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Maryville Talks Books – Rick Ankiel
April 19, 2017 @ 7:00 pm
The former St. Louis Cardinal Rick Ankiel will sign and discuss his memoir, The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch That Changed My Life.
On Oct. 3, 2000, 21-year-old Rick Ankiel took the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. All was going well until Ankiel, lauded as the next Bob Gibson, threw a pitch that missed the mitt — wildly. Then he threw another. Then another. Slowly at first, then rapidly, his once-impenetrable psyche crumbled. He would forever look back on that day as the day the unwelcome, inexplicable Phenomenon arrived. In this book, Ankiel tells the story of his battle with an anxiety condition widely known as the Yips, the courageous soul-searching that followed, and his eventual triumph over the demons in his own mind to reenter the game.
“I couldn’t put this book down…it displays the power of the human spirit to overcome the odds.”
—Mike Matheny, The Matheny Manifesto
For more information, email Chris Hollenbeck or call 314.529.6854. Stay up-to-date on our Maryville Talks Books Facebook page.
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Past Author Visits
* Videos of these authors can be seen in the Emmy-nominated and award-winning HEC-TV series, Maryville Talks Books: One on One.
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2016 – 2017
Christina Baker Kline 3.2.17 I Joe Buck* 11.21.16 I Bruce Watson 11.16.16 I Mary Roach 11.1.16 I Nick Offerman* 10.20.16 I Emma Donoghue 10.11.16
2015 – 2016
Nathaniel Philbrick* 6.3.16 I Curtis Sittenfeld 5.2.16 I Kwame Alexander* 4.24.16 I Krista Tippett* 4.8.16 I Robert Reich* 10.7.15 I Geraldine Brooks 10.29.15 I Sam Weller* 11.10.15
2014 – 2015
Judy Blume* 6.19.15 I Erik Larson* 4.9.15 I Blaine Harden* 3.31.15 I George Hodgman 3.16.15 I Julian E. Zelizer* 2.24.15 I Andy Cohen* 11.25.14 I Patricia Cornwell* 11.15.14 I Reza Aslan* 9.18.14 I Piper Kerman* 9.10.14
2013 – 2014
Mark Epstein, MD* 8.4.14 I Jean Kwok* 6.27.14 I Garrison Keillor 6.15.14 I Daniel James Brown* 5.28.14 I Austin Kleon* 4.24.14 I Ishmael Beah 3.6.14 I Dave Barry* 3.18.14 I Lacks Family (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot) 11.23.13 I Ann Patchett 11.14.13 I Jared Diamond* 11.12.13 I Sue Grafton* 9.18.13
2012 – 2013
Khaled Hosseini* 5.30.13 I Michael Pollan* 5.9.13 I Elizabeth Strout* 4.12.13 I Daniel H. Pink* 3.6.13 I Lisa Gardner* 2.10.13 I David Von Drehle* 1.18.13 I Jon Meacham* 12.5.12 I Mark Bowden* 11.12.12 I Chitra Divakaruni* 11.1.12 I William H. Chafe 10.17.12 I Eric Greitens* 10.16.12 I Bill Donius* 9.12.12 I Buzz Bissinger* 6.11.12 I Douglas Brinkley 6.4.12
2011 – 2012
Frank Deford* 5.30.12 I Senator Bill Bradley* 5.11.12 I Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams 5.10.12 I Alexander McCall Smith* 4.16.12 I Lisa See* 3.12.12 I Luis Urrea* 1.17.12 I Howard Markel* 11.18.11 I Charlene Bry 10.18.11 I Stacy Schiff* 9.16.11 I Daniel H. Wilson* 6.13.11
2010 – 2011
Justin Cronin* 5.31.11 I Sister Madonna Buder, ’52* 5.26.11 I Helen Simonson* 4.14.11 I Wes Moore* 2.17.11 I Michele Norris 11.17.10 I Ron Chernow 10.28.10 I Steven Johnson 10.15.10 I Twesigye Jackson Kaguri 6.14.10
2009 – 2010
Anna Quindlen 5.6.10 I Daniel Pink* 1.21.10 I John Grogan 10.22.09 I Ken Robinson 1.15.09