The Royals are playing their best baseball of the season right now, as they feasted on National League competition, and had won 11 of 12 before dropping their last two games against the Cardinals. So there's plenty of reason to celebrate in Kansas City right now, because for the first time in years, Royals fans have been able to watch a team that actually resembles a Major League team.
Unfortunately, the celebration made it's way to members of the team this last weekend when second baseman Alberto Callaspo was busted for a DUI on Friday night after the Royals sixth straight win. On Saturday, Callaspo was placed on the disabled list for undisclosed reasons.
"Alberto is going on the disabled list for evaluation and treatment of an undisclosed medical condition," manager Trey Hillman said. He declined to elaborate.
"I've already given the statement," he said.
Yeah, I can't read minds or anything, but I'd be willing to wager that the undisclosed medical condition that Hillman was referring to was Alberto's DUI. In the interest of being purely speculative, maybe this incident isn't anything new for Callaspo, it's just the first time he's been caught and the Royals want to help him out.
I mean, there have been plenty of baseball players and managers (Hello, Mr. LaRussa!) who have been pulled over for DUI's, yet I don't know many of them who've been placed on the disabled list.
Of course, it's also entirely possible that this is an isolated occurrence for Callaspo and the Royals are just sending a message to the rest of the team to keep this from happening. We don't need any more Josh Hancock incidents. Whatever it is, this is the right move by the Royals, and one that other teams could learn from.
UPDATE: Read Pat Lackey's post on this subject. I'm still right, technically. But he frames it much better than me and leads one to believe the opposite.
In a word: no. In two words: certainly not. The mathematics tell us otherwise. And this is the NL Central we are talking about here, a league no one snatched a hold of all season -- a league still entirely up for grabs. It's a division wrought with teams that seemingly should be better, but are just plodding along near the .500 mark.
There was Tony La Russa's DUI before the season, then Josh Hancock's death, followed by Scott Spiezio's substance abuse problems and then perhaps the biggest bomb of them all ... Rick Ankiel was linked to HGH. Not to mention all the injuries they've had. And here still, even with being losers of their last seven games, (they haven't won since the Ankiel news broke) St. Louis still sits within striking distance of a division title.
Sure five games may be a bit much to surmount this late in the season, but the Cardinals and Cubs -- the current division leaders -- square off in a four-game set at home starting tomorrow. I certainly don't expect to Cardinals to be losers of 11 straight after this weekend. Do you?
The family's local attorney, Mark Bronson, filed the motion to "dismiss without prejudice" this morning, just prior to a hearing before a judge in St. Louis Circuit Court on the merits of the case.
The motion effectively ends the legal battle, although the lawsuit could be refiled.
"I'm relieved," said attorney Don Wolff, who defended Shannon's Restaurant. "I'm not surprised. But I'm relieved to have some vindication for the Shannon family, especially at this time."
"That's the end of it. This case never had any merit. It was totally and completely without merit," he said.
Who knows what it's like to lose a son to unexpected circumstances; one's grief can likely manifest itself in ugly, confused ways. I hope I never -- I hope my parents never -- have to realize what that's like. But it doesn't make the Hancock's suit any less silly, any less deflective of Josh's own responsibility. In many ways it twisted the situation, something we can all learn from, into a sideshow. Glad to see it's over.
Marlins owner David Samson likes to talk big when it comes to critiquing the decisions of other teams, but right now it's his team's lack of a decision that makes his franchise look like an enabling laughingstock. Instead of immediately disciplining and/or giving Scott Olsen a leave of absence to deal with an apparent alcohol problem, the team has apparently decided to sit on their hands. From the Miami Herald:
''The plan is for him to start Wednesday,'' Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. ``We're going to have to let the legal process take it's course.''
The Marlins have taken no action toward Olsen, who was arrested early Saturday morning in Aventura and charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest with violence and eluding a police officer.
Gonzalez did make comments later in the article that left the door open for the team to change their minds, which I hope they do, but in my mind they'll have missed their best opportunity to send a message, both to their fans and their players. By waiting, they're allowing the perception to exist that the true decision wasn't made by what the team actually considers important but rather any potential backlash of sweeping this incident under the rug.
