Accident Kills Former Pitcher Steve Howe

[quaoar]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-BBO-Obit-Howe.html?hp&ex=1146283200&en=138b3ed8b4235538&ei=5094&partner=homepage

NEW YORK (AP) -- Steve Howe, the relief pitcher whose promising career was derailed by cocaine and alcohol abuse, died Friday when his pickup truck rolled over in Coachella, Calif. He was 48.

Howe was killed at 5:55 a.m. PDT, said Dalyn Backes of the Riverside County coroner's office. The accident occurred about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

Howe was the 1980 NL Rookie of the Year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and helped them win the World Series the next year.

But for all of Howe's success on the field, the hard-throwing lefty was constantly troubled by addictions -- he was suspended seven times and became a symbol of the rampant cocaine problem that plagued baseball in the 1980s.

[wndycty]

1. Wow. . .sad, very sad

RIP

[blueknight]

2. what a talent,

what a shame. poor guy never could beat the demons in his life

[pinto]

3. Ah, what a shame.

[lisa58]

4. I love Steve Howe...

...how could you not?

[Kickin_Donkey]

16. He was a Dodger?

Sorry, that's the Giants fan speaking in me.

I'm sad to hear of Steve's Howe's demise.

[bluestateguy]

5. This guy could have been a hell of a pitcher

On the one hand it was admirable that he kept trying to come back, and sometimes he succeeded, but every time he came back his skills were a little less, and then he kept on blowing it again.

I really lose my patience when I see people with great talents just piss them away on booze, drugs, wild parties and crime. There are so many other people who have mediocre talents who bust their asses every day and fly right but never get a big break.

[brentspeak]

6. Remember Eric Show?

There was another pitcher who threw his talent and career away on drugs.

[DubyaSux]

11. I remember...

....Eric Show. He served up the pitch Pete Rose hit for 4192.

[regnaD kciN]

18. Of course, Show was a real wingnut...

He was even a member of the John Birch Society. :puke:

[L A Woman]

12. wow, where's the compassion?

the fact that he kept trying to come back and failed repeatedly should give you some indication of the choke-hold drugs and alcohol can have. and it's not just a matter of behavior. it is much more complicated than that.

sad.

[FredScuttle]

14. or, conversely,

it could give you an idea of how much of an enabler MLB was in the 80's


This guy became a joke....a punchline that revealed baseball's laughable attitude towards a real and growing problem in its players.

[FredScuttle]

15. I agree

it's the same anger I greet the news of the death of a Kurt Cobain....or a John Belushi. People who gave so much to us, yet had so much more to give but for their addiction. It makes you gnash your goddamn teeth sometimes...

[Aristus]

7. Anybody remember Mel Famey?

Same story.

He was a pitcher for the Brewers back in the '70's. He would have been a Hall-Of-Famer, except for booze; it killed his career.

Toward the end, it got so bad, he was taking a can of beer out on to the field with him. He take a few swigs, stick it in his back pocket, and start his windup. He got sloppier and sloppier as a result. One game, late in the season, he's drinking away as usual, and walks four in a row. Finally the manager yanks him. As he's walking off the field, the opposing team's third-base coach sees the beer can sticking out of Mel's pocket. He turns to the team manager in the dugout and asks him what that thing is sticking out of his back pocket.

The manager says: "That's the beer that made Mel Famey walk us."

[brentspeak]

9. s/d

[quaoar]

10. ROTF!

[saigon68]

19. It was Schlitz

[Aristus]

8. I KILL Me!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[clixtox]

13. Our Dehumanizing Culture and Hypocrisy...

are a couple of the causes of so many of these tragic stories.

It ain't easy being somebody. Everybody wants a piece of you if you are a phenom.

Most young adults are so confused and alienated by the conflicting influences around them they don't know how to cope. Alcohol and some other drugs are panaceas, they too often believe, at least for awhile.

Most survivers, including many of us here, outgrow this confusing and difficult age intact, eventually.

If you add the stress of celebrity and the huge sums of money (rags to riches) and attention lavished on these children it is not surprising that they get chewed up and don't survive the experience or, eventually, the letdown when it all ends...

Too common and so sad!

[Robbie Michaels]

17. RIP Steve Howe

I'm a lifelong San Diego Padres fan but I'm not callous enough to hate a Dodger.

[sofa king]

20. Steve Howe, guitarist, still alive.

The brilliant Yes guitarist, whose career was fueled by cocaine and alcohol abuse, continues to be not dead.

[0007]

21. R.I.P.