Cut Too Short

Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart killed by a hit-and-run driver just hours after his first start of the season. Adenhart was just 22; RIP.
As usual in these situations, the loss to the fans and the game pales in comparison to the loss of life, so I’ll just say that, as with guys like Josh Hancock and Darryl Kile, what disturbs us at the sudden death of an athlete isn’t just the usual forceful reminders of arbitrary mortality we get from any news story about a young person dying suddenly, nor is it the more banal sports impact of a team being robbed of a player without warning, as happens as well with mere injuries; most of all, it’s that when people say “this puts the game in perspective,” it feels wrong because the whole point of the games is to give us a respite from perspective. (That’s a point I made in my essay after September 11, and it’s also why I generally don’t spend much time on stories about steroids or off the field scandals or even business of baseball stories, if I can avoid them). Most of us get our fill of real life from real life itself – the tragedies, the tradeoffs, the obligations. Our loss when a man like Nick Adenhart dies is a small loss, insubstantial compared to the loss to his loved ones and teammates, but it’s a loss nonetheless: an erosion of the safe haven sports provides from the rest of the world.