around.”
ON HIS DECISION TO STOP PITCHING: “What it took for me to be successful and go out there and throw strikes was just all-day mental training from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. I just had to be locked in, laser-focused. I couldn’t be carefree, I couldn’t have fun with the guys and go joke around, be a part of the pranks.
“I just tried to look at the future and say, ‘Is this what life is about if I’m going to continue to pitch? Is this what life is going to be like for the next four years, five years, eight years?’ My personality, my relationships with my friends and my family, everything was changing. I wasn’t the person I was, and I just realized that pitching wasn’t for me. I didn’t think it was going to be healthy.”
ON THE CARDINALS: “They supported me through thick and thin. I’ve often wonder what would have happened if I would have been with a different organization when all this stuff happened, because I may not have gotten the opportunity to come back and be an outfielder. I have to thank the Cardinal organization, and I’ll always be thankful of how well the fans supported me – through everything. When I did come back in 2007 and hit that home run (in my first game back in MLB), it was so neat to be able to do it here in St. Louis in front of all those fans and the organization that supported me and wrapped its arms around me through the entire process.“
ON BEING NAMED IN THE MITCHELL REPORT FOR USING HGH IN 2004: “It was awful. First of all, when I used it, it was not an illegal substance. I looked up the rules of MLB and it wasn’t on there. When MLB decided they were going to ban the substance, I stopped using it before they banned it. That was the end of that, and now you fast forward to 2007 … and they just shot it out in the papers like I had cheated. I was investigated by MLB, and I never got in trouble with the league. That seems to be forgotten by everybody. It hurt, because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong. The way that it came across made it look like I had cheated my way back to the big leagues, and that wasn’t the case.”
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To hear the entire Baseball by the Book interview, click here.