A real player: Rick Ankiel

Rick Ankiel took a nasty spill into the outfield wall at Busch Stadium after making a magnificent catch Monday night against the Phillies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDlckYPRSAQ). Ankiel had to be carted off of the field on a stretcher and it did not look pretty. Ankiel left the stadium giving the fans and his teammates the thumbs up and was in good spirits at last nights game.

"Ankiel didn't shy away from watching the replays on television Monday night and Tuesday. "I watched it about 35 times," he said. "It was just like I imagined. It was scary to go through it."

But though Ankiel knew how the crash came out, he hardly could help but thank those lucky stars Tuesday night.

"Absolutely," Ankiel replied, when asked if he felt fortunate.

"I thought, 'This might be it.' I'm lucky to be walking today. Anything from here is a plus."

Not long after he was hurt, Ankiel was texting teammates, including right fielder Ryan Ludwick, from Missouri Baptist Hospital.

"He was hitting the right letters and making jokes," Ludwick said Tuesday..."

"He's already made a lot of good plays out there. It's pretty impressive for someone who's never played out there how quickly he's picked it up," Ludwick said. "He's Superman."

Well, not quite. But surviving that crash suggests that Ankiel must have some otherworldly power — because if his head had turned out as bent as his cap, he wouldn't have been reliving the moment Tuesday night."

From teammate Jason LaRue:
“The most significant part of what we all I saw, I think, is that it shows Ank doesn’t play with any fear of running into the wall. He’s going to make the play. He plays without fear. He’s a gamer.”

This is why Cardinal Fans love Rick Ankiel-he works hard, comes to the ballpark everyday, and gives it his all for his team. The man is a rare athlete being able to go from Major League Pitcher to a major impact Outfielder who reminds Cardinal Fans of all of those catches that Jim Edmonds made throughout his career. It is also nice to see that an athlete realizes the position he is and how lucky he is in a circumstance like this. Modern Athletes have the biggest egos and think they are above "normal people," but an incident like this reminds them of their "mortality." Nice to see that Ankiel realizes that and will still put forth the same effort the next game and the rest of the games he plays in his career. Get better Rick and help the Cardinals win!