http://tinyurl.com/229zsh
Hancock had close call days before death
By Joe Strauss and Jake Wagman
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH - 05/01/2007
Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was in a potentially serious traffic
accident less than three days before the one that took his life Sunday,
according to police reports.
Hancock walked away from that early Thursday morning crash uninjured,
but he was late for the team’s afternoon game a few hours later. The
club and several teammates said he had overslept.
But sources say he was late because he was hung over.
Two nights later, after pitching in a Saturday afternoon game, Hancock
spent the evening at Mike Shannon’s Steaks and Seafood drinking to a
point of impairment, according to a couple at the restaurant.
The couple said they overheard Hancock telling ESPN broadcaster Dave
Campbell that manager Tony La Russa had been infuriated with Hancock on
Thursday because he was "too hung over to play." A club source also said
Hancock was hung over when he arrived at the ballpark.
Hancock was killed about 12:30 a.m. Sunday as he drove west from
downtown, apparently headed to meet with four teammates in Clayton.
Three days earlier, Hancock had a close call when his vehicle edged
several inches into the intersection of Yellow Brick Road and Illinois
Route 3. A Sauget police spokesman said Monday that a tractor-trailer
struck Hancock’s GMC Denali, tearing off the vehicle’s front bumper.
"Just another inch or so and he could have died two days earlier,
because that tractor-trailer was traveling about 45 to 50 miles per
hour," according to Sauget Police Chief Patrick Delaney.
Neither Hancock nor the truck’s driver was injured, and Hancock was not
ticketed.
"He apparently inched forward to get ready to make a left-hand turn to
go northbound on Route 3. I don’t know if he didn’t realize the front of
his vehicle had just inched enough onto the southbound roadway," Delaney
said.
(snip)
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Why the hell wasn’t he ticketed for that earlier crash?. It was entirely
his fault. Answer – money talks.
