Taking some of the fun out of one of the summer’s most enjoyable baseball stories, The New York Daily News reports that St. Louis’ slugger and comeback kid Rick Ankiel received a one-year supply of HGH from a Florida pharmacy in 2004. (The league added HGH to its list of banned substances in 2005, after New Era expressed doubts about their ability to make hats that would fit Barry Bonds’ expanding noggin.)

You don’t make a 9 3/4″ hat yet

Ankiel, as you may recall, came up as a pitcher with St. Louis in 2000. Only 20 years old, he wowed the league with a high-90s fastball and sharp curve before suffering a mental breakdown in the playoffs and throwing five wild pitches in one inning. After numerous psychological struggles and injuries, he reinvented himself as a slugging outfielder, hitting 32 home runs in AAA ball this year before being called up to the majors, where he hit three home runs in his first three games and 9 in 81 at bats. This epically successful comeback led columnist Charles Krauthammer to dub him “The Natural,” after the protagonist in the famous baseball movie of the same name.

The nickname stuck for a while, though it’s unlikely to be used in any way but mockingly now. Which is a bit of a shame–HGH’d or not, Ankiel’s accomplishment is pretty amazing (even if his current pace is unsustainable). And, of course, he might have been totally clean for the last two or three years—or since the league banned the substance. We’ll never know, thanks to baseball’s anemic testing regimen. (Perhaps John McCain can try to resurrect his presidential campaign with some more grandstanding and Congressional time-wasting on the issue.)

Reacting to the story, Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty said, “If it’s true, obviously it would be very tragic.” Perhaps he’s been taking tips from Doug Christie’s PR people. It’d be nice to see an executive ease up on the hyperbole and serious-speak and just tell it like it is. It’s too bad The Dude doesn’t do press conferences: “Rick was on HGH? That’s a bummer, man. Next question?”

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