One year ago today, 22-year-old Angels' starter Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver just hours after shutting out the A's for six innings. The lone survivor from Adenhart's car, his friend and Cal State Fullerton catcher Jon Wilhite, recovered from his injuries well enough to throw out the first pitch at an A's game in July. The drunk driver, 23-year-old Andrew Thomas Gallo, is still awaiting trial. Tom Krasovic of AOL FanHouse recently spoke to a few members of the Angels about the Adenhart tragedy.
On a much less somber note, here's a look at what's being written around the web during the season's first week…
- The Dodgerhater sat down for a chat with Astros pitcher Bud Norris.
- Capitol Avenue Club looks at ten players the Braves could attempt to lock up to long-term deals.
- At Home Plate wonders if the Yankees' big money deals will come back to haunt them.
- El Lefty Malo muses about the Giants' poor track record for developing position players.
- Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke? is excited for what they call "the first true season of the Neal Huntington era."
- The Cubs Reporter looks at the Cubs' ownership history.
- South Side Sox has some fun with retired numbers.
- Fenway Nation doesn't like the lack of speed on Boston's bench.
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Ok the Red Sox blog article is ridiculous… it fails to point out that Roberts wasn’t acquired until the trade deadline and for Henri Stanley. And who is Stanley you ask? Exactly. They can’t believe that the bench today will look exactly the same as the bench in August.
And RIP Nick Adenhart, prays for your family.
Yeah.. it’s highly unlikely that the Varitek/Hall/Lowell/Hermida bench lasts all year. I doubt they’ll keep a $12M player on their bench all year, and Jed Lowrie presumably will factor into things eventually.
The bench could probably use more speed, but it’s not the kind of thing that you stress out about in early April.
Did you expect anything else? This guy’s shown up on here before and I’m not sure why this site is giving him the benefit of exposure. The guy is a complete goon and makes Dan Shaugnessy and the hacks at Boston Dirt Dogs look like geniuses.
Of course there’s no speed on the bench: it’s all in the starting lineup. Most of that starting 9 is able to go from first to third as well as anyone in the league (Barring Ortiz and Martinez) and both Ellsbury and Cameron are very good stolen base threats. We’re not exactly the Rays, but we’ll get a few extra bases just fine.
I mean, look at the guy’s last article: comparing Scutaro to Lugo because of ONE ERROR. Really now? I was at that game. All game long I was holding my breath any time something went into the hole because I was so conditioned by the last few years of shortstops I was shocked by all the competent, routine plays Scutaro made.
In fact, the error he mentions? Not Scutaro’s fault. Youk made a bad pick. Simple as that. Same with the earlier error given to Jeter in the game. Both balls were in the dirt, yes, but both were simple picks any first baseman should make. Youk missed the simple pick (Though could’ve been worse, Teixeira was eaten up in a manner that would make Giambi chuckle). Sometimes good defensive players make bad plays, especially early in the season.
Seriously, no offense to the crew here, but WHY is this guy getting linked to? His last article was similarly lambasted on here. It’s pretty clearly bottom rung blogging. I’m reasonably sure this is all the same stuff I hear the homeless guy outside my office ranting about. The difference between these two is probably limited to the smell and the fact that one of them was linked to by a reputable baseball website.
I hate the bostondirtdogs site with a screaming passion. The Sox could score 10 runs and they’d focus on whichever hitter didn’t have an RBI. Who ever is pitching could throw a one-hitter and they’d focus on how it should have been a no-hitter. Makes me wonder if my father writes for them.
Is your father the still-moving corpse of Stalin?
You know, I actually like the boston dirt dogs website. For me, it’s more like a website that makes fun of what happens in baseball and shouldn’t be taken seriously. I think that when the sox won it in ’04, one of their posts was a picture of the NYY ALCS Champions T-Shirt. It’s silly, and that’s all I’ll take it for.
As for the bench issue, I agree that the blogger is bottom rung. If they can, the Sox have a history of calling up or acquiring speed at the trade deadline if they don’t have any that can be used to pinch run. In 09-Gathright, 08-(Acquired J Bay instead of speed), 07-Royce Clayton (& calling up Jacoby), 06-Willie Harris, 05-Calling up Adam Stern, & 04-Dave Roberts. He just didn’t do any research.
Wow I cant believe it was already a year ago. RIP Nick.
Such is the fate of a Cub fan. You go back to the 1921 and the Cubs were already in a 12 year World Series slump and headed for a losing season. I did enjoy the William Wrigley/Grover Cleveland Alexander story. Things were different back then. Baseball has lost some of that personal touch with the huge salaries and corporate ownerships.
Can’t see Lowell being around all year anyway, or at least not on the bench but possibly as the DH if ortiz continues the antics and poor performance he has started the season with.
