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Mike Lopresti: Gannett sports columnist
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
Angels centerfielder Torii Hunter walks dejectedly away from a wall with an image of Nick Adenhart after watching Jorge Posada's homer clear the fence in the eighth inning of game 3 Monday of the American League Championship Series.
Originally published: October 21, 2009
L.A. Angels' season may end before team can create proper memorial
By MIKE LOPRESTI, Gannett
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The New York Yankees sense the finish now, which is rarely good news for the quarry.
So maybe it ends Thursday night for the Los Angeles Angels, this bittersweet season of mourning and recovery.
The ad hoc memorial that suddenly appeared by the stadium main gate in April remains. A picture of Nick Adenhart. Notes, posters, bats, stuffed animals, messages from the fans who grieved. Dozens of Angels caps, now faded from six months in the California summer.
The fans still drive by to take pictures. Some of them were there this very Wednesday, while the players worked out inside, hoping to find a way to make the season last a few more days.
Trailing the Yankees seems like a tough situation. But in the Los Angeles clubhouse, they know what tough really means. It has nothing to do with stopping Alex Rodriguez.
"Being down 3-1 in a series is nothing compared to how this season started," pitcher Jason Bulger said.
Bulger's locker is in the right corner of the clubhouse as you walk in. Next to him is the locker that remains quiet. Adenhart's uniform still hangs there, shoes still in place. He remains a part of the team that dedicated this season to him and carried the purpose so well.
The details from the early morning hours of April 9 are familiar now — the troubled young man in a minivan, allegedly too drunk to know what he was doing, speeding through a red light six miles from the stadium, plowing into a Mitsubishi full of friends. Three were killed, including 22-year-old Adenhart. Hours before, he had pitched six shutout innings against Oakland.
Now it is October, and the players who have never forgotten have their hands full in the American League Championship Series.
"We have a mountain to climb," Torii Hunter said of the Angels' predicament.
To be sure, this is just a game and always will be.
"Baseball and what happened to Nick are two different things," Chone Figgins said.
But the Angels' season and Adenhart have been inextricably linked since April 9. And so it shall be when it ends, whenever that is.
Meanwhile, life and death and sport intersect in other places, too. The University of Connecticut will play a football game this weekend while trying to cope with the loss of a teammate.
Few people understand better what the Huskies and their coaches will be going through than the Los Angeles Angels.
"There is no manual (for) handling things like this," manager Mike Scioscia said. "It's something that's surreal as you're going through it. Our perspective is it's about a family losing a son.
"As we've supported Nick's family through this, it's given us a little sense of peace."
Various Angels were asked what they could offer a team of shattered college football players, a continent away.
"If I was to give them any advice, it's to turn to their teammates," Bulger said. "Lean on each other. The biggest thing I saw in this clubhouse was our players leaning on each other."
Kevin Jepsen still remembers that night, sitting with Adenhart by his locker, talking over the game just pitched. Then Adenhart, still glowing from his performance, left the clubhouse. Gone for good, as it turned out.
What words might Jepsen send to Connecticut?
"There's nothing you can say," he answered. "Just keep on moving. Don't lose the memory.
"Just going through that has affected every single person in this clubhouse."
How long did it take for the Angels to get over it?
"Forever."
Hunter counseled togetherness: "You never know how close you are until you lose a teammate."
On Thursday, the Angels try to play on themselves. Once the season ends, the particular bond of 2009 will be over. The memorial out front eventually will have to be taken away.
They have learned something about grieving and loss and unity. They have come far and said so often that they did it for him — the picture of the young pitcher on the centerfield wall.
But now they have run into the Yankees.
Contact Mike Lopresti at mlopresti@gannett.com.
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ABOUT MIKE
Quote: "Of course, I have to say who won. But I'd better say more. If not, I'm useless. They don't need me. I have to give readers something extra than what they've seen on TV. Or why read?"
Favorite sport: college basketball.
Career: Sportswriter, (Richmond, Ind.) Palladium-Item, 1970-1981; Gannett News Service and Gannett ContentOne, since 1982.
First GNS assignment: Super Bowl XVI.
Born: Richmond, Ind.
Ball State University graduate.
Married since 1976.
In the press box
World Series: 27
Final Four: 28
Super Bowl: 26
NBA Finals: 25
Masters: 25
Olympics: 14
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