There are feel-good sports stories…

… and then there are stories that really warm the heart, like Rick Ankiel’s (re-)debut tonight. Maybe I’m being over-dramatic, but Ankiel’s home run tonight in his major league debut as an outfielder gave me a slight tinge and smile, even as I read the brief headline in my start page.

For those of you that don’t remember (or maybe didn’t see it), Ankiel was the object of public laughter and then, subsequently, horror and humiliation years ago as every baseball fan watched him completely implode on the world’s largest stage.

In 2000, after a promising rookie season, Ankiel was pitching in the playoffs when he started having some control issues. And then suddenly, he was firing pitch after pitch to the backstop. 7 yards outside. 10 feet over the catcher’s head. 5 feet behind the batter. Bouncing fastballs 6 feet short of the plate. It went on and it was funny and then frightening to watch.

It started to become apparent that this wasn’t just a physical tweak in his delivery, but a psychology tweak in his ticker. He was benched and then sent down to the minors after continual disaster during Spring Training the next season. It was sad and, frankly, a bit scary.

Years later, here he is back in the Majors as a power-hitting outfielder no less, after completely reinventing himself. And in his first game up? Nothing much except a three-run homer and a win:

The drive merited a standing ovation and a curtain call for the once-troubled left-hander, who walked away from a pitching career in frustration more than two years ago. Manager Tony La Russa was misty-eyed at his postgame news conference and compared Ankiel’s return with Adam Wainwright striking out the Tigers’ Brandon Inge for the final out in the World Series.

“Short of winning the World Series, it’s the happiest I’ve seen our club,” La Russa said. “I’m fighting my butt off to keep it together.

In a week when baseball’s most storied record was passed by (at best) a sour man who cheated right along with his contemporaries, it’s great to see a truly heartwarming and all-positive story.

Congratulations, Rick Ankiel. We (baseball fans) were all rooting for you…