Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart killed in car crash

and in the process, read his biography online. He struggled a bit but last night was a great outing and showed a lot of promise. On top of that, it said that he was influenced by his family to go into baseball and pursue his dreams after he could have stopped shortly after high school due to a few situations.

This has to be one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen in the sports world because according to all the “experts” and after watching this kid pitch last night, he had a chance to be a very good one.

Thoughts and prayers to his family and the Angels team and community.

And more discussion can be found in the Fanshot from earlier:

here

in my home town Cedar Rapids for the Kernals. Tragic that he finally got to the show and this is how it ends.

I just watched him pitch last night!

I was hoping the Cubs would trade for him in the offseason, since he was slightly devalued from his poor showing last year.

Now I REALLY wish they had.

A tragedy.

RIP.

He had a very bright future in front of him. Very sad, and yet another tragedy in a long string of them for the Angels. The Lyman Bostock story is the most famous, but the Angels have had more than their share of tragedies over the past 48 seasons.

My heart goes out to all who are affected by it. Don’t drink and drive.

for his family and the Angels organization. So very sad.

Condolences, thoughts and sincere prayers go out to the Angels’ organization and the Adenhart family and friends.

Tragic. May God bless everyone except the drunk bastard who ran the red light with his van and then fled the scene on foot. Yes, he was later found a mile away and taken into custody.

Tonight’s Angels game has been officially postponed.

source

Another drunk driver with a history of DUI driving the streets.

The driver’s name is Andrew Gallo. According to our friends at TMZ, Gallo has an arrest history of DUI and at the time of the crash they say they believe he was driving on a suspended license because of a prior drunk driving conviction. They also say at the time of this morning’s crash the driver was under the influence. Law enforcement says he will be booked on felony hit and run, felony DUI, vehicular manslaughter and possibly murder.

“Possibly murder?” I am so angry and sad right now!

RIP, condolences to his family. Such a tragic loss to the Angels organization.

RIP Nick, condolences to his family

Just a sad story. Promise taken away.
 Another driver under the influence, people just don’t learn. According to reports the driver was driving with a suspended license and had a previous DUI. Enough already with these people.
Prayers to the family.

this is extremely sad

Some disjointed thoughts…

As I write this, I have tickets to tonight’s Angel game sitting on my desk, courtesy of a friend of a friend. I came into the office this morning wondering who I would invite to the game. Moments later, I was looking at ESPN.com and reading that Adenhart had been killed.

Just a couple of years ago Adenhart pitched for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and I had the chance to see him pitch as an official scorer during his time here. Much like Felix Hernandez, this guy was a marquee star in the Cal League, a guy that fans would come out to watch.

I had read the story in the paper this morning and was impressed with his performance and sorry that he hadn’t gotten the win.

I flash back to two experiences in my life of young athletes being taken before their time while I was the director of Athletics Media Relations at UC Riverside. I don’t know why it is so much more moving when a young athlete dies, but it just is. Perhaps it is the fact that they seem bigger than life, perhaps it is just the vast future they had laid out ahead of them. I have spent a lot of time today reflecting on Kellen Dixon and Mark Hall.

I flash back to an event from my childhood, standing next to a radio in the kitchen of our house, listening to Dick Enberg talk about the fact that Lyman Bostock had been murdered. I couldn’t fathom it then. I still have a hard time fathoming it now.

As I read the story today, I saw that the 22-year-old drunk driver responsible for the accident is from Riverside, where I work. I quickly searched our student database, selfishly hoping that this guy had nothing to do with the university I work for. I wanted to have nothing to do with this idiot. I didn’t want him to be part of our family here. (FTR, he was not.)

My condolences to all that feel a sense of loss from this tragedy.

I wonder if this is how it was when Ken Hubbs was killed…