The Drill: In 1998, Mark McGwire hit a (major league high) 70 home runs and compiled a slugging percentage of .752.

The Fact: In 2000, Rick Ankiel committed seven errors, more than any MLB pitcher in 2000.

The Question: What was higher, Mac's 1998 slugging percentage...or Ankiel's 2000 fielding percentage?

The regular season numbers posted by Ankiel, a rookie in 2000, speak for themselves: 30 starts, 11 wins, 3.54 ERA, 173 innings pitched and 192 strikeouts.

But let's face it--most sports fans are, to some extent, voyeurs at heart.

And most of the time, the images provided to us in person or via TVs and computer screens...are pleasant enough to bring us back for more.

The image of Rick Ankiel, vs. the Braves and the Mets, having literally no idea how to throw a baseball to his own catcher, was not one of those pleasant images.

Rick Ankiel's virtually unprecedented failure brought two golf-related examples to mind.

Most regular folk who happen to play the game of golf found it painful to watch Greg Norman give up the Masters during the back nine of that fateful final round several years ago.

For even your average hacker, seeing Norman unravel, in slow motion...right before our eyes, was far, far worse than any horror movie.

Frenchman Jean Van de Velde's collapse during the final moments of the 1999 British Open was similarly gruesome, although Van de Velde himself seemed to be making conscious decisions that contributed to his own demise.

But Norman, at Augusta...that was just awful.

Rick Ankiel's post-season performance in 2000 was awful, too...and reminiscent of Norman's debacle in that both seemed powerless to right their own sinking ships.

Indeed, Joe Buck, who serves as FOX's post-season baseball play-by-play guy, seemed to have it just about right when he said, after Ankiel, who entered Game 5 vs. the Mets as a relief pitcher, uncorked his first wild pitch--"Well, there's the first one."

The young man's collapse, in that series, was that complete. And, in light of his earlier post-season performances, young Buck spoke for all of those viewing at the time.

But post-season pressure can do strange things to people...and, barring accident to life or limb, 21 year old Rick Ankiel, on Opening Day 2001, will be wearing a Cardinals uniform.

A relevant stat for Ankiel? During the 2000 regular season, Ankiel was credited with an even dozen wild pitches...which sounds like a big number.

But Ankiel's 12 wild pitches placed him only fifth in the National League...a full 11 behind league-leading Padres' hurler Matt Clement, who (figuratively) dented the backstop 23 times in 2000.

Even highly cherished lefthander Mike Hampton had ten wild pitches for the Mets in 2000.

There is another 2000 statistic, though, that hasn't yet been scrutinized: Rick Ankiel's seven 2000 regular season errors.

Seven errors, combined with 31 total chances accepted...means that Ankiel's 2000 fielding percentage (0.759) only slightly edged out McGwire's 1998 slugging percentage (0.752).

In other words, during his rookie season, when Rick Ankiel was asked to make a fielding play...he made that play three out of four times.

Not exactly Golden Glove numbers there.

Can anything about Rick Ankiel's baseball future be gleaned from his 2000 fielding difficulties? Read Part Two of Waiting to Exhale: Rick Ankiel, Wild Pitches & Errors (coming soon).