I heard something awhile back - don’t recall what it was, nor where I heard it - about a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals who died. Didn’t think much of it. Don’t care much about the Cardinals one way or the other. Almost skipped over the article I’m about to discuss, too. The MSNBC headline for the AP article is this: "Dead Cardinal pitcher’s dad sues sports bar". Some guy gets drunk and drives his car at high speed into something that isn’t moving, it’s his own bloody fault. But in the good old U.S. of A., you can always find someone else to blame - after all, we’re still mired in the Bush monarchy, where personal responsibility is a thing of the past and everything is someone else’s problem. So instead of skipping the article, I decided to find out just who Josh Hancock’s father wanted to blame for his son’s death - other than his son, who was the only one to blame.
And just to be fair to anyone who might be on the more sensitive side out there - this might be the point at which to bail out of this particular blog post. The rest of this thing is going to be salty, because this is just one of the most ridiculous things I have ever had the misfortune to read (and I've read John Grisham novels and The Lost World). I should feel bad for someone like Josh Hancock, who paid a heavy price for making a bad decision - but I don't, because people like his father continue to suck up valuable oxygen.
But I’m getting ahead of myself! Here’s what happened: Former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock went out drinking after a day game with the Chicago Cubs on April 28th. He had a few too many. He left the bar and drove off (according to a different article, this one from the AP, posted on Fox News) to meet a girl AT ANOTHER BAR. He did not make it - traveling at 68 miles per hour while talking on his cell phone, the rented SUV he was driving collided with the back of a tow truck on Interstate 64. His blood alcohol content was 0.157, almost twice the .08 Missouri limit.
I have no subjective feelings about Josh Hancock at all. He got drunk and operated a motor vehicle into a stationary object - while speeding and talking on his cell phone. Here’s the part I don’t like. His father, Dean Hancock, filed suit in St. Louis Circuit Court on Thursday, seeking damages from a number of defendants. Among them:
Mike Shannon
Patricia Shannon Van Matre
Eddie’s Towing
Jacob Edward Hargrove
Justin Tolar
Mike Shannon and Patricia Shannon Van Matre operate the bar where Josh Hancock got drunk that night. Eddie’s Towing is the company whose tow truck Josh Hancock plowed into. Jacob Edward Hargrove is the guy who was driving the tow truck that night. Justin Tolar is the guy whose car stalled on Interstate 64 and required the assistance of the Eddie’s Towing truck driven that night by Jacob Edward Hargrove.
That’s right - the dead pitcher’s father is suing the guy whose car stalled on the highway, claiming that this poor guy had something to do with Josh Hancock’s death. The MSNBC article says that the lawsuit “claimed Tolar was negligent in allowing his vehicle to reach the point where it stalled on the highway, and for failing to move it out of the way of oncoming traffic.”
I’m sorry...what? You’re going to sue the guy whose car broke down? I can maybe see suing the people who served the drinks that put Hancock over the limit. Maybe - except for the fact that maybe he holds his liquor really well. His blood alcohol content of .157 is the equivalent of roughly eight drinks. Hancock’s player card on ESPN’s web site lists his height as 6’3” and his weight at 220 pounds. So he was a big guy. Probably he could hold eight beers better than, say, Danica Patrick, who goes 5’2” and 100 pounds. Maybe he had some food while he was there, too. Maybe he got his drinks from more than one server or bartender. Maybe someone he was with bought some of the rounds and he bought the others. Maybe a whole litany of things - and maybe not a whole litany of things, too. Bottom line - Josh Hancock made the decision to drive his rented SUV while he was drunk. Unless someone working at the bar tied him to a chair and poured drinks down his throat, nobody who served him that night is to blame.
Daddy the gold-digger is going to have a hard enough time pinning responsibility on the proprietors of the bar...and yet he still wants to blame everyone else who happened to be in the vector of his son’s death - except for his own dumbass son. If you’re planning to go out and get wrecked (pun SO intended), call a fucking cab, would you please? Josh Hancock was not the greatest pitcher on the planet - his career record was 9 wins against 7 losses, with an ERA of 4.21 - but his 2007 salary, according to ESPN was $430,000. That’s enough for cab fare, I think.
Here's how the lawsuits should really go:
1. Eddie's Towing sues Josh Hancock's estate for the cost of replacing the tow truck that Hancock demolished.
2. The State of Missouri sues Dean Hancock for filing a frivolous lawsuit. And for being an asshole.
3. All of the named defendants in the Dean Hancock lawsuit sue Dean Hancock for defamation of character - except for the Shannon family, who should have the good sense to keep their mouths shut and hope that a judge will have the good sense to throw this repulsive suit out the door.
Now playing on iTunes:
“Middle Of The Road” by The Pretenders
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