It’s not often that I write an article here on ThinkBlueLA pointing our loyal readers to an article written elsewhere. In fact, I don’t recall ever doing so. Or sure, I frequently include links to other articles and give an occasional “hat tip” to many great Dodgers beat writers and fellow bloggers, but it is rather uncommon to see a writer or blogger post an article specifically directing their readers to a “must read” article written by a fellow writer.

Well this is exactly what I am doing right here, right now. If you read no other baseball story today you absolutely must read Tim Brown’s ‘The sad anniversary of an Angels pitcher lost too soon’ article on Yahoo Sports.

Like many significant events, unfortunately usually associated with tragedies, I remember exactly where I was on April 8, 2009. I was in my living room watching the Angels versus A’s game on Fox Sports West. I readily admit that I am not an Angels fan, not even a little bit, but I am a baseball fan and I was absolutely blown away by the 22-year-old Angels starting pitcher making his MLB debut. And though he ended with a no-decision, this young man threw six scoreless inning allowing seven hits, three walks while striking out five. Not bad for your first time on a major league mound. Sadly, it would also be his last.

As soon as the game ended, I switched channels to catch the late local news only to be met with that all-to-common “Breaking News” banner being flashed across the screen. The news anchor sent the broadcast out to a field reporter who was at the scene of a horrific traffic collision in Orange County only minutes away from Angels Stadium. The reporter said that there were several fatalities with several others seriously injured. Without going into any more details, one of those killed in the crash (at the hands of a drunk driver) was the very same young man that I had just witnessed only minutes earlier pitching for the Angels. That young man was Nick Adenhart.

I wept.

I wept again several weeks later when my (then) 14-year-old son (also named Tim) and I attended the Dodgers-Angels interleague Freeway Series at Angels Stadium when I saw the makeshift memorial out in front of the stadium’s main entrance. After taking several photographs of the memorial, I hugged my son – who today is only three years younger than Nick Adenhart will ever be. And though Tim might not have understood at the time why his old man suddenly hugged him with tears in his eyes, he one day will.

It was extremely difficult to take this photo with tears in my eyes and a knot in my throat.

I do not want to take anything away from Tim Brown’s outstanding article on this, the fifth anniversary of Nick Adenhart’s tragic and senseless death, and I encourage every ThinkBlueLA reader to please check out Tim’s great piece.

God Bless You, Nick. You will always be in our hearts.