APRIL 2017 - AudioFile
Rick Ankiel’s spectacularly wild pitching during a Major League playoff game as millions of fans watched became a St. Louis Cardinals legend. Ankiel exudes sincerity and humility in his narration as he recounts his many years of trying to regain control of his pitching. While this memoir likely will be enjoyed most by baseball fans, Ankiel’s story is really about the search to master anxiety and what to do when every strategy fails. He reads self-help books, practices deep breathing, medicates, and employs a sports psychologist. When Ankiel finally gives up the fight and reinvents himself as a home-run-hitting outfielder, he finds a way forward. The hard-won peace with his life and unique career is right there in his voice, along with optimism for the future and determination to be a great father to his sons. A.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
"Revealing, vulnerable, and triumphant, Rick Ankiel and Tim Brown provide a poignant reminder in this age of statistics- and computer-driven analysis that it is real people who play the game. Real people, carrying family history, huge expectations, and lifelong dreams along for the ride. This book will change how you watch the game and those who play it." --Jim Abbott, former MLB pitcher and bestselling author of Imperfect
"Each year lots of baseball books roll off the presses. Some are very good, a few are extraordinary. Rick Ankiel's memoir falls into the second category. A story of rare promise and bewildering pain. The heartbreak, the humiliation and the high points - fewer than expected, but memorable still. All told with honesty, humility, empathy and an eye for telling detail. A winding and often bumpy road that ends with perhaps that best of victories - good-natured acceptance and the personal understanding and insight that goes with it."—Bob Costas
"In Tim Brown's expert hands, RIck Ankiel's journey is heartbreaking, unsentimental, and, in an entirely unexpected way, victorious. A superb book not just about the glory of baseball, but about how we repair ourselves."-Mark Kriegel, author of Namath, Pistol, and The Good Son
"Rick Ankiel has always been a true phenomenon. He had phenomenal talent, and when he faced hardship, he proved he had phenomenal character too. His book is a candid and powerful story of his pitching success, his cruel and dramatic career derailment, and his historic resurrection as a power-hitting outfielder. Your lasting impression is of Rick the winner and champion husband, father, and person, with a story that impacts us all."—Tony La Russa, Hall of Fame manager
"Many of us took one look at Rick Ankiel's extraordinary athletic gifts and figured that he had it made. But his great talent did not account for the inexplicable demons that he had to endure, from an abusive home to a career-altering mystery. The Phenomenon is bravely candid about his challenges in life and his journey through a game that humbles all of us."—Hall of Famer Joe Torre, four-time World Series Championship manager and MLB's chief baseball officer
"A great story of a young man's ability to persist in the face of complicated and difficult issues—I admire him for it and the success he eventually achieved."—Bill Parcells, Hall of Fame NFL coach
"The Phenomenon is a must-read for anyone who has wrestled with his own demons—which is everyone. I couldn't put this book down, maybe because I knew parts of the story, but more likely because it displays the power of the human spirit to overcome the odds."—Mike Matheny, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals
"Ankiel's battle with this mysterious mental block and his decision to remake his baseball career as an outfielder is tolf in The Phenomenon, an out-of-the-ordinary story of baseball courage and determination."—Christian Science Monitor
"A former Major League Baseball player offers an affecting account of his unique professional career and dramatic personal life. Most baseball memoirs hold little appeal for readers who are not already devoted fans. With assistance from sports journalist Brown (co-author, with Jim Abbott: Imperfect: An Improbable Life, 2012), Ankiel offers more... A solid sports memoir that explores more than just sports."—Kirkus
"In his surprisingly open and compelling memoir-a standout in the motley genre of athlete autobiographies-Ankiel details his many efforts to cope with the problem, from drinking to drugs to a brief retirement to deciding that he'd rather forget pitching altogether, returning as a hitter and an outfielder instead."—The Atlantic
"This book is a moving read as Ankiel bares his soul and provides the reader with an intimate look at the psychological unraveling he experienced... To throw in a baseball cliché, Ankiel left it all on the field with this book. Don't miss it."—Washington Times
