Not Dead Yet

The Barry Bonds fiasco was pretty depressing. As unlikely as it was, I had held out hope that once he tied Hank Aaron he would abruptly retire. It would have been entirely out of character for him to do, but then, he would at least have had a little class. It's not as though San Francisco was actually going anywhere with or without him.

Anyway, he doesn't have any class. No big surprise. It was still a little depressing though. I was very happy that I at least didn't have to watch it. I spent the week in bus-driving school.

I was reminded tonight, though, that baseball's not done yet, despite so many people's actions that've tainted it. Rick Ankiel came back.

Rick Ankiel will never be as well known as Bonds. He was a very promising pitcher in the majors for a while until he lost the ability to throw strikes. I saw him, in 2000, throw five wild pitches in one inning. Without any reason, he just couldn't throw anything near the plate. His career was over.

Sort of. He'll never be a pitcher again. He went back to the minors and switched positions. He's an outfielder now. And after losing his stuff six years ago, he's finally made his way back to the majors. It looks as though he could make a heck of an outfielder, too (which is fine, even if he is on the Cubs' chief rival).

He hit a home run tonight in his first MLB game as an outfielder. And he earned every inch of it.