Cardinals Pitcher Josh Hancock Dies in Car Crash

[wolf stansson]

Well this ain't good.

 

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/F8CB7D50A3D71BA2862572CD00832041?OpenDocument

They were standing behind us at the bar, probably for about 45 minutes,” said Vince's wife, who asked that her name not be used. Hancock “got handed several drinks by the bartender -- they kept on handing them over to him.”

 

Vince said that when he and his wife left Shannon's – his receipt shows a checkout time of 10:31 p.m.-- Hancock was still at the bar, talking to a female.

 

“He had a mixed drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other,” Vince said. “And my wife's comment was 'He can barely put a sentence together.'”

[jersey cubs fan]

Christ. This is such a bad situation for the Cardinals. Do they go on all season honoring a person who it now appears died while driving drunk? He's lucky he didn't kill someone else, then it would have really been a black guy.

 

Black guy?

 

Seriously though, how bad does it look when the manager gets busted with a DUI, then a player "oversleeps", possibly due to booze, gets in a "minor" accident, possibly due to booze, and then dies in a DUI? I would hope this wakes some people up to the problem.

[wolf stansson]

Christ. This is such a bad situation for the Cardinals. Do they go on all season honoring a person who it now appears died while driving drunk? He's lucky he didn't kill someone else, then it would have really been a black guy.

 

Black guy?

 

Seriously though, how bad does it look when the manager gets busted with a DUI, then a player "oversleeps", possibly due to booze, gets in a "minor" accident, possibly due to booze, and then dies in a DUI? I would hope this wakes some people up to the problem.

 

I think he meant black eye.

[Chris]

Agreed that people need to wake up to the problem. It also sounds like he had more than enough the night of the accident from the repoorts.

[CubmanPi]

Agreed that people need to wake up to the problem. It also sounds like he had more than enough the night of the accident from the repoorts.

The thing that most people don't realize is that "more than enough" is much easier to reach than you would think. If you're any less than about 200 pounds, and you hit 3 drinks in less than 2 hours, you're definitely pushing the limits of legally intoxicated. I handle my drinks pretty well, but if I have two drinks too fast, it's wise for me to wait a good 60-90 minutes to drive. MLB.com pulled his player bio, so I don't know how big he was, but from the sounds of things he was well beyond that pace.

 

Soooo many DUIs are issued to people who think they feel fine but are already at .10. It's such a stupid and avoidable problem, and one that I don't think will ever go away.

[98navigator]

I found a link to this blog on another site. It's another eyewitness to Hancock drinking the night of the accident. The item is date stamped so it's safe to assume that it wasn't made up after the fact...

 

One thing that was kind of exciting was seeing Josh Hancock at Mike Shannon's after the game. Josh who was late for the game Thursday because he overslept was sitting at the bar drinking what appeared to be a Gin and Tonic which impressed me as it also my drink of choice and smoking a boat load of cigerettes. Seriously its 2007. I didn't think there were any pro athletes left that smoked.

[soccer10k]

KSDK NewsChannel 5[/url]"] Hancock was involved in an auto accident in his Denali sport utility vehicle. It happened at Route 3 and Yellow Brick Road, about 5:30 a.m. [on Thursday, April 26]. The intersection is surrounded by popular after-hour nightclubs.

 

Police say Hancock was turning onto Route 3 when he narrowly escaped serious injury after a semi-truck hit his car.

 

Chief Patrick Delaney of the Sauget Police Department says, "He stopped at the stop sign, then he inched his GMC Denalie onto the southbound lanes of Route 3 when a semi tractor trailer that was traveling southbound clipped the front of his denali, tearing off the front bumper. Both officers on the scene said he did not appear to be impaired whatsoever. Of course, he was shook up over the accident, but once he was here and settled down, he was just a friendly, really nice guy."

 

The accident happened the same day that Hancock told reporters he had overslept and reported to an afternoon Cardinals home game late.

 

Did the locals cops give a break to the hometown athlete?

 

Oversleeping for a game is a sure sign of somebody with issues.

 

 

Somebody wrote earlier this year that while steroids were a problem, drunk driving was an even bigger problem with the players. We've seen Tony get busted this year, and now a guy with multiple accidents who can't get to the field in time was reportedly drinking before driving in a crash. That writer may have been right on.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=law/070327&sportCat=mlb

 

From the link to a Palm Bach Post article in Law's column.

 

"The guy won us a World Series. . . . It took us 21 years to get us that World Series. You think we're going to be upset with him because he got a DWI?" said Joseph Dawidouski, a Cardinals season-ticket holder who lives about 10 blocks from Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

 

"He was asleep at a stoplight, for God sakes. He wasn't hurting anyone. He has long days. The sun gets to you." Several fans, including Dawidouski, expressed anger that La Russa was arrested.

 

"I was more appalled by the whole idea of him getting one," Dawidouski said. "They could have let him go. I don't think the cops needed to give him one. Follow him home. Big deal."

