Pitcher’s Death Stuns Angels and Baseball
Adenhart threw six scoreless innings in Wednesday night's loss to Oakland in his fourth major-league start. The accident occurred early Thursday morning.
Adenhart was a passenger in a Mitsubishi Eclipse that was broadsided by a minivan whose driver had run a red light, the police said. The crash occurred about five miles from Angel Stadium in Fullerton, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles.
The Angels postponed their scheduled game Thursday night with the Oakland Athletics. “It is a tragedy that will never be forgotten,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said.
Major League Baseball called for a moment of silence before every game Thursday. Late Thursday, the Angels had not announced plans for an observance before their home game Friday night with the Boston Red Sox. Players met with coaches at 3 p.m., then left the stadium without speaking to reporters.
Adenhart, a right-hander, pitched six scoreless innings against the Athletics on Wednesday night, giving up seven hits and three walks but working out of several tight situations. After the game, Adenhart told reporters he felt “just a lot more relaxed, self-confident.”
Adenhart’s father, Jim, watched his son pitch in his fourth major league appearance and first since May 2008, when he had three rocky outings. Scott Boras, Adenhart’s agent, said Adenhart called his father in Maryland on Tuesday and asked him to fly to Southern California.
“He summoned his father the day before and he said, ‘You better come here because something special’s going to happen,’ ” Boras said.
Boras said that he and Jim Adenhart spoke with Nick Adenhart after the game and that the pitcher was “elated” with his performance. “He felt like a major leaguer,” Boras said, choking back tears.
Adenhart, a native of Silver Spring, Md., was considered the top pitching prospect in the Angels organization. He had a strong spring, but he might have opened the season with the club’s Class AAA affiliate in Salt Lake City had not the veteran pitchers John Lackey and Ervin Santana sustained injuries.
At a news conference at Angel Stadium on Thursday, Kevin Hamilton, a lieutenant with the Fullerton Police Department, identified the driver of the minivan as Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, of Riverside, Calif. Hamilton said the police believe Gallo was “driving under the influence” and had a previous arrest on that charge. Hamilton said Gallo might also have been driving with a suspended license.
Hamilton said Gallo would be booked on charges of felony hit and run, felony driving under the influence, vehicular manslaughter and could “potentially be booked for murder.” Gallo will be arraigned Monday, Hamilton said.
Also killed in the crash were Courtney Frances Stewart, 20, of Diamond Bar, Calif., who the police said was driving the Mitsubishi, and Henry Pearson. The fourth person inside the Mitsubishi, Jon Wilhite, was hospitalized, as was an unidentified passenger in the minivan.
Tony Reagins, general manager of the Angels, said Adenhart had matured rapidly since joining the organization. “Nick was an outstanding player but also a tremendous person,” Reagins said. “Many phone calls to our players and coaches, the fact of disbelief is just prevalent. We all are in shock. Obviously, watching him last night when he did so well, such a bright future, such a bright kid. We will miss him.”
Darren O’Day, a pitcher with the Mets, spent most of the 2008 season with Adenhart in Salt Lake City, where they became close friends. O’Day said he spoke with Adenhart on Tuesday.
“I told him congrats for making the team and that I had been watching him all spring training,” O’Day said in Cincinnati. “Last year he had all the talent in the world but couldn’t figure it out. Then he figures it out and six hours later he’s gone.”
Angels fans gathered at the crash site and in front of the stadium, where flowers, pennants, jerseys and the club’s signature rally monkey dolls were piled atop a brick pitching mound on the expansive patio. One poster read, “#34 One More Angel in Heaven.”
Adenhart’s death is the latest episode in the history of a franchise with more than its share of tragedy.
Lyman Bostock, a star outfielder, was shot to death on Sept. 23, 1978, in Gary, Ind., after a game with the White Sox.
Donnie Moore, the relief pitcher who never got over surrendering the home run that cost the Angels a chance at the 1986 American League pennant, shot himself to death in 1989 after seriously wounding his wife. In the 1970s, three Angels — Mike Miley, Chico Ruiz and Bruce Heinbechner — died in separate automobile accidents.
The Angels this season are wearing a patch in honor of Preston Gomez, a special assistant who died in January, less than a year after sustaining head injuries in a car accident. On Monday, a fan died after being assaulted at the Angels’ home opener.
In the past, Angels fans have wondered if the franchise carries a curse. “This brings it all back in one big tidal wave,” said David Silva, who was visiting the crash site in a Garret Anderson jersey. Jeff Anderson, a fan who brought flowers, said he had never heard of any curse and does not believe in one. “This is Southern California,” he said. “There are lots of traffic accidents out here. I’ve had two friends lose their lives in accidents. It’s what happens in this area.”
Billy Witz contributed reporting from Fullerton, Calif., and Ben Shpigel from Cincinnati.Adenhart tragedy hits childhood friend hard
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| Nick Adenhart, left, and David Warrenfeltz were batterymates from Little League through high school in Maryland. (The Herald Mail / Special to FOXSports.com) |
After a couple of times through the A's order, the announcers began to comment on the telltale signs. "They started talking about his late explosive movement," said Warrenfeltz. "That was Nick. He had a two-seamer that would run in on a right-handed hitter."
