Angels Pitcher’s promising career ends with chalk line on the road
In life off the diamond DUI always trumps ERA
By Terrance Gavan
Following a stunning pitching performance last Wednesday, a game in which he pitched six shutout innings against the Oakland As, young Nick Adenhart was understandably excited.
After the game the 22-year old rookie, touted as the Los Angeles Angels top-pitching prospect, sought out his pitching coach Mike Butcher.
He was thrilled, wide-eyed and wound tight as the game ball, locked into a special moment that few athletes ever experience.
Games come and games go in the course of a career. This particular game was special for young Nick Adenhart. Not for the six shutout innings, but for a moment.
A moment when clarity fairly clattered off the stands, rambling like an echo off the bleacher seats before finally stuttering to impact inside this young pitcher’s soul. The soul of a ballplayer is a mumbled place, where heart and mind meet, and moments of clarity meld as fleeting touchstones, marking the path.
“At the end of the game I asked him, ‘How do you feel?’ And he goes, ‘Butch, I got it,’ ” Butcher said (From the NY Times). “And that was a pretty special moment. Ahh. To see a kid figure it out that early and understand it and own it.”
If there is an upside to the paltry denouement of life that followed, perhaps it is here, in these words gleaned from a pitching coach, who saw for a second, the sparkle of inspiration reflected in those young eyes.
The sparkle that says: “Yeah, it’s all beginning to make sense.” An ‘aha’ moment, that passes from the ken so quickly, but remains locked there in that jumble of life’s lessons learned. In the soul of the bearer. Nick Adenhart was ready, says Butcher, to take that eureka moment into the season.
Some plans never come together, balanced so precariously on a stacked deck, a card totem that crumbles inexorably but sometimes too quick.
Butcher got the call at 2 a.m. Thursday and saw that the caller was listed as Nick Adenhart. “So I was thinking, ‘OK, I’m going to have to go get Nick somewhere, in a good way.’ And I heard his father speaking and he said Nick had been in a car accident.”
Butcher drove immediately to the hospital and stood vigil at the University of California-Irvine Medical Center. Butcher said he would hold on to Nick Adenhart’s delight in his strong outing against the Athletics.
That’s all he has now. Memory of Nick Adenhart. Nick Adenhart died early Thursday morning after a drunk driver ran a red light.
On Friday, the Orange County district attorney, filed charges, including three counts of murder, against Andrew Gallo. Gallo, 22, has been identified as the driver of the minivan that ran a red light at an estimated 70 miles an hour, twice the posted limit, and broadsided the Mitsubishi in which Adenhart was a passenger. Courtney Frances Stewart, 20, the driver of the Mitsubishi, and Henry Pearson, 25, a law student, died instantly in the crash, the police said. The fourth person in the car, Jon Wilhite, 24, remained in critical condition last weekend.
Two 22-year olds and a chance meeting on a road last Thursday. And if we’re lucky, a lesson here.
Usually, when talk drifts to DUI and professional sports, the circumstances are different. In most cases it’s about self-indulgent young millionaires, with lucrative contracts, specious attitudes, and way too much money to spend on nights’ out and expensive cars.
To wit: Cleveland Browns receiver Donte Stallworth, a recent recipient of a $4.5 million contract bonus. Stallworth like Mr. Gallo has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, after a regrettable night out on the town.
The Browns receiver’s indictment in relation to an accident in Miami March 14 that claimed the life of Florida resident Mario Reyes.
Mr. Reyes was a crane operator who was walking home after a night shift. Stallworth said he flashed his lights just prior to running the pedestrian over.
Stallworth blew twice the legal limit. Mr. Stallworth can get anywhere from 5 to 14 years according to Florida law. His lawyers are already greasing the pan, and the rumor mill is chugging. Snippets are surfacing on blogs and in news reports saying that Mr. Reyes was jaywalking, and that he hadn’t crossed the street in the designated crosswalk area.
Poppycock. Offering the death penalty for jaywalking might be seen as a little too presumptuous, even for Florida.
Sad fact remains that Donte Stallworth has the wherewithal to pay some high-priced flacks to deflect blame. Rumors are rife that his NFL career is over. Don’t bet on it.
We the people, life’s paying pundits, are blessed with a short term and very selective memory when it comes to drunk driving and death. Every day of the week, someone takes that long shot gamble, grabs the car keys, and makes that sudden, swift decision.
“No, nooooo … I’m okay to drive … really.”
Really?
The national stats don’t bear it out folks.
Drunk driving is one of the largest causes of alcohol-related death in Canada and other developed countries, and in Canada is the largest criminal cause of death.
In the last ten years, around 250,000 people died in alcohol related car accidents in the United States. Figures show that 16,000 people were killed in the year 2000, due to alcohol related accidents. In 2004, that figured climbed to 25,000.
Yes, you probably figured, like me, that with the abundance of campaigns and ads extant on television and radio and the increase in RIDE programs offered, that drinking-related fatalities must be on the wane. We’d be wrong. DUI-related fatalities are rising worldwide.
You don’t have to tell that to Nick Adenhart’s mom and dad. Who were there in the hospital last Thursday morning.
With a pitching coach and Nick’s Angels’ teammates.
Standing vigil as Nick Adenhart lost his grip on the ball.
Next time someone offers you a drive home.
Why not lose your grip on those keys.
And take one ride … for the team.
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