Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart is dead, killed in a hit-and-run accident that occurred early this morning, only hours after he pitched in a game.
Adenhart was only 22 years old, and a promising piece of the Angels’ starting rotation. He had just pitched six shutout innings of a game against the Athletics that was eventually lost by the Angels.
Eerily enough, this morning his photo was on the Angels official home page, not for the death, but for his impressive performance.
More information is available from the Los Angeles Times.
No official word yet from the Angels nor MLB. I’d assume that tonight’s game between the Angels and A’s will be canceled. In addition, this news will probably reschedule the Angels Hall of Fame induction of Brian Downing and Steve Finley. At this point, those two events are not nearly as important as addressing the needs of Adenhart’s family, friends, and teammates.
Hat tip to Walnutz.
Some crazy stories all around here, Joe.
The sole-reason I watched some of that Angels-A’s game last night was because I had been informed that Andrew Bailey was coming on to pitch for the A’s again……he’d appeared in their Opener.
Bailey graduated from my college (Wagner) a couple years ago…..
http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=457732
I saw him pitch a bit in school, and faced him in a couple of Alumni Games. He was impressive. We used to joke around with him about how good MY TEAMS would’ve been; provided he were a few years older playing with our NCAA Regional squad…that had virtually no quality pitching.
Bailey picked up his 1st win last night w/2 K’s in the inning. Watching some of the highlights, I saw that Nick Adenhart started for Anaheim and shut Oakland out for 6 innings, before they came back.
Hearing this morning that Adenhart was killed after the game in a hit-and-run blew my mind. Tragic, horrible, and a very strange tie-in to a local angle.
Good news/Horrible news….my condolences to the family and the entire Angel organization.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090409&content_id=4179446&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Adenhart’s death truly is a tragic loss. I heard about it in the the car doing deliveries for work and I started tearing up. Really makes you realize how precious life is and how something so tragic can happen to anybody. Don’t know if it’s confirmed, but I heard the driver of the van may have also been drunk, which reminds me of the Duaner Sanchez scenario. Getting out of that wreck with a separated shoulder doesn’t seem so bad anymore. This only strenghtens my stance that drunk drivers are the absolute scum of the earth, and whether you get in an accident and kill somebody or not, you deserve to be locked up for a long time just for getting behind a wheel intoxicated. I have no compasion whatsoever for those people.
This should be an immediate wake-up call for the likes of Joba Chamberlain……maybe he’ll think better next time, before he starts his drive home with an open bottle of Crown Royal in his lap.
RIP – Nick Adenhart.