Criticism over Angels celebration of former player is disappointing

Last week the Los Angeles Angels won the A.L. West division title and, as all teams do, celebrated the accomplishment with a champagne and beer party in the locker room following the game.

During the celebration the Angels’ players took time on multiple occasions to honor Nick Adenhart who would have been a member of the team had he not been killed in a car accident with a drunk driver earlier this year. The team went out to centerfield to honor the mural of him on the outfield wall and, later, rallied around his jersey giving showering it in victory beer, just as they all were.

The latter of the two received some criticism from the media for being offensive and lacking good judgment. The question is why?

Granted, the situation drips with irony (pun intended). But is it any more ironic then celebrating a fallen soldier who was shot in battle with a 21 gun salute? How about a pitcher who can almost be killed if a ball were to come back and hit him in the head, but can realize the greatest triumph of his life in the same spot winning the World Series.

It’s easy to use hindsight to pile on a situation and say it’s not in good taste. But how many of us will celebrate our next accomplishment with the help of alcohol? Why is it that someone dying partially because of alcohol makes it a bad thing, but that as long as we skate by without anyone getting hurt there are no problems?

People die from drunk drivers every single day in this country. But no one will sit around and judge this weekend’s parties, or every other team that celebrated with champagne and alcohol for winning their division.

And there is no need to condemn alcohol altogether, but our society has become far too fickle and relativistic. If we want our beers to relax after work every night and our margaritas to celebrate the successes we have in life, who are we to judge where it is used for celebration in perfectly legal and tactful way.

No one should write about how the Angels should be celebrating their victory with Dr. Pepper unless that writer is prepared to begin celebrating their achievements with Dr. Pepper as well. And as far as that goes, they should probably be in favor of going back to the prohibition times of the early 1900s.

That sounds a little rash to me, but any other stance on the issue from that point of view is undoubtedly hypocritical. No matter how much we try to stop drinking and driving and no matter how much responsible drinking is preached there will always be idiots out there who don’t listen and put lives in danger.

Unfortunately, as with most things in life, you have to take the good with the bad. As hard as society tries there will never be a complete end to alcohol related deaths.

However, to be a society that promotes alcohol and its use in celebrations, and then bash a well run organization for its players’ well intentioned tribute to their fallen friend when circumstances aren’t so peachy is disappointing to say the least.

And it’s important to note that it was responsible and well intentioned. There was no misuse and thus no reason to judge these players. They merely celebrated as anyone else would.

It’s common to harp on a smaller situation and completely miss the point of the bigger issue. Alcohol is a common example. It plays a role in a lot of society. As long as it does, leave the players alone for using it as a way to allow their fallen friend to be an honored member of their celebration one last time.

If there is no willingness to go all the way in denouncing alcohol use then the players don’t deserve the hypocritical criticism.

There is good and bad with almost everything, but as tragic as the drinking and driving accident was the celebration of the fallen teammate was actually one of the most touching uses of alcohol I have ever witnessed.

Link: LA Times: Angels defend pouring beer on Adenhart jersey

-A.J. Karidis