Posted: April 29 07, 6:51 pm
This is why Rosenthal is a great baseball writer
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6755210
Hancock's death puts game in perspective
Ken Rosenthal / FOXSports.com
Posted: 2 hours ago
The death of a young major leaguer is no more tragic than the death of a student at Virginia Tech, the death of a soldier in Iraq, the death of any young person anywhere in America on any given day.
The only difference is that Josh Hancock, even as a journeyman reliever with the St. Louis Cardinals, was an identifiable name, a member of the 2006 World Series champions.
People know who he was.
His death at 29 — like Cory Lidle's death last fall, like Darryl Kile's death in 2002 — is another jarring reminder that no one, not even a gifted athlete, is immune from the unpredictable, fleeting nature of life.
The clichés always come out at times like this — the games are only so important, this sure puts things in perspective, etc. After a while, it all sounds trite, but those sentiments actually are appropriate for such awful moments. Appropriate, because they ring true.
Hancock's death is a heck of a lot more important than, say, Joe Torre's job status. Then again, if not for the game's popularity — represented, in part, by the fixation on things such as Torre's job status — Hancock never would have gained a measure of fame or a major-league salary. For better or worse, that's how the world works.
In the end, Josh Hancock was part of a no-name bullpen that helped the Cardinals become an unlikely World Series champion. He can be replaced in a baseball sense — relievers at his level often are interchangeable — but tell that to his family.
Tell it to the Cardinals, whose early struggles seem rather trivial in the face of tragedy.
Tell it to any family that loses a young person, anywhere in America, at any time.
Ken Rosenthal is a senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com.