 

This whole quote amazes me but especially the bolded part. Yeah, LaRussa was asleep at the wheel but what could have happened if he wasn't. Just pure ignorance by this idiot.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

"The guy won us a World Series. . . . It took us 21 years to get us that World Series. You think we're going to be upset with him because he got a DWI?" said Joseph Dawidouski, a Cardinals season-ticket holder who lives about 10 blocks from Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

 

"He was asleep at a stoplight, for God sakes. He wasn't hurting anyone. He has long days. The sun gets to you." Several fans, including Dawidouski, expressed anger that La Russa was arrested.

 

"I was more appalled by the whole idea of him getting one," Dawidouski said. "They could have let him go. I don't think the cops needed to give him one. Follow him home. Big deal."

 

This whole quote amazes me but especially the bolded part. Yeah, LaRussa was asleep at the wheel but what could have happened if he wasn't. Just pure ignorance by this idiot.

 

Yeesh.

[snoodmonger]

"The guy won us a World Series. . . . It took us 21 years to get us that World Series. You think we're going to be upset with him because he got a DWI?" said Joseph Dawidouski, a Cardinals season-ticket holder who lives about 10 blocks from Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

 

"He was asleep at a stoplight, for God sakes. He wasn't hurting anyone. He has long days. The sun gets to you." Several fans, including Dawidouski, expressed anger that La Russa was arrested.

 

"I was more appalled by the whole idea of him getting one," Dawidouski said. "They could have let him go. I don't think the cops needed to give him one. Follow him home. Big deal."

 

This whole quote amazes me but especially the bolded part. Yeah, LaRussa was asleep at the wheel but what could have happened if he wasn't. Just pure ignorance by this idiot.

 

Yeesh.

 

that guy is a complete idiot.

[cubfan1955]

STL Today Article

Hancock was on his way to join a group of Cardinals teammates at Café Napoli in Clayton about 12:30 a.m. Sunday when his Ford Explorer ran into a 26,000 pound lift truck dispatched to an earlier accident. Hancock had text messaged a member of the group, which included center fielder Jim Edmonds, relief pitcher Ryan Franklin, catcher Gary Bennett and second baseman Adam Kennedy.

 

The last members of the group left around 1:30 a.m. without knowledge of the accident.

The really sad thing about all of this is that it's sounding more and more like this kid had a major problem and the Cardinal organization were aware of it and didn't do anything about it. Even for a lowly paid relief pitcher $500 is chump change that a player wouldn't blink about losing.

[Chris]

STL Today Article

 

Here's something that stood out from that article as well:

 

Campbell, reached late Monday, said, "I was standing there minding my own business. A kid named Josh Hancock introduced himself to me. I've never met him before in my life. ... A couple people at ESPN (asked me), 'Did you think he was inebriated?' In my opinion, I couldn't tell. I'm not a toxicologist. ...

 

"As to the statement somebody made that he told me something about Tony La Russa, all I can say is that is absolutely 100 percent false. If he said it, I didn't hear it either through the noise or because I wasn't paying attention."

 

Campbell explained why he didn't come forward earlier, saying, "I'm not the story. He is. I didn't want to throw him under the bus. I didn't want to talk about the fact that I had run into him. I'm not that type of journalist. ... I did not want the family to suffer any more, so I didn't want the fact to be known I was having a drink with him."

 

yikes.

[jaydee]

so apparently he "overslept" a game earlier in the week, and got in a near accident when he was drunk earlier in the week? sounds like this guy had alcohol problems.

[cubfan1955]

so apparently he "overslept" a game earlier in the week, and got in a near accident when he was drunk earlier in the week? sounds like this guy had alcohol problems.

No, it wasn't a near accident earlier. It was an accident. His vehicle was hit by a tractor trailor at 5:30 am after a night at the strip clubs on the Illinois side of the river. He overslept for the game that was played 5 hours later. That accident was why he was driving a rental when he was killed.

[Laura]

I was critical of St Louis media coverage of LaRussa's DUI -- the St. Louis P-D in particular -- because the articles and columns I read were long lists of excuses. I didn't think then and still don't that he should have been fired ... but I also didn't think that the humiliation of being arrested should have been the worst consequence of driving drunk, which is what one P-D columnist wrote.

 

The link that gooney posted earlier to the column on pro baseball & DUIs is worth reading. The Cardinals are obviously not the only mlb club that has to deal with players/personnel drinking and driving, but they're the ones that have to deal with the fallout from this very sad chain of events. I know that some hold the perspective that off-field issues shouldn't matter to a team (putting aside in this instance that Hancock's drinking reportedly did result in him being late to at least one game). How should teams respond to things like a player/manager/front office type getting a DUI? Keith Law wrote

 

The Cardinals and Blue Jays and Marlins all took the easy way out with their DUIs -- they ignored them. (The A's did do something after Loaiza was arrested -- they took the free beer out of both the home and visitors' clubhouses.) What I'd like to see is for one club to take a hard line when a player, or especially a manager or coach, is caught driving under the influence. Send the individual to rehab, if there is an alcohol problem. In La Russa's case, the club could easily give him a choice: rehab (if he does have an alcohol problem) or resignation. We don't want your liability, we don't want your bad press and we especially don't want to condone or enable such selfish and dangerous behavior.

