Written by Rob Goldberg at Bleacher Reports.com
Former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Rick Ankiel said he needed alcohol to calm his nerves at the start of the 2001 season.
In an interview on The Ryan Kelley Morning After on 590 The Fan, Ankiel explained his drinking before the game in his first start of the year as a 21-year-old:
Before that game…I’m scared to death. I know I have no chance. Feeling the pressure of all that, right before the game I get a bottle of vodka. I just started drinking vodka. Low and behold, it kind of tamed the monster, and I was able to do what I wanted. I’m sitting on the bench feeling crazy I have to drink vodka to pitch through this.
The pressure came from his struggles during the 2000 postseason. Ankiel was named the Game 1 starter of the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves after an impressive season where he posted a 3.50 ERA with an 11-7 record.
Unfortunately, his first playoff start was nothing short of a breakdown. He only lasted 2.2 innings while walking six batters and totaling five wild pitches, several of them going straight to the backstop. He got a couple more chances in that postseason but finished with a 15.75 ERA in three appearances, featuring 11 walks in four innings and nine wild pitches.
“It worked for that game,” Ankiel said. “It was one of those things like the yips, the monster, the disease … it didn’t fight fair so I felt like I wasn’t going to fight fair either.”
Ankiel also said he drank again before his next start, but it was ineffective, so he stopped. The rest of his pitching career didn’t go quite as well, with that game being his last win as a starter. He finished with six starts in 2001 and made five relief appearances with the Cardinals in 2004.
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