Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was in a potentially serious traffic accident less than three days before the one that took his life Sunday, according to police reports.
Hancock walked away from that early Thursday morning crash uninjured, but he was late for the team's afternoon game a few hours later. The club and several teammates said he had overslept.
But sources say he was late because he was hung over.
Two nights later, after pitching in a Saturday afternoon game, Hancock spent the evening at Mike Shannon's Steaks and Seafood drinking to a point of impairment, according to a couple at the restaurant.
The couple said they overheard Hancock telling ESPN broadcaster Dave Campbell that manager Tony La Russa had been infuriated with Hancock on Thursday because he was "too hung over to play." A club source also said Hancock was hung over when he arrived at the ballpark.
Hancock was killed about 12:30 a.m. Sunday as he drove west from downtown, apparently headed to meet with four teammates in Clayton.
Three days earlier, Hancock had a close call when his vehicle edged several inches into the intersection of Yellow Brick Road and Illinois Route 3. A Sauget police spokesman said Monday that a tractor-trailer struck Hancock's GMC Denali, tearing off the vehicle's front bumper. "Just another inch or so and he could have died two days earlier, because that tractor-trailer was traveling about 45 to 50 miles per hour," according to Sauget Police Chief Patrick Delaney.
Neither Hancock nor the truck's driver was injured, and Hancock was not ticketed.
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After working three innings in the Cardinals' 8-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs, Hancock dined at Mike Shannon's.
The two eyewitnesses who saw Hancock at the restaurant bar said he remained at the establishment when they left at 10:31 p.m.
Pat Shannon, manager at Shannon's, told the Post-Dispatch on Sunday that Hancock told her he planned to stop at the Westin Hotel several blocks away. Shannon said she offered to call a cab for Hancock, but he declined the invitation. She declined to verify whether Hancock had been drinking but said she personally phoned police Chief Joe Mokwa, telling him "everything I know about last night."
Restaurant owner and Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon declined to comment further Monday, saying, "I don't discuss matters concerning my customers, whoever they are."
The two witnesses said Hancock appeared impaired.
"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.'"
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La Russa seemed to fire a pre-emptive shot at the media Monday. He said he told his club to be leery of the media seeking to exploit events. "I also had a very important caution: Be careful of the insincerity of some media people … trying to befriend you then trying to slam you with something that they want to turn this into, some kind of story that's not all sweet," La Russa said. "I've already seen signs of that. I'm sitting here listening. The first time I hear insincerity I'll start swinging this fungo because it doesn't have its place."
Pressed about his message, La Russa said, "I'm just talking about people who really don't care about us, who are out there trying to further their own agendas. That's exactly what I mean."
I can understand where La Russa and the Cardinals are coming from in this. They want to mourn their friend and teammate without running the man down.
That being said, they shouldn't go into a bunker mentality either. If Hancock was driving impaired, as seems likely, you cannot hide from it. Acknowledging the facts in this case does not diminish who Josh Hancock was or the loss that his family and the Cardinals are feeling. Divorcing yourself from reality will do nothing but make this situation worse.
Of course, add this to the La Russa arrest in Florida and you start to wonder.
It can't get any uglier than this can it?
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