 

 

As others have posted, it seems there were a lot of warning signs with Hancock in the days leading up to his death and some missed opportunities. It does sound like the hometown cops may have waved off giving him a breathalyzer after the earlier accident. I also wonder whether the worry about his whereabouts when he was late for the game had more to do with people being concerned over his behavior than Darryl Kile's death (which was the reason cited for worrying in newspaper reports).

 

Seriously though, how bad does it look when the manager gets busted with a DUI, then a player "oversleeps", possibly due to booze, gets in a "minor" accident, possibly due to booze, and then dies in a DUI? I would hope this wakes some people up to the problem.

 

And he was drinking at their version of Harry Caray's. Today's article indicates he was on his way to meet up with other teammates when the accident occurred.

[Guest]

Should MLB take the NFL stance?

 

I have to think this is weighing very heavily on LaRussa.

[Soul]

I agree with others who have already said that it's kind of pointless to think Hancock is somehow in more trouble because he might have been drinking. The guy is already dead, it can't get any worse now.

 

The best we can do is make sure people know drinking and driving is still an issue, and if it true he was drinking, then maybe his example will help save some else's life.

[mjohnson71]

Should MLB take the NFL stance?

 

I have to think this is weighing very heavily on LaRussa.

 

I'll bet you this will be his last season.

[jersey cubs fan]

Should MLB take the NFL stance?

 

I have to think this is weighing very heavily on LaRussa.

 

The NFL's stand on DUI's isn't really all that harsh, compared to their stance against other behavior.

 

I think there should be an automatic suspension for DUIs, although the union would fight that. The problem is far too many people view DUIs as a victimless crime akin to speeding or parking tickets, only with harsher penalties.

 

Teams need to step up and better police their guys after hours. Stress the importance of taking cabs after drinking.

 

What they can't do is just brush aside DUIs like some sort of groin pull, an unfortunate, but inevitable nuisance that can't be avoided.

[The Voice of Reason]

I agree with others who have already said that it's kind of pointless to think Hancock is somehow in more trouble because he might have been drinking. The guy is already dead, it can't get any worse now.

 

The best we can do is make sure people know drinking and driving is still an issue, and if it true he was drinking, then maybe his example will help save some else's life.

 

Weren't you one of the many posters who downplayed LaRussa's DUI because he was "just barely over the limit and no one got hurt"? La Russa was just plain lucky that he didn't kill someone or himself before he passed out. His offense was just as bad as Hancock's.

 

It comes as no surprise to me that La Russa is now trying to coverup Hancock's escapades and attacking the media. When it comes to discussing DUI's, he has no crediblity. He should address (not hide) the problem of athletes drinking and driving and become part of the solution, not an enabler to he problem.

 

Hancock was already plastered and on the way out to continue drinking when he killed himself. Why can't millionaire athletes who must drink until their sloppy drunk just call a cab or get a limo?

Edited May 1, 2007 by The Voice of Reason

[cubfan1955]

Hancock was already plastered and on the way out to continue drinking when he killed himself. Why can't millionaire athletes who must drink until their sloppy drunk just get call a cab or get a limo?

I guess he couldn't afford it after that whopping $500 fine LaRussa laid on him for showing up late, hungover, and unable to pitch last Thursday after his first accident.

[snoodmonger]

I agree with others who have already said that it's kind of pointless to think Hancock is somehow in more trouble because he might have been drinking. The guy is already dead, it can't get any worse now.

 

The best we can do is make sure people know drinking and driving is still an issue, and if it true he was drinking, then maybe his example will help save some else's life.

 

It's not that he'd be in more trouble. Obviously, it's not going to get any worse for John Hancock, aside from his legacy being tarnished a bit.

 

But alchhol DOES put the accident in an entirely different light. It goes from simply tragic to a story of extreme negligence, especially if these other recent reports of his behavior are accurate. And it raises a lot of questions about what teammates, coaches, and the organization can/should do when they see a similar situation develop.

[CardsFanInChiTown]

How much should companies mandate morality and intrude in our personal life?

[cubfan1955]

How much should companies mandate morality and intrude in your personal life?

I know if I show up late, hungover, and unable to perform they will intrude in my personal life by removing me from their payroll.

[CardsFanInChiTown]

How much should companies mandate morality and intrude in your personal life?

I know if I show up late, hungover, and unable to perform they will intrude in my personal life by removing me from their payroll.

 

 

Even if it was for the first time? That seems a little extreme.

[chuckywang]

All my sympathy for Hancock went straight out the window when more and more evidence surfaces that he was drunk when he got into his fatal accident.