Season 2 - Episode 4 - Rick Ankiel: The Arm That Forgot

Rick Ankiel was the most feared pitching prospect in baseball. Then his arm betrayed him on the biggest stage.In 2000, 20-year-old Rick Ankiel was supposed to be the next ace of the St. Louis Cardinals. A 97 mph fastball. A curveball that dropped off the table. The future of the franchise.Then came the playoffs.Five wild pitches in one inning. The most in modern baseball history. The yips had arrived, and they wouldn't leave.What happens when the thing you've done ten thousand times suddenly becomes impossible?Ankiel spent years in the minor leagues, battling a mysterious mental block that made throwing strikes feel like rocket science. He was demoted. He was laughed at. He was written off.Then he did something nobody expected.He picked up a bat.From pitching phenom to power-hitting outfielder, this is the story of the most remarkable reinvention in baseball history.Six years after his meltdown, Rick Ankiel stepped back into the batter's box and launched a home run in his first game back. Not as a pitcher. As a hitter. As a man who refused to let one bad inning define his entire life.This is not just a story about the yips. It's a story about identity, humility, and the courage to start over when everything you knew is gone.The greatest comebacks are the ones you never saw coming.