Josh Hancock's Death Could Teach Many Lessons

The Chicago Cubs had defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 8-1 at Busch Stadium on an average Saturday afternoon in St. Louis. Five hours after the final out, a reliever who helped send the Cardinals to World Series glory last fall was dead, the victim in a terrible car crash on I-64.

Joshua Morgan Hancock, 29, has consumed enough alcohol to exceed the legal limit twice over. With possibly a bag of marijuana in his SUV and a female acquaintance on the other end of his cell phone, Hancock diverted his attention enough to miss the tow truck that was helping a disabled vehicle. He slammed into it, dead on the spot.

A few weeks later, I am listening to a radio broadcast in my hometown of Cincinanti and this guy tells everyone about how baseball teams provide beer to their players in the clubhouse after a game?

It looks as ifsome of the teams in professional sports have opened the floodgates to a whole load of trouble. In a world where the average joe spends all his time treating superstar ballplayers as if they were God-incarnate, sports teams are offering up every single perk they can find to please even the ballboys! Everything from money under the table to a full spread covering the entire clubhouse, to even from what I have heard have been the so called "groupies" that are brought in by NBA teams.

Translation: I guess the only way to win is to get degrading. It is a sick way of buying into a sick culture and it all needs to be outlawed.

I sit here thinking about al lthat has to be done in order to get a big time free agent to come play for the crappiest team at the lowest possible bid. Which makes me wonder if a hotdog, a bottle of gatorade, and a pat on the back for a win is not good enough. Im starting to think that an NBA team bringing a family into their man's locker room without the fear of random groupies, agents, sponsors, and gang members is not enough. Im also willing to bet that if I was the owner of an NHL team that just wont he Stanley Cup, and I provide sparkling apple cider in lieu of beer and champange for the ceremonial sip from the cup, they would want me in the commissioners office the next day demanding I sell the team to the owner of Budweiser. Im also guessing that in a few years time the leagues would pressure their owners to pick sponsorship of their arena based on a beer. Winston cigarettes, Budweiser and Bud Light, Michelob, you name it. And if they refuse? It could mean their stake in the team.

You see what I mean by this, people?! Josh Hancock died because the professional sports industry was too busy looking good with their beer sponsorships. Many of the big leagues use Anheiser-Busch as their main sponsorship group, for crying out loud. And I am not just knocking on baseballs door either. The NFL in 2003 fined Jon Kitna, who was playing for the Cincinnati Bengals at the time, a near record amount because he wore a cross on his hat! The NHL is nothing BUT beer signs all over the place, with Bud Light as one of their major major sponsors. NASCAR uses Budweiser as the title sponsor of their polesitters award AND as their minor league racing circuit, and it used to have a big tobacco magnet as their title sponsor overall (remember the Winston Cup? The Winston?) Thank god the days of awarding a Winston Cup are over though.

In recent weeks, the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals have all banned alcohol from their clubhouses. Not only is it about time, but it does not come soon enough.

All beer does is lead to the same trouble as Josh Hancock got into that fateful night. He was killed because a team wanted to keep their players happy. Which raises another question: what if he had lived? Well, if he had lived the Cardinals probably would have been hypocrits about it and suspended him for as many games as they wanted to. After all, they probaly would have talked about how manager Tony LaRussa had lectured Hancock about the exact same stuff on the Wednesday before his death, and they would have cited another car crash he had that same night. Which is another thing im not too thrilled about. If they are going to punish a player for getting drunk, which is a clear violation of all substance abuse policies, they shuld never have even offered the stuff in the clubhouse in the first place!

You need to get rid of alcohol, and tobacco in all clubhouses and locker rooms throughout all of the major sports. And, if you are going to serve alcohol, you too should be punished as an accessory to the player breaking the rules. And there should also be a rule that forbids a team from punishing players who do same with stuff they provided. The only way to curb a problem is to eradicate it and ban alcohol during the season, to ensure that only the player is held responsible for their actions, and not the team that allowed it to happen.

In my opinion, if you want to reward a team for playing a good game, just give them a plate of food afterwards, and kick everyone out of the locker room. Families can wait outside.

Seriously... is a little decency in sports too much to ask?