The Phenomenon

by Rick Ankiel

  Who the hell cares, right, Harv?

  I exhaled. I gripped the ball. I drew back my arm and strode with my right leg and, stiff-wristed, threw that knuckleball. Over those sixty feet, six inches, that ball flew, and paused, and wobbled, and caught a gust, and found its way, appropriately.

  It was a strike. Or, hell, close enough. The people cheered. They probably would’ve no matter what. But they cheered. And I waved.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  We would like to express our gratitude to those who helped turn this book from a light conversation over a beer (or two) in Jupiter, Florida into something we hope is very special. We believed the world could use another story with a happy ending. It doesn’t happen without our wives, Lory Ankiel and Kelly Brown, their patience and love and wisdom. Start there.

  It also doesn’t happen without Rick’s mom, Denise, who summoned memories she’d rather have left behind.

  Thank you to those who similarly gave of their time and perspectives: Tony La Russa, Dave Duncan, Gary Bennett, Steve Blass, Scott Boras, Mike Fiore, Domenick Mancini, Mike Matheny, Johnny DiPuglia, Tony Malizia, Kurt Schloagle, Ken Ravizza, and Mark Oakley.

  Thanks to the folks at David Black Agency, beginning with David Black and Jenny Herrera. And at PublicAffairs, especially Ben Adams, Collin Tracy, and Connie Oehring, whose belief in the book was inspiring and whose expertise in putting it together was imperative.

  Thanks, too, to the folks at Yahoo! Sports. Fellow baseball writer Jeff Passan covered for Tim on plenty of mornings. And evenings. Some afternoons. We’re grateful. Thanks to Bob Condor, Johnny Ludden, Marcus Vanderberg and Joe Garza for their support.

  Thanks to Tyler Beckstrom, who put Rick and Tim together at the start. To the St. Louis Cardinals’ public relations staff—Brian Bartow, Melody Yount, and Chris Tunno. To Jim Trdinich of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Amanda Comack of the Washington Nationals.

  Thanks to Phillip Kennedy, Eric Jenks, Don Carman, and Guy McCuen.

  Credits: Rick Ankiel courtesy of Lory Ankiel

  Rick Ankiel was a major-league pitcher and outfielder with the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals, among other teams, for eleven seasons. Born in 1979, Ankiel debuted with the Cardinals a month after his twentieth birthday and became the first major-league player since Babe Ruth to win at least ten games as a pitcher and hit at least fifty home runs. He retired as a player in 2013. He is employed as the Nationals’ life skills coordinator. With his wife, Lory, and sons Declan and Ryker, Ankiel lives in Jupiter, Florida.

  Credits: Tim Brown courtesy of the author

  Tim Brown is an award-winning writer with twenty-five years’ experience covering Major League Baseball at the Los Angeles Times, the Newark Star-Ledger, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Los Angeles Daily News, and Yahoo! Sports. He cowrote, with Jim Abbott, the New York Times best seller Imperfect: An Improbable Life. He resides with his wife, Kelly, in Venice, California.

  PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.

  I. F. STONE, proprietor of I. F. Stone’s Weekly, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published The Trial of Socrates, which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.

  BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of The Washington Post. It was Ben who gave the Post the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate. He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books.

  ROBERT L. BERNSTEIN, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation’s premier publishing houses. Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe. He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world.

  For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors. In 1983, Schnapper was described by The Washington Post as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come.

  Peter Osnos, Founder and Editor-at-Large