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Ankiel admits drinking vodka before start to calm yips

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Rick Ankiel, the former St. Louis Cardinals hurler whose bouts of wildness on the mound eventually forced him to find a new position, admitted Monday he needed some liquid courage to rediscover his form after suffering through a nasty case of the yips as a rookie.

Plugging his upcoming memoir on "The Ryan Kelley Morning After," Ankiel divulged a sordid little nugget about how he bounced back following his epic implosion in the 2000 postseason. Racked with nerves before his first start of the 2001 campaign, Ankiel said he sipped on a bottle of vodka to get through his season debut at Bank One Ballpark, where the anxious left-hander allowed just two runs while fanning eight over five innings and earned the win in a 9-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"Before the game, I'm scared to death," Ankiel said. "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. It worked for that game. (I had never drank before a game before). 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."

As it turns out, that was his best start of the season, as Ankiel's control issues quickly returned, leading to his demotion to Triple-A in May. He wouldn't return to the big leagues until 2004, when he managed a 5.40 ERA over 10 innings as a September call-up. The following season, Ankiel converted to a full-time outfielder.

"I think the overall lesson from the book is about getting back up," Ankiel added. "You're going to get knocked down ... everyone gets knocked down. There's definitely those lessons in there when you look at my story. Now I got it all out there."

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