When the news first came out, I was a bit surprised everyone (the entire league) was jumping on the "Josh Hancock is a hero that was taken from us too soon" bandwagon. I had a conversation with Aaron right after the initial news came out, commenting on how it seemed premature. Let's see... he was 29, single, in his hometown on a Saturday night (after 12:15am) and driving on a highway when he slammed into the back end of a tow truck with its emergency lights on... it sounded a bit like alcohol might have been involved.
The only tragedy here is the poor decisions he made that night:
1. Drinking too much (twice the legal limit in Missouri)
2. Refusing a cab ride from the restaurant manager.
3. Talking on the phone while driving too fast.
4. Not wearing a seatbelt (although experts say this wouldn't have saved his life in this case).
The irony is that his team (St Louis Cardinals) is owned by the Busch family, who made their fortune brewing beer, which might just have been at the center of this "tragedy." They're now planning to ban beer in the St Louis clubhouse after games... what's next, banning brats for the Brewers?
I'll echo what St Louis Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklaszf wrote this morning... "If you want to honor Josh Hancock, remember how he died and call a taxi for yourself, or for someone next to you."
Your thoughts?
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2 comments:
LJ -- very sad indeed. What's worse, St. Louis canceled a game in this guy's honor. To top it off, every MLB team around the league put his number up on the scoreboard Sunday night. Think the commish would like a do-over at this point?
I agree with your sentiments generally, but fact checking, the Cardinals are no longer owned by the Busch family as of 1995.
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