Ankiel is older, wiser and wary
By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports
August 15, 2007
This is supposed to be a new beginning. But it feels so familiar, and that
terrifies Rick Ankiel. He knows what it means to be baseball's great new
sensation, its odds-defying wonder, and he also knows where it landed him the
first time.
Ankiel wants to believe that place no longer exists, that the wild pitches
and walks and self-doubt – the remnants of his old career as a pitcher –
are decaying in some faraway place. Someday they might. For now, they remain
close, reminders of what was, harbingers of what can be.
在大联盟闯出名号似乎对目前棒球界中轰动的人物Rick Ankiel来说是个全新的开始
，但其实对他来说，这件事是很熟悉的，也曾经让他害怕。而且他仍然记得这份恐惧感是
如何在他刚上大联盟时打击了他。
Ankiel相信那个令他恐惧的地方再也不存在了，当他原本的职业生涯身为一个投手时
，留下了无数的暴投、保送跟自我怀疑。而这些东西已经在遥远的地方腐朽了。或许有一
天，它们会让我们想起过去的历史，也同时又是某些事情的预告。
Without all his failures, Ankiel would be nothing. With them, Ankiel has been
everything – a wunderkind left-hander who came from a broken family with a
recidivist dad, sparkled in the big leagues at 20, started Game 1 of the 2000
playoffs for the St. Louis Cardinals at 21, crashed and burned with fits of
bad command immediately thereafter, smoldered for years, quit, returned as an
outfielder, trucked it in the low minor leagues, shook off a season-stealing
injury, morphed into a power-hitting monster and then, in his major-league
debut as an outfielder Thursday, crushed a home run, and followed two days
later with two more homers.
And still, the most he could muster Tuesday, after trying to absorb the
enormity of his week, was a smirk. Success once was his analgesic, and Ankiel
won't let it numb him again.
"This feels similar, and maybe that's helping me deal with it better," he
said. "I'm more mature. I'm older. I look at things differently. I see things
through older eyes."
如果没有过去的那些失败，Ankiel将不再是Ankiel。就是有了过去的阴影，才造就
了今天我们所看到的Ankiel