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Insight, observations (and whatever else comes to mind) on the trails of the team that ended the quarter century-long parade drought in the City of Brotherly Love - the Philadelphia Phillies.



Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Ankiel released from hospital

If you were watching the Phils' game Monday night, you saw it, too.

Rick Ankiel hit the wall in left-center while running at full force. Like Aaron Rowand a few years ago, Ankiel's head was the first thing to hit the wall.

Unlike Rowand, however, Ankiel was already falling to the ground before the collision, and it looked like it could be a terrible, tragic neck injury. The sight of everyone in Cardinals' uniforms running out to Ankiel seconds after it happened and the sounds of ambulance sirens minutes after he was carted off the field on a stretcher were downright terrifying.

I'm not at the ballpark yet, but I was glad to read this when I woke up on ESPN.com:

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel, who left Monday night's game on a stretcher after a violent head-first collision with the outfield wall, has been released from an area hospital, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Ankiel was brought to the hospital for X-rays after the collision and remained overnight for observation.

"Right now things are positive," Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said Tuesday of Ankiel's condition, according to the newspaper. Mozeliak said the team would have more detailed information Tuesday afternoon, including when Ankiel might be available to play again.

Ankiel chased down Pedro Feliz's long drive in the eighth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies but couldn't stop himself from crashing into the padded center-field wall. He stayed flat on his back for several minutes as teammates gathered around him, and the game was delayed about 15 minutes as a hush fell over Busch Stadium.

Ankiel lay motionless for several minutes, telling left fielder Chris Duncan he thought he wasn't seriously hurt but didn't want to move.

"I said, 'Are you all right?'" Duncan said. "He said, 'I think so. I'm just going to lay here.' It's pretty scary to see someone run that fast into a wall."

He was placed in a neck brace and strapped to a gurney before being carted off the field accompanied by team physician Dr. George Paletta and trainer Barry Weinberg. As he was wheeled off, Ankiel flashed a thumbs-up sign.

X-rays and a CT scan of Ankiel's head, neck and back were all negative and showed no fractures, team spokesman Brian Bartow said Monday night.

Ankiel was expected to be in attendance on Tuesday night as the Cardinals played the second game of a two-game series against the Phillies.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Tracey said...

Maybe no fractures, but have the adequately checked for a Natasha Richardson-type accident? She also thought she was fine, a few hours before she died, felt silly to even be examined by a doctor (at least Ankiel had better sense than that). Ankiel's head-first crash, crushing the bill of his helmet, would certainly have caused a concussion.

May 5, 2009 3:44 PM 

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