Am I being rash to compare Olsen with Josh Hancock? I don't think so. Most people will remember this incident as "that one time the Marlins pitcher fought the police and got Tasered," but the fact that Olsen drove while intoxicated (including running stop signs after the police signaled for him to stop) was by far his most risky act of the night. Like Hancock, Olsen's poor decision put the lives of others in danger, he was just lucky enough to make it to his driveway.
On May 31, ATC supervisor Peter Lobdell announced there was no evidence that employees at Mike Shannon's Steaks & Seafood knew Hancock was drunk. Since then, investigators have contacted two witnesses not interviewed in the previous investigation -- restaurant patron Vince Winkel and ESPN commentator Dave Campbell, ATC spokeswoman Terri Durdaller said Wednesday.
Winkel, who has told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and local TV stations that he believes Hancock was clearly intoxicated, said he reiterated those comments to ATC investigators when they interviewed him Tuesday. He declined to elaborate.
And later:
Durdaller said investigators plan to meet this week with Campbell, who was reportedly with Hancock at the restaurant bar. Investigators previously had been unable to reach Campbell, ATC officials said.
I'm not quite sure why the ATC didn't lock down these witnesses -- no matter how long it took -- and then release its report. Perhaps the ATC thought it had enough information even without them.
In any event, I can say this: even if Josh Hancock had a drink or two less that night, the odds were still certainly not in his favor.
As the Cardinals wrap up an atrocious May -- their worst start in 17 years, in fact -- and Tony LaRussa presumably gets greyer by the day, more news is surfacing about Josh Hancock's fatal car crash. The Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control ruled Mikes Shannon's Restaurant, the establishment where Hancock was drinking before his death, is not at fault.
ATC State Superintendent Pete Lobdell said interviews revealed that Hancock was drinking in moderation in the hours before his April 29 accident.
Lobdell said the ATC found no "credible evidence" that either the restaurant or its employees were at fault for serving an intoxicated person. No action will be taken against the restaurant.
Mourning? Come on. People don't mourn by grabbing at money from every which direction. They don't mourn by keeping themselves and their family -- who were surely devastated by the loss of their son -- in the public eye. They don't mourn by dodging blame and pointing the finger at practically inanimate forces their son unfortunately collided with that night.
I'm sorry for their loss, I truly am. But Dean Hancock -- and the batch of lawyers he's hired -- have no one, no one, to blame for their son's death except for Josh himself. Josh was the one driving with a BAC double the legal limit, Josh was the one with pot in his car, Josh was the one talking on a cell phone, Josh was the one speeding, and Josh was the one who rifled his car into a well-lit tow truck on the side of the road. Josh Hancock is the reason Josh Hancock died.
I don't know Josh's father, and I don't know his family. I can't pretend to begin to fathom what they went through when they found out how their son died. I'm truly sad for them, as I would be for anyone who loses a family member so senselessly. But any goodwill the Hancocks accumulated after the accident, any amount of pity they deserved ... Dean Hancock just threw it out the window. And for what? A little money? That's just as senseless as his son's self-inflicted death.
If you remember about a month ago, Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock was killed in a car crash. He was legally intoxicated at the time of the accident, on his cellphone, had marijuana in the car and was driving a rental vehicle because he recently got in an accident with his own car.
The father of Josh Hancock filed suit Thursday, claiming among other things that a popular St. Louis restaurant continued to provide drinks to the Cardinals relief pitcher even though he was clearly intoxicated prior to the drunk-driving crash that killed him.
The suit filed in St. Louis Circuit Court does not specify damages. It does not name the Cardinals or Major League Baseball.
But the suit brought by Dean Hancock of Tupelo, Miss., names Mike Shannon's Restaurant, which is owned by the longtime Cardinals broadcaster who starred on three World Series teams in the 1960s. It also names Shannon's daughter, Patricia Shannon Van Matre, the restaurant manager; Eddie's Towing, the company whose flatbed tow truck was struck by Hancock's sport utility vehicle in the early hours of April 29; tow truck driver Jacob Edward Hargrove; and Justin Tolar, the driver whose stalled car on Interstate 64 was being assisted by Hargrove.
