The death of Nick Adenhart has for some reason affected me in a way I can't entirely explain.

I'm not an Angels fan, and in fact am somewhat ashamed to admit that I didn't even know who Adenhart was until his death. But there is something so unbelievably tragic about a player who pitches six scoreless innings, is on the rise in baseball, and then is killed hours later in one of modern society's most inexplicable occurrences: a car accident involving alcohol.

It is, in a way, like the ending of a television movie. And so we are inclined to look for a moral. But we know all the morals here, the only real "lesson" to be learned from this senseless waste of life and potential: Don't drink and drive.

Is it really that hard, still, to learn that? Are there really people that don't understand it? A lot of us, actually. How many of us who haven't ever driven while drunk (and I, fortunately, never have) instead allowed someone we knew or heavily suspected was intoxicated get behind a wheel? Look at yourself very carefully -- think about your entire college career -- before you answer that question.

(Though not confirmed as a cause of another death in connection with an Angels game this week, there are signs that excessive drinking and fandom also might not mix well.)

But, yes, ultimately the one who drank and then drove was the one responsible for Adenhart's death, and two others. And there are more people just like that idiot, enough to kill 12,998 people in 2007.

Why do we have to keep learning that lesson over and over and over again?

Is it really that hard?

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