Having little to no speed off of the bench is really nothing new out of Boston anyway, 2004 was an aberration with Roberts and Gaithright at the tail end of last season being another that they rarely have.
Would like to see Lowrie called soon when he gets his strength back also, if his career tops is supposed to be as a utility guy anyway, then so be it. he’ll be late 20’s by the time Scutaro’s contract expires, so might as well get some good use out of him and let the chips fall where they may with him.
I really wish Jair would drop Scott Boras. Because if we lose him because that manipulative slimeball and admittedly genius of an agent wants him on the Yankees or Red Sox I will call his wife and find some way of convincing her that her husband is cheating on her.
Boras probably has a 600 page binder chronicling his faithfulness and comparing himself to the greatest husbands of all time.
With regard to the Yankees’ future salary commitments, of course it’s a potential problem if they want to keep the payroll at or near $200m. I have no problem giving long term contracts to excellent players under 30, like Teix and CC, but the contract they gave A-Rod was ridiculous, which is why Cashman was against. it So it would be a mistake to use that contract as any kind of guide in their negotiations with Jeter. It makes far more sense to overpay him in terms of AAV than in does in terms of years.
It’s also why it is so important for Hughes to demonstrate that he can be a reliable, better than league average starter. If that happens, there is far less of a need to give yet another big money long term contract to a pitcher like Cliff Lee.
Now, given their increase in revenues at NYS, they can probably afford to spend well over $200m, and perhaps they would be willing to exceed that amount once the next CBA is ratified.
I would hope, however, that they can actually reduce the payroll over time by developing more homegrown talent.
A homegrown core formed the foundation of the five rings. They need to keep adding to the next homegrown core of Cano, Hughes, and Joba.
I’d say crediting that last ring to the homegrown core is a pretty big stretch. The biggest contributors in that series were free agents. The homegrown guys didn’t exactly hurt their chances, but they don’t win in ’09 without adding Sabathia and Teixeira via free agency.
It’s a stretch to say that Jeter, Mo, and Pettitte had excellent 2009 postseasons? You cannot be serious.
The sad part about the Nick Adenhart passing is baseball does as much as any business, person or institution to pass on the myth about drinking. The last game I went to at angel stadium a few years ago the guy sitting next to me must have had at least 8 beers. How is it acceptable that I should leave the parking lot at the same time as this drunk fan sitting next to me. On a much greater level baseball has beer commericals, and liquor commericals during every telecast. It is the same message you are young, attractive and you fit in to social sexual situations so smoothly with whatever liquor is being sold. Or you have some types of Beer being marketed to the inner city or people on the lower end of social economic scale. Yet you can still live the high life. I am waiting for the first alcohol commerical to say do not drink and drive. Society should not care if you want to drink until your liver rots, but if you get behind the wheel and you get caught I would like to see maybe a mandatory two year prison sentence for the first offense.
Many people don’t remember, but just a few days before Adenhardt was killed and on opening night, a man was killed at the stadium in a drunken brawl on the “Budweiser Patio”. I was at that game and I noticed that there were still people two-fisting 22 oz. beers to their seats in the 9th inning. It was disconcerting that they were chugging the last of them as people were filing out of the stadium. Compounding this problem is the car culture of southern California, Orange County in particular. We just have no viable options. I live just a few miles from the park, I would have to take 2 buses to get to the stadium, and one of them stops running while the game is still in progress so that I’d have no way home. So even those of us who do try to “drink responsibly” are forced to impose on family and friends or pay ridiculous cab fares.
To be fair though, Angels Stadium does have a designated driver program (sponsored by Southern Comfort, natch) that they advertise several times during the game. I guess you get a free soda or something. I also saw some additional police presence in the parking lot after the game this week. However, none of that can counter the enormous financial incentive they have to keep the liquor flowing for as long as possible.
Very good e-mail. I do not care what person does in there own home, or if someone else is driving or they are taking a cab. A car is a lethal weapon when a person has had even one drink. If the angels want to honor Adenhart they should stop selling liquor.
“I am waiting for the first alcohol commerical to say do not drink and drive.”
How are you waiting? I’ve been seeing stuff like that in beer commercials since I was about eight (Though, to be fair, a case could be made knocking that on the fact they were advertising booze during stuff eight year olds are very likely to watch).
They say know when to say when just enough to keep the goverment off of them. I am talking about saying it is illlegal to drink and drive, and it is the leading cause of death from car accidents. They will never say that.
What about the “please drink responsibly” warnings at the end of EVERY beer commercial ever?
You can’t market safety with your product when it is inherently unsafe. That would be a dumb concept.
I understand your concern and what you’re trying to say, but I don’t think you considered it much from the other point of view. Drinking and driving is a personal decision for immature and irresponsible people. Asking they do not drink and drive in a commercial is not going to change that.