Mates recall dead minor-leaguer traded for bats

[CrimsonWhite]

The execs that made that trade should be fucking shot. I didn't like this last year when it happened. What the hell would they think would happen when they treated an athlete like a piece of equipment? The guys that engineered that trade are fucking worthless.

Bat Man" or "Bat Guy" or "Bat Boy" — that's what they called him.

Ask the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you'll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander.
He was the minor league player traded for 10 maple bats.

It became a big joke last May, when word of the unusual swap jumped off the sports pages, and Odom went from pitcher to punch line.

He seemed to handle it well, too. A former prospect in the San Francisco Giants' chain — future Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum bunked on his couch in Class A ball — Odom gladly agreed to interviews. He kidded about the kooky deal that made him famous, saying it would make a better story if he reached the majors someday.

"People are like, 'I'd kill myself' and stuff," Odom said at the time, dismissing any such notion.

Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team.

Six months after the trade, he was dead.

The medical examiner said Odom's death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.

Odom's death had drawn little notice by the start of spring training this year. Now, former teammates, managers and club officials keep asking a question for which there is no satisfying answer.

FOX Sports on MSN - MLB - Mates recall dead minor-leaguer traded for bats

 

[elvis]

The execs that made that trade should be fucking shot. I didn't like this last year when it happened. What the hell would they think would happen when they treated an athlete like a piece of equipment? The guys that engineered that trade are fucking worthless.

Bat Man" or "Bat Guy" or "Bat Boy" — that's what they called him.

Ask the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you'll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander.
He was the minor league player traded for 10 maple bats.

It became a big joke last May, when word of the unusual swap jumped off the sports pages, and Odom went from pitcher to punch line.

He seemed to handle it well, too. A former prospect in the San Francisco Giants' chain — future Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum bunked on his couch in Class A ball — Odom gladly agreed to interviews. He kidded about the kooky deal that made him famous, saying it would make a better story if he reached the majors someday.

"People are like, 'I'd kill myself' and stuff," Odom said at the time, dismissing any such notion.

Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team.

Six months after the trade, he was dead.

The medical examiner said Odom's death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.

Odom's death had drawn little notice by the start of spring training this year. Now, former teammates, managers and club officials keep asking a question for which there is no satisfying answer.

FOX Sports on MSN - MLB - Mates recall dead minor-leaguer traded for bats

i thought the same thing when I heard that.

 

[xotoxi]

...an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.

What? Did all of that stuff just "accidentally" fall into his mouth?

 

[elvis]

...an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.

What? Did all of that stuff just "accidentally" fall into his mouth?

it means he tried to get high, not necessarily kill himself.

 

[michiganFats]

The Red Wings got a pretty good player for a dollar and a bag of pucks. I didn't see Kris Draper go and overdose on anything. If this pitcher was that mentally weak, then 12 maple bats may have been overpaying.