Dean Hancock's lawyer is claiming the stalled car had no flares out to alert other drivers and the tow truck was at the scene for far too long.
I don't mean to trivialize the situation here; we are all allowed to grieve and mourn in our own separate fashions. But, Josh Hancock was drunk, on his cell phone and was not wearing a seatbelt when he died in the car wreck.
Shouldn't the elder Hancock put his efforts into drunk driving prevention and the like instead of suing everyone he can get his hands on?
Denny McClain is a lot of things: a Hall of Famer, the last pitcher to win 30 games in a season, a convict, a recovering alcoholic ... and these days, a blogger. The former Tigers pitcher is now writing for the Britannica Blog, where he touched upon the Josh Hancock tragedy by looking at how players treated alcohol in his heyday:
Our '68 team had a number of heavy drinkers and several who were serious problem drinkers. In fact, Norm Cash, my roommate Ray Oyler, and our manager, Mayo Smith, all died prematurely and all three were alcoholics. The best place to get high on booze was a Major League clubhouse.
But the clubhouse wasn't the only place to enjoy some post-game hijinks ...
When I was a rookie on the Tigers, we were traveling on a DC-6, a four-engine propeller airplane and the First Class section of the plane was in the rear, away from coaches, managers, and others who didn't need to know. The section had a round card table and a couch around it for about six guys and a United Airlines blanket. Many a willing stewardess found her way under the blanket with one of her drunken sporting heroes. You would be shocked at who made their way under the blanket.
Good times were had by many, and "United" was certainly an appropriate name for our plane because there was a fair amount of "uniting" going on thanks to the lowering of inhibitions due to alcohol.
So ... yeah. I bet you weren't expecting to read about a good ol' fashioned mile-high orgy today, were you? Not to be lost in the humor of McLain's post is his actual point, that alcohol can be a very dangerous drug, one that cost him the lives of not only some former teammates but also his daughter, who was killed by a drunk driver. But if it takes a little sex to spice up the message to make sure people actually hear it, it's fine by me.
The Cardinals are in a funk. The only thing keeping them out of last place in the NL Central at the moment is the Reds being in an equally deep funk. The Cards were shut-out twice this weekend while losing two of three to the Padres in San Diego and at 15-20, everyone is searching for answers. Tony LaRussa suggests that the team should just apologize to Anthony Reyes for yet again sucking like a black hole during one of his starts. Jim Edmonds calls his team out in the press today, saying that being shutout by Justin Germano and company is unacceptable.
did you know the cardinals have hit 1 homerun --- one --- in the 12 games since josh hancock died? did you know they've averaged only 6.3 hits per game over that span? only 1.1 extra-base hits a game?
the cards haven't hit well at any point this season, but before hancock died the offense was merely struggling. now it's asphyxiating. the cardinals scored an average of 3.5 runs a game in the 23 games before hancock's death; they've averaged 2.4 runs in the 12 contests since. more details of the sad before-and-after:
He goes way further into it and the whole post is worth a read. It's interesting, the basic idea behind sabermetrics is that everything in baseball has happened before and you can use past results to quantify and project performances. Things like clutch go out the window because there's usually something else that can explain the performance. But how do you quantify the effect of a teammate dying? I don't think you can.
The Royals are playing their best baseball of the season right now, as they feasted on National League competition, and had won 11 of 12 before dropping their last two games against the Cardinals. So there's plenty of reason to celebrate in Kansas City right now, because for the first time in years, Royals fans have been able to watch a team that actually resembles a Major League team.
UPDATE: Read 
In the midst of the 
Marlins owner 
A week ago, 
As the Cardinals wrap up an atrocious May -- their worst start in 17 years, in fact -- and 
Earlier today, 
If you remember about a month ago, 
Denny McClain is a lot of things: 
The Cardinals are in a funk. The only thing keeping them out of last place in the NL Central at the moment is the Reds being in an equally deep funk. The Cards were shut-out twice this weekend while losing two of three to the Padres in San Diego and at 15-20, everyone is searching for answers. 
