The Story of an MLB Pitcher Who Literally Forgot How to Pitch, Then Returned to the Majors at a New Position

In 1999, Rick Ankiel was baseball’s pitching prospect with the most hype. A season later, the 20-year-old lefty with a lethal curveball helped lead the Cardinals to the playoffs.

But in the postseason, his stardom-bound career took a bizarre, disastrous turn. Over the next seven years, he worked his way back to the majors, changing positions along the way.

Rick Ankiel overcame a rough upbringing to become a one of the most hyped pitching prospects of the ’90s.

“I grew up in Fort Pierce, Florida,” Ankiel told WBUR in 2017. “Family life at times was good and at times was bad. My father was an alcoholic and two-bit criminal, abused drugs. And there were times where he would disappear for a few days. You know, he’d start drinking and then he was gone.

But when he would come home and you heard the car door slam, you knew it was time to make sure you stayed out of the way.

And, you know, it makes it hard.”

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He was practically untouchable on the mound in his youth. “I remember going to a tournament in high school where it’s the best talent in high school, and you start looking and saying, hey, I’m one of the best here,” he told NPR in 2017. “And then I played on the USA junior team and realizing that, you know, that I was better than some of the guys that were older than me that were going to be drafted that year, and I wasn’t going to be drafted until the following year.”

Ankiel dominated in his senior year of high school, riding a 94 mph fastball to an ERA of 0.47 and 162 strikeouts in just 74 innings.

“Oh, it’s the best feeling in the world,” Ankiel said. “I mean, you’re out there and you control the entire game. You know, in those moments, you feel like it’s your destiny and you were meant to be there and put on this earth for that reason.”

The Cardinals selected Ankiel in the second round of the 1997 MLB Draft and inked him to a $2.5 million signing bonus, then the fifth-highest ever for an amateur player. Because of his immense high school success, Ankiel entered the minors as a top prospect; Baseball America ranked him No. 18 on their annual preseason list of prospects.