Josh Hancock, a relief pitcher who helped the St Louis Cardinals win the World Series last season, died on Sunday when his sport utility vehicle slammed into the back of a tow truck.
The Cardinals postponed their home game on Sunday against the Chicago Cubs. It was the second time in less than five years that a St Louis pitcher died during the season. Darryl Kile was found dead in his hotel room in 2002.
"There's a big hole that's going to be there," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "This is brutal to go through."
Police said Hancock, who was single, was alone in his Ford Explorer when the SUV struck the rear of a flatbed tow truck. The tow truck was in the left lane with its lights flashing while assisting another car that had crashed, Police Chief Joe Mokwa said.
Hancock died upon impact, Mokwa said. The driver of the tow truck, whose name was not released by police, was in the truck at the time of the crash but was not injured. Mokwa said the truck driver saw Hancock's SUV swerve just before it hit the tow truck, which weighs about 11,800kg.
Mokwa said it appeared Hancock was driving at or just above the speed limit, and there were no alcohol containers in his vehicle.
"We may never know what occurred," Mokwa said. "It appears that he just merely didn't see the tow truck."
Autopsy
The medical examiner's office said an autopsy had been scheduled.
"All of baseball today mourns the tragic and untimely death of St Louis pitcher Josh Hancock," Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "He was a fine young pitcher who played an important role on last year's World Series championship team."
The Cardinals will wear patches with Hancock's No. 32 on their sleeves for the rest of the season. The team also planned a memorial for the bullpen, which already features a tribute to Kile.
Bruce Evans, the baseball coach at Vestavia Hills High School, coached the junior varsity team while Hancock was pitching the varsity to three consecutive state titles from 1994-96. Evans said Hancock was a free spirit whose days and nights revolved around baseball.
Dedicated
"He loved baseball and he was very dedicated to it," Evans said. "The kids that played on the team with Josh, they loved him."
Hancock, 29, was a useful reliever for St. Louis last year, going 3-3 with a 4.09 ERA in 62 games.
La Russa praised Hancock, who was 0-1 with a 3.55 ERA this season, for handling "mop-up" situations, in which the Cardinals were trailing by several runs, without complaint. In fact, Hancock's final appearance was a three-inning stint in an 8-1 loss to the Cubs on Saturday.
"You saw it yesterday," La Russa said.
Hancock played for four teams in parts of six seasons, so he had former teammates sprinkled throughout the major leagues. Those who talked about Hancock remembered him as quiet and dedicated.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier