Nick Adenhart: Why this story is bigger than baseball.

First off I want to go on record and say that I am a Red Sox fan and yet this touched me in such a big way.

The death of Nick Adenhart is something that should touch everyone that is a fan of baseball, a fan of sports in gerneral, it is so big that it should affect everyone.

This young man was an up-and-comming star in Major League Baseball, pitching an excellent game just hours before he died. He did not die by his own accord, he died because of the stupid and lazy actions of another. He died because someone else had had too much to drink and no longer had control of his body or actions.

This story really hit home with me because my mother was hit by a drunk driver. It later led to her death and many years of hardship and pain. This is not a sports issue this is an issue that needs to go before congress, an issue that needs to be resolved now.

This is not the only person to have been fatally injured by a drunk driver, this happens every day to hundreds of people across the country. People that stupidly drink in the first place, and then decide to get into a car and drive off.

I have a friend that works in narcotics here in Colorado Springs, and he told a story about a guy that was drunk and was with a friend. The friend knew he was drunk and tried to take his keys so he could drive instead. The other kid got mad at him since he wanted to drive because it was his car and punched the other friend in the face. The guy was knocked unconscious, fell to the ground, split his head open and bled to death.

What happened to Nick Adenhart happens every day, and every day there are families and friends out there in tears for the loss of their family member, often times young and with lots of potential in life.

There needs to be changes for how drunk driving should be handled because things like this are just not acceptable.

If a driver is caught driving drunk he/she should get their license taken away for five years with a minimum of two years in prison. No warnings, no exceptions. If someone kills someone they should be sentenced to have their license taken away forever, and a minimum of 50 years to life in prison. No warnings, no exceptions.

For some people with a history of drunk driving they have a device that you have to breathe into to start your car. That at least should be mandatory in every car in America. It is a built in breathalyzer that starts your car if you pass the test. If you don't, then it doesn't start. There needs to be pressure for Barack Obama to pass this and pass this now.

Most people probably do not realize this but every year we pay tax dollars and most people don't know how much. Here is a quote from www.madd.org saying...

"Alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost the public an estimated $114.3 billion in 2000, including $51.1 billion in monetary costs and an estimated $63.2 billion in quality of life losses. People other than the drinking driver paid $71.6 billion of the alcohol-related crash bill, which is 63 percent of the total cost of these crashes."

We spend billions of dollars a year in this kind of stuff, and without the heartbreak of losing a loved one this alone  should be enough of a reason to stop it. 

Baseball needs to use Nick as an example to the kids of today, and to the adults that this can happen to anyone. They should have every player where his number on his hat, they should raise money to stop drunk driving, they should do everything they can to help with this.

I would also like to propose a new award in baseball for obvious reason, calling it the Nick Adenhart award. This award however should not go to a player, manager, or team, but rather a group out there trying to save and help the lives of Americans.

It should be an award that is more of a donation that should go to help make this country safer for everyone. Baseball has had a bad name lately with the steroid era and this can help that.

Once again the death of Nick has touched me close, and my wishes go out to his family and team. He should not have gone out the way he did. It was something that could have been prevented.

I want to say I realize this article is not exactly sports related, but this is bigger and more important than sports.

This is an issue of our rights as Americans to know that we are safe in this country. I would bet my money on it that more people died in 2001 from drunk driving than the people that died in the Twin towers, and the drunk driving is by our own citizens.

How sad is that?