We Now Interrupt Our Regular Program

By Steven Lienert

(The Phanatic Magazine) - It sure does suck when real life intervenes with our world.

I sat in front of the keyboard at my computer this afternoon wanting to write about how Adam Eaton got everything he deserved yesterday, in more ways than one.

I wanted to find words to describe Pat Burrell’s return, fans leaving the game early and the proper way to sanitize a ping-pong ball that has hit the pavement of a nasty parking lot. But it all rings a little hollow right now.

As I went to check in on my horrible opening week as a novice fantasy baseball owner, a big yellow ‘breaking news’ headline shot across the top of my screen.

Angels’ pitcher Nick Adenhart, who hours earlier started for Anaheim and went six scoreless innings while scattering seven hits against the A’s, was killed in a hit-and-run accident after a minivan allegedly ran a red light and smashed into his car.

Just like that, a young man about to enter the prime of his life was gone.

Personally, it kind of makes me pause for a second so I can look around and appreciate everything I have.

In Gladiator, Maximus said it best when he said, “Death smiles at us all. All one can do is smile back.”

Or like my Dad says: It happens to the best of us.

But he also says to enjoy the ride, which brings us back to Eaton, Burrell and beer pong.

For most of us, the games are a form of entertainment. (Ok, Eagles’ games are serious matters, but still.) Booing Eaton was perfectly fine because that’s who he was while he was here. He was guy people expected more from and didn’t get it. That equals ‘boo.’

Burrell was almost Eaton, but he turned it around, coincidentally after Bobby Abreu was traded. Burrell got perhaps the loudest ovation of the bunch. I’ve never seen a whipping boy turned into a folk hero quicker that Pat the Bat, but that’s who he was while he was here.

That’s their respective legacies. My next door neighbors were at the game yesterday and they decided to leave in the top of the seventh. By the time the got home, the seventh inning was still in progress and the Phils were about to take the lead. This is Exhibit A on why not to leave early. This is now their legacy.

Adenhart, 22, was an exciting young pitcher that rose through the Angels’ organization and blossomed into a big-leaguer with tremendous upside. That upside won’t be realized.

Why do we boo Eaton, cheer Burrell, chide our neighbors and wished people cleaned off the ball after it hit the ground? We care.

We care that Eaton had more to give; we care that Burrell became beloved; we care whether or not our neighbor stays at a baseball game until the final pitch; we care whether or not someone gets violently ill from a ping-pong ball.

We also care when a young man we never met, on a team the Phillies rarely play, is tragically struck down the night after he seemed invincible while pitching in front of thousands of people under the bright lights of a big-league ball park.

I hate it when real life rears its ugly head.

Steve Lienert can be reached at stevelienert@hotmail.com. Also, Episode 47 of The Steve Lienert Show, a wildly popular internet podcast on the Philadelphia sports landscape, is now available at www.podmitten.com.