(Get) A Sporting Life

Yesterday's P-D article by Joe Strauss on booze and the Cardinals included this line tossed in at the end: Police did not interview Cardinals players as part of their investigation. Huh?!? I don't pretend to know how investigations of these events occur, but the police have stated that they were trying to piece together the hours leading up to Hancock's accident and they have clearly interviewed all sorts of witnesses. Yet they still claim they cannot for his whereabouts in the two hours between leaving the ballpark and arriving at Shannon's. Why the fuck are they not interviewing the 25 guys who spend 6-8 every day at the ballpark with him and socialize afterward? There is something deeply weird about this. Anybody have insight into this?

That is the word for this Cardinal's season, and it doesn't look like it will get any better. From the PD : 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 ...

I'd say the Cardinals were cursed if we hadn't just won a World Series. Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock was killed early Sunday in an accident on Highway 40 (Interstate 64), just west of Compton Avenue, authorities said. Hancock's Ford Explorer slammed into the rear of a tow truck that was parked in the far left westbound lane shortly after 12:30 a.m. The tow truck driver, who was seated in the vehicle at the time, was unhurt. He told police that his emergency lights were on, and that he honked his horn when he saw the Explorer approaching in his rear view mirror, but that the Explorer didn't slow down or swerve to avoid the collision. At the time of the accident, the tow truck driver was assisting a motorist from an earlier accident. Hancock, 29, was pronounced dead at the scene. I've driven past that spot hundreds of times in my life, as have a lot of people coming back from a game at Busch Stadium. It is just too sad to even think about it. Rest In Peace...