As he has finally passed Hank Aaron lets put the Barry Bonds soap opera behind us and let the legal matters involving steroids and perjury, play themselves out. We can sit and wait on those results, but put him in the past for now as I am tired of talking and hearing about Bonds, steroids, and home runs. While we were focusing on the many negatives this year in baseball there have been just as many great stories that we may have missed while following Bonds. Although there have been many more I only have time to write about three; Rick Ankiel, Jack Cust, and Jon Lester.

Rick Ankiel was a second round pick for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1997. The flame throwing-lefty cruised through the minor leagues and made his major league debut in 2000 at the age of 20. He won 11 games pitched 175 innings and had 194 strikeouts and posted a 4.64 era. However, in the first game of the playoffs he set a major league record throwing 9 wild pitches in just 4 innings. He began the 2001 season right where he left off in the playoffs. In 34 innings he walked 26, hit 5 batters, and threw 6 wild pitches. He was nowhere near consistent and it appeared as if the young superstar’s career was slipping away as he missed 2002 and most of the next two seasons with arm injuries.

Cardinals General Manager Walt Jocketty suggested that Rick try to become an outfielder. Rick worked on his game and hit .274 with 30 home runs this season in the minor leagues. Last week the Cardinals called up Rick and the newfound slugger hit a home run in his first game back. After 3 games he is hitting .417 with 3 home runs and 6 rbi's.

Jon Lester is a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. On August 27th of 2006 he missed his start against the Athletics with a sore back and was placed on the disabled list. He was sent back to Boston to see doctors and further testing. On September 1st, doctors confirmed that Lester had a treatable form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma or more simply put he had cancer. The cancer was treatable and Lester started the 2007 season in single A. In late April he was already promoted to AAA. ON July 23 he was called up and made his first start since being diagnosed with cancer. He pitched 6 innings and gave up 2 runs while picking up the win.

Jack Cust was a career minor league baseball player. He has bounced around throughout many organizations before landing in Oakland. He is the definition of Billy Beane’s “Moneyball.” Jack hits for power, but shows discipline and takes his walks. Although having over 200 career home runs in the minors Jack was never able to make the adjustment to the big leagues as he never played in more than 35 games and never hit more than 4 homers.

After a career of ups and downs it looks as if Jack has finally found a home in Oakland. Since being called up earlier in the year he has played in 79 games. He is hitting .265, but has an on base percentage of .402. He has 18 home runs and 59 rbi’s.