The Moral Fork In The Road

That's the result of a hit-and-run that occurred on April 9th, 2009--the driver was drunk and ran a red light and three people died.

The story gained national attention because one of the people who died was Nick Adenhart--a 22-year-old pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels. He had just pitched six scoreless innings that night.

In the time since the tragedy, we've learned more of the facts. Andrew Gallo, the driver of the vehicle that caused the accident, had a prior DUI. He also had a marijuana possession and a seat belt citation on his record.

Even worse, the driver of the car Adenhart was in, who also died, was later found to have been legally drunk at the time of the accident as well.

Now, we've all heard these stories before. We shake our heads and push away the horror of the thought--how many times have we all gotten behind the wheel after drinking--even if it was just one or two beers?

And it could have been me, it could have been you, on either side of the equation, and when it involves sports, even more is said.

We say, "Tragedies like this put it all in perspective."

We say, "Tragedies like this force you to not take the little things for granted."

We say, "Appreciate every day that you have."

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This morning, I thought about all of this when I heard the news that the Angels had clinched the AL West.

And pictures like this started to come out:



And this is where I come to the moral fork in the road.

I understand and respect and appreciate the Angels players wanting to pay tribute to their friend and teammate, lost far too soon for not nearly a good-enough reason.

And I also understand and am fine with the traditional alcohol-soaked sports locker room celebration (although with all the hand-wringing over what professional athletes mean to children, it sometimes seems to me like a "Candy Cigarettes" type-of-deal).

But to combine the two--knowing the history and the facts and the reasons and the presence of television cameras, I don't know.

It doesn't feel right.

I wonder what the Adenhart family thinks about that picture.

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Usually, I write these posts and know where I stand on the matter.

This time I don't.

But I do know that I'll be thinking of what happened the next time I have a couple of drinks and thinking about getting into the driver's seat.

That's a tribute.

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All background information via Deadspin.


More soon.

JS