I know this is a Yankees blog, but I feel the circumstances allow for me to veer off course for a bit. As you may well have heard, Los Angeles Angels right-hander Nick Adenhart was killed early Thursday morning in California. He was 22 years old.

The wreckage of Thursday morning's crash that claimed the life of Angels prospect Nick Adenhart (inset) and two others in Fullerton, Calif.

An irresponsible drunk driver, Andrew Thomas Gallo–also 22 years old–allegedly blew threw a stop sign in Fullerton, Calif. while going betwen 50 and 60 MPH. Gallo’s minivan broad-sided Adenhart’s Mitsubishi Eclipse, which contained Adenhart, Henry Pearson, 25, Courtney Frances Stewart, 20, and Jon Wilhite, 24. Pearson and Stewart both died as a result of their injuries while Wilhite remains in critical condition at UC Irvine Medical Center.

Gallo, who was previously convicted of drunk driving and marijuana possession in 2006, fled the scene on foot but was later apprehended by authorities. Police could press multiple charges against Gallo, including murder. For more details, please read this story from the L.A. Times. ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick also does a great job with this story here.

I cannot stress to everyone just how angry this makes me. Not just because someone so young died. Stuff like that happens often. I recently attended the memorial service of someone who I went to high school with that died of leukemia. But what brings so much rage and fury is how preventable this tragedy was.

(I’m going to editorialize here, so please bear with me.)

In my opinion, if Gallo is indeed responsible (and remember, you still are innocent until proven guilty in court by a jury of your peers), then he is nothing but a lowly, selfish coward, as is anyone and everyone who chooses to drink and drive. When someone does that, they’re basically saying: “I feel like loosing all my self-control just to fool myself into thinking I’m having a good time. If I hurt people in the process, whatever. No big deal to me.” Well, it turns out that it’s a big deal to me and a lot of other people.

A few years ago, as I was about to drop a friend off at his house after watching a minor league game, we came across a girl who was, as we later observed, very drunk and driving a brand new Jeep Cherokee. Realizing what was going on, I called 911 to alert police and tailed this driver to help police. Before the police pulled her over, I saw her nearly run down and entire family in the center of my town and almost veer into an on-coming car before swerving back on the right side of the road.

Now, whenever I hear that a friend or acquaintance of mine drove drunk, that is the only thing I think of, and it is horrifying.

The only things I have left to say is that please keep Nick, Henry, Courtney, their families and their friends in your thoughts and prayers during this Easter/Passover weekend. If anyone is at all interested, I’m also including a link to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) website, too.

Thanks, and be safe everyone.

-Michael Echan

Nick Adenhart: 8/24/1986 - 4/09/2009

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