"I strongly recommend this book. I'm a sucker for happy endings, and this isn't your classic happy ending. But Ankiel the hitter, and Ankiel in his post-career world, and Ankiel the dad breaking the chain with his own father, is one redemptive story."—Peter King, Sports Illustrated
"For those interested in the psychology of baseball, Ankiel's book bats close to .400."—St Louis Dispatch
"What happened to Rick Ankiel is one of the more remarkable stories in baseball history... This riveting story will make you feel Ankiel's anxiety about battling this mysterious affliction."—Chicago Tribune
"It's a much-needed narrative in the sports memoir genre, one that tackles the topic of mental health, something only a few books before it have done"—Literary Hub
Library Journal
04/01/2017
Local legend, high school superstar, big league talent—there, in a nutshell, is Ankiel (b. 1979). After being drafted to the minor leagues straight out of high school in 1997, Ankiel was promoted to the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1999. In his first full season with the Cardinals, he started 30 games with a 11–7 record. But in the third inning of the 2000 National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves he developed the yips, or focal dystonia, which prevented him from throwing strikes. Lifted for a reliever in the third inning, Ankiel pitched again in games two and five of the championship series against the New York Yankees, again walking batters and throwing wild pitches. He was never again successful as a pitcher but reinvented his game as an outfielder and hitter, spending seven seasons with six different teams. His story, told here with sportswriter Brown, is beyond compelling, mixing tragedy with humor. Ankiel beat the odds as a rookie pitcher and, again, as a position player. VERDICT For Ankiel, baseball became more than a game to be played on the field, and his journey is reading well spent.—Boyd Childress, formerly with Auburn Univ. Libs., AL
APRIL 2017 - AudioFile
Rick Ankiel’s spectacularly wild pitching during a Major League playoff game as millions of fans watched became a St. Louis Cardinals legend. Ankiel exudes sincerity and humility in his narration as he recounts his many years of trying to regain control of his pitching. While this memoir likely will be enjoyed most by baseball fans, Ankiel’s story is really about the search to master anxiety and what to do when every strategy fails. He reads self-help books, practices deep breathing, medicates, and employs a sports psychologist. When Ankiel finally gives up the fight and reinvents himself as a home-run-hitting outfielder, he finds a way forward. The hard-won peace with his life and unique career is right there in his voice, along with optimism for the future and determination to be a great father to his sons. A.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2017-01-31
A former Major League Baseball player offers an affecting account of his unique professional career and dramatic personal life.Most baseball memoirs hold little appeal for readers who are not already devoted fans. With assistance from sports journalist Brown (co-author, with Jim Abbott: Imperfect: An Improbable Life, 2012), Ankiel offers more, providing candid accounts of his abusive father, battered mother, and criminal brother; the dilemma he faced at age 18 regarding whether to attend college or immediately enter professional baseball, which involved becoming an instant millionaire; his amazing success as a pitcher in the minor leagues after attaining wealth overnight; his dizzying rise and equally dizzying fall with the St. Louis Cardinals; his seeming retirement from baseball, only to work his way back as an outfielder instead of a pitcher; and his final retirement at a young age to spend time with his wife and sons. Despite all those narratives, the memoir hangs together well, as the author uses the story of his sudden anxiety disorder to explore universal experiences of human vulnerability, regardless of a person's level of accomplishment. All the way through his teen years, Ankiel could pitch a baseball with extraordinary speed and accuracy. Suddenly, though, in the middle of a Cardinals playoff game in 2000, his skill rapidly deteriorated. There was certainly anxiety, but also a seemingly inexplicable mind-body disconnect. One of the most intriguing figures in the book is sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman, who died in 2011. Dorfman did everything he could to help Ankiel through his problems, and he also served as a father figure of sorts while Ankiel's cruel biological father spent time in prison. Cameos by numerous MLB players, managers, and coaches from the six teams that Ankiel played for add interest for baseball fans. A solid sports memoir that explores more than just sports.