Adenhart pitched six scoreless innings for the Angels Wednesday night. It was the best start of his young career, and a strong indication that the former phenom had finally recovered from Tommy John surgery. Though the bullpen blew the game, costing Adenhart what should've been his second major-league win, his ex-catcher took solace in the idea that Nick's run was just beginning.
"Five days from now," Warrenfeltz told himself, "he'll get another chance. Once every five days, I'm going to get to watch a whole baseball game."
Warrenfeltz is a senior at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. He majors in early childhood education and plays catcher on the baseball team. But at the grand old age of 22, he also acknowledges that his athletic career is all but over. "This will be my last year playing baseball," he says.
And knowing that made him just a little more nervous Wednesday night. "The tension," he said. "It felt like I was throwing the next pitch."
David Warrenfeltz wasn't alone, either. It seemed as if the whole Hagerstown area had been talking about Nick since he got called up last season. Everyone they grew up with had become a huge Nick Adenhart fan, even the guys who had hated on him, confusing his confidence for arrogance. (Hey, if you spend your adolescence making your peers look helpless in the batter's box, someone's going to call you arrogant.)
"All of us who played, we were living vicariously through him," Warrenfeltz said Thursday afternoon. "Everybody was like, 'You see Nick? You see Nick pitch?' This is a small area. He was the pride of Hagerstown.
"We all want to play in the major leagues. He got to do it."
Looking back, Warrenfeltz figures the only reason he's still playing is because of Nick. He was an infielder as a young kid. But wherever the aspiring ballplayers of Hagerstown would congregate, they encountered the same problem.
"Who's gonna catch Nick?"
Nick Adenhart, 1986-2009
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There weren't many kids who wanted to, and maybe just one who could. "It ended up being my job," said Warrenfeltz.
Even as a Little Leaguer, you could hear Nick's ball, the way it whistled though the air. Then there was another distinctive sound as it met the mitt. If no sound, Nick knew David didn't catch it just right.
"Make it pop," he'd say.
"He wanted that sound," Warrenfeltz recalled. "Even back in Little League."
One didn't just hear Nick's ball, one felt it, too. The catcher remembers an assortment of bruises below his thumb, on the meaty part of his hand.
Then again, David Warrenfeltz figured it was a small price to pay. He caught Nick on their Little League all-star teams and in Pony League, in Legion ball and in high school. Their off days were spent riding bikes, playing video games, touch football and wiffle ball, a veritable wiffle-ball stadium having been constructed in the Warrenfeltz backyard.
By the time they were seniors, back in 2004, Nick had a 95-mph fastball. Baseball America rated him the nation's top prospect, and Williamsport's varsity baseball games had become events. "There was a sea of scouts behind the backstop every start Nick made," says Warrenfeltz.
So it was for the last game of the regular season — Williamsport at South Hagerstown — just a month before the major league draft. But they put down their radar guns during the bottom of the first. Nick was on his third batter when he called his catcher to the mound.
"No more curve balls," he said. "That didn't feel right."
"That was the first time he ever said anything about his arm," recalled Warrenfeltz. "I just had a sick feeling in my stomach."
The pitching prodigy's high school career would last only a few more pitches. The scouts were packing up and getting ready to leave before the inning was over. As one of them told the Washington Post, "We're off to see if the next kid can pitch."
Nick Adenhart fell to the 14th round of the draft, and spent the early part of his professional career recovering from Tommy John surgery. Warrenfeltz recalled that half-moon of scar tissue, about six to eight inches along the inside bend of the elbow. But he can't remember Nick ever complaining about it.
Meanwhile, it was David Warrenfeltz's good fortune to remain in the game. "If it weren't for Nick, and me playing catcher, I probably wouldn't have had a chance to play college baseball," he said.
Warrenfeltz considered texting Nick earlier on Wednesday, but then thought better of it. Nick made three big-league starts last season. It seemed as if everybody in Hagerstown texted or left a voicemail before each one. Nick had to turn off his phone.
So David figured he'd text Nick later. For now, it was enough to watch him.
Thursday morning, his cell kept ringing. Finally, he woke and saw about 10 missed calls. It was his mother who told him that Nick had died in a car wreck. Police say Adenhart was one of three people in a Mitsubishi Eclipse when it was broadsided by a minivan whose driver had run a red light. This was about 12:30 a.m. PST, miles from Angel Stadium.
"Just shock," said Warrenfeltz, when asked how he felt. "It doesn't seem real ... I was looking forward to watching him. We all were. "
We. All the boys from Hagerstown, and everywhere else, who had to grow up.
Their real grieving is yet to come.
Every fifth day.
Special thanks to The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Md., for the photo of Nick Adenhart and David Warrenfeltz. For additional perspective on what Adenhart meant to his hometown community,
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