Angels have a long history of tragedies*

The terrible news that 22-year-old Nick Adenhart was killed in a hit-and-run car accident early Thursday morning, only hours after he'd pitched so well in his first start of the season, is unfortunately only the latest in a long history of gut-wrenching tragedies to strike the Angels organization.

It is almost unfathomable that any one team, especially an expansion club that has only been around half as long as most major league teams, could experience so much pain and agony through the years. This is just part of the depressing list:

-- ln 1968, relief pitcher Minnie Rojas was permanently paralyzed and two of his three children were killed in an off-season car accident. (*Note: an earlier version of this post stated that all three of Rojas' children were killed.)

-- In 1972, Chico Ruiz, a 33-year-old utility infielder, died in a car accident.

-- 1974, Bruce Heinbechner, a promising, young, left-handed pitching prospect not unlike the right-handed Adenhart, was killed in a springtime car crash.

-- In 1977, 23-year-old shortstop Mike Miley, another top prospect, was killed in a preseason car accident.

-- In 1978, All-Star outfielder Lyman Bostock was driving in a car in Gary, Ind., stopped at a traffic light, when someone in another car shot and killed him.

-- In 1985, the two-year-old son of pitcher John Candelaria died after being in a coma for months following a swimming pool accident at his home.

-- In 1989, three years after throwing the fateful pitch that Dave Henderson hit for the ninth-inning home run, which turned the ALCS in Boston's favor, reliever Donnie Moore shot his wife, seriously injuring her, and then killed himself.

-- In 1992, the Angels team bus, traveling from Yankee Stadium to Baltimore, careened off the New Jersey Turnpike, injuring several members of the club, including Manager Buck Rodgers, who was hurt the worst.     

-- Steve Bisheff

Photo credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Habib]

Nick
Heavens above are your home from now on.
Only the good die young.
I share in your family and friends grieve and may their pain lessen fast.
Take care Angel..

[Sue]

That's gotta be the most depressing post I've ever read. After all those car accidents, that's it, from now on Humvees and drivers for everyone!

[Harold S]

I hope this is the last addition to this list. What an awful tragedy.

When things calm down, it would be a great human interest piece to hear how the Angels front office learned of this and how they began the process of getting the story out. His poor family and teammates, but the guys who got the 2 am phone call and have been numb for hours are in my thoughts too.

[jtbwriter]

My prayers to the Adenhart and Angel families-this is such a terrible loss. When baseball people weep across the country, you know that someone special is gone too soon.
Thank you for a sensitive article in remembering all the Angels who gave us their all then left us.

[Eric of Reseda]

Shocking. Just shocking. The guy goes out and shuts out Oakland for six innings, comes off the field in triumph, and then this. Jeez, trite as it may sound, at least he died doing what he loved. Well, chalk another one up to yet another drunk driver. Let me see, we have about 40,000 alcohol-related traffic fatalities a year. And we have about 20,000 deaths due to ALL illegal drugs combined, including drug-related homicides, contaminated needles with HIV/AIDS & hepatitus, overdoses, etc.(Not one recorded death per the CDC due to marijuana). Yet we spend BILLIONS on a failed drug war while we ENCOURAGE drinking, which kills 100,000 Americans a year. When are we going to go after drunk-driving with the same fervor we go after, say, medical marijuana pharmacies?

[jeff]

I am literary stunned. I think about a young man who was taken away by a selfish individual who only cared about themselves. So many things in life are by chance I don't know what to say. I grieve for Nicks family, I grieve for fans like myself but also about those who have yet to begin following baseball. I am just stunned.

[Angels Fan For Life]

What an idiotic post. You are clearly implying some type of curse exists or some similar nonsense. What is this, the Middle Ages? I'm sure that you could find a similar pattern with almost any Major League Baseball team. The New York Yankees anyone? That you would take the opportunity to turn the Nick Adenhart tragedy into this kind of trash is despicable.

[Interested Observer]

Maybe they shouldn't call themselves ANGELS?

[Daniel Radding]

Today is a sad for his family and Angel fans all over. toady is a day of sorrow. I thought and still to this day think all drunk drivers should be put on death row. My thoughts and prays go out with his family and teammates. I hope they honor him tonight. I can not type anymore I so grief struck. Lord please welcome him with open arms and hold him tight to you.

[Evilgoathead]

I thought Minnie Rojas' wife survived the crash.

[MIranda]

So sad for the family and the Angels, as well as the fans. I never forgot the day that Lyman Bostock died. It broke this fan's heart. I am sure the people who knew this young man and his fans feel the same today. Wish I could have known him better.

[Marco]

What a horrible loss for the families...

And it makes me wanna puke.

For the arrogance and stupidity of the driver, who having his license suspended for a prior DUI, decided he was bigger and better than the laws he chose to flaunt. Sorry, no mercy here for an idiot who some have already called out for lenience, because he "made a mistake".

Here's hoping the rest of his wasted life (seems he is also 22) is spent wondering what might have been if he had thought about someone other than himself, in a cold and dark prison cell. Death would not be appropriate, nor will it bring back the dead, but spending the next 60 years looking at concrete walls seems like a start.

[Mets Fan in Orlando, Fla.]

From this Mets fan to all of you Angels fans, my heart goes out to you. I never saw Nick Adenhart pitch, but knew who he was. His death certainly puts baseball and life in perspective. A tragic death of a young man who passed away far too soon in an accident borne of a sinfully selfish act of another that could've been prevented.

[Mickeba]

My question is this. After the fan got beaten up and killed, probably in an alcohol related incident, and now this death, will alcohol disappear from Angels stadium? Shouldn't it? I remember when I lived in Seattle and the Kingdome was demolished, and the Seahawks were going to have to play at Husky Stadium on University of Washington campus. UW did not allow alcohol at Husky Stadium for Husky games, and wouldn't allow it for Seahawk games. So many people got angry that they couldn't get loaded at the Seahawk game, the 2 seasons they'd play at UW. Well too damn bad! Going to a game is NOT about getting loaded. Alcohol just doesn't enhance the game all that much, and if you can't enjoy the game without alcohol, then don't go. I'm not some teetotaling hater of alcohol. I do drink, appropriately. These tragedies are just too much and need to stop. Getting rid of booze at the game is a great first step. Then it should be prevented from being sold at the gas station as well!

Mickeba

[DIANE FUENTES]

MAY THE ANGELS AND THE OTHER FAMILIES WHO LOST THERE LOVED ONES FINE COMFORT IN KNOWING THAT ALOT OF PEOPLE FEEL YOUR GRIEVE AT THE LOST OF SUCH FINE YOUNG PEOPLE. PLEASE ACCEPT THIS THOUGHT AS YOU GO ABOUT LIVES, GOD WILL PROVIDE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES AS YOU TRAVEL THRU THIS TOUGH TIME. MAY THE GOOD LORD BLESS ALL OF YOU. GO ANGELS AND HAVE A GOOD SEASON IN MEMORY OF THIS YOUNG MAN.

[Cathy]

God Bless you Nick Adenhart.....You already have your Halo.........

[leonard macaluso]

yes, in the last coupla days i've been thinking about the Angels' seemingly being hexed. i remembered Rojas & Bostock &, of course, Donnie Moore, but i also recall Dick Wantz (1965). didn't Fred Newman die tragically? wasn't Gus Polidor shot in Milwaukee?
to go further, the Angels moved from Dodger Stadium to Anaheim Stadium in 1965. has anyone ever traced the history of the grounds surroundings the Angels playing field?
condolences to all.