I’d like to submit Jimmy Connors’ parabolic career curve: his last year, a.k.a. The Farewell Tour, saw some of his most memorable tennis in years.
I’m a little bit confused. I don’t follow baseball, but .280 isn’t really that good, is it? Or is the point that he used to be a terrible pitcher (who somehow was good enough to get in the majors), and is now a decent outfielder?
The real point is that Ankiel was a very good pitcher who suddenly and completely became an absolutely terrible pitcher. (He set a dubious record of walking 4 batters and throwing five wild pitches in less than an inning suring the 2000 playoffs.) After trying for several years, he never could regain the pitching talent he had shown. He then stopped pitching and turned himself into an outfielder.
A .280 average isn’t a superstar number, but Ankiel also hits with power, is fast, a good defensive player and (not surprisingly) has an extremely strong arm. Many of his throws from center field to home plate come in more accurately than his pitches used to.
Ankiel, I believe, is the only active player to have been both a starting pitcher and a starting position player in the major leagues.
Say what?
.280 is pretty good. .300 is the standard of excellence, but you don’t have to hit .300 to be a good hitter; there’s a fair bit of leeway for players of certain positions. For a pitcher, .280 is a fantastic average, almost legendary.
Rick Ankiel was a really good pitcher for a couple of years for St. Louis (aka “STL”), until a playoff game (National League championship, IIRC) where he suddenly lost his grip and started throwing horrific wild pitches all over the place. I distinctly remember a few of them slamming the backstop. I was watching when the change took place. It was heartbreakingly sudden–one second he was Rick Ankiel, ace pitcher, and a couple of pitches later he was Rick Ankiel, washed-up nobody. They gave him a few more tries, but he just couldn’t find the strike zone. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen in the game. He just forgot how to pitch. Some Tommy-esque mental block, I suppose.
The fact that he is now a reasonably successful outfielder in the major leagues is heartwarming on a Disney-movie level for those of us who watched his decline and, every so once in a while, shook our heads as we though to ourselves, “I wonder what happened to that guy?”
Now you know the rest of the story.
This thread has at least a small handful of other examples, and I’m sure there are plenty others.
Keyword: “active”?
Indeed. I was sitting in the ESPNZone with a bunch of fantasy baseball pals during that game. It was as if he just died and a zombie was up there pitching. We were screaming at the screen to ‘Take him out!’ just for pity. That was the most painful inning to watch ever. I felt sorry for the kid. And it happened in the big spotlight.
Meaning Owings is a good enough hitter to be worth batting even when he isn’t pitching.
Owings is used as a pinch hitter for his power. He recently hit a pinch hit home run. Be interesting to see him as a DH in an interleague game.
Looks like I missed that entirely. My bad.
Funny thing–it only proves your point that I remembered him pinch-hitting against the Padres in one of those godawfully long extra-inning games and totally forgot that he was a pitcher. Hence the confusion.
How could I have forgotten Chris Weinke?
He played minor league baseball for several years, never quite cut it, and decided to back to college. While at college, he became starting quarterback and won the Heisman Trophy at the age of 27 or so. He then played in the NFL for a few years.
For those of you who haven’t seen Rick Ankiel at work, check out Rick Ankiel has a gun with two throws from Tuesday’s game.
Someone call Brian Sabean.
Screw Brian Sabean, whoever that is–somebody call John Elway!
Boston Red Sox Tony Conigliaro. He even had an award named after him.
Some of you have violated the spirit of “doing a different job than before”, but thanks overall. It’s been an instructive thread.
Michael Jordan was a mediocre minor-league baseball player before he switched to basketball. 
And after.
Obviously not an active player, but how about Ted Williams?
From major league baseball to champion sportsfisher.