So how does the perception of the late St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock change now that we know what we know about the circumstances of his death in a car crash.
Police say his blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit, marijuana was found in the car (no proof that he'd been toking), and he was on a cellphone.
The first impulse here is to wonder if Hancock had issues with depression. He had weight issues and the circumstances of his death definitely come under the heading of "social sabotage," so the telltales associated with some (but not all) depressed people seem to exist here. Still, he appears to have been a risk to others. How do you balance the sympathy and condemnation here?
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Entirely possible that he was suicidal -- the circumstances surrounding his death and that of a Bloc Quebecois MP last summer are eerily similar. The MP in question drove his vehicle at high speed into a large parked rig at the side of the road, identical to what happened here, save for the fact that the MP did his in the middle of the day.
In the case of the politician, it is generally assumed that he committed suicide, as there are some other telltale signs around the case that would point in that direction. We obviously don't know that yet in this case, but it would hardly be surprising given what we know now. Again, although I am sad for Hancock's family, I am relieved that no innocent bystanders were killed in this crash, as is often the case.
I'm sure glad you're not in charge of the investigation. How about not jumping to conclusions and waiting for the real facts to come out.
Hey, how about growing a pair of testicles and having the nuts to put your name to that comment? It's only human nature to speculate within reason, so don't lash out at me or my readers if you're not going to have the common courtesy to put your name to your words.
Here's the Associated Press account:
"St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was drunk and talking on his cell phone at the time of his fatal accident, and marijuana was found in the sport utility vehicle he was driving."
No conclusions have been jumped to. It is simply reasonable to wonder what apparently (note the qualifier) caused a 29-year-old professional athlete to behave so irresponsibly. You can have sympathy for this young man, but it's obviously complex.
The real facts are out - the only thing we are missing now is a toxicology screen test to see if he had marijuana in his system. It really doesn't matter, as the presence of 8.5 grams of marijuana in the truck (not an insignificant amount) would indicate he was a user.
We won't hear much more about this -- it was a single car accident, no one else was killed or injured, so from a police perspective they'll close the books on this fairly quickly. Whether or not it was suicide will always be speculation, as even if it was the family is unlikely to say so publicly. Trust me, I'm plenty sympathetic towards the family -- I have seen first hand the path of destruction that goes through families when someone takes their own life, and it is unspeakably awful. For their sake, I pray that is not what happened here.
Thankfully Dennis is calmer than me.
I hadn't considered suicide but no I don't think it is unreasonable to speculate. I haven't been following it super close but wasn't he also involved in a collision at a very, very early hour of the AM only a handful of days before his death? Wasn't he also late for an afternoon game later that day? The guy might have been in a tailspin, behaving pretty erratically.
I got to know Josh a bit earlier this year. He wasnt suicidal. Bad decision making and irresponsible actions were the cause and thats it. I understand when there were so many unanswered questions, that speculation is natural, but i think assuming suicide first, with so many other scenarios that were possible, is an interesting thing to assume so readily without any basis behind it.
You have to admit, it seems like a far stretch to come to that conclusion without researching the person and knowing their history, and to just base that specultion or conclusion on the fact that he hit a truck in an accident, therefore he was suicidal. I know its speculation, but sometimes speculation is someones outlet for gossip, and does no one any good, and can actually mean unnecessary pain for the parties involved. i know everyone is entitled to their opinions and thoughts. just wanted to comment, because that comment cought my attention. i am referring to the first response on here by the way.
Thanks for your input. My speculation didn't really include suicidal tendencies... it stops at depression, which can go untreated and be hard to detect.
I guess we'll never really know for sure. It's a rotten shame, regardless.
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