In the wake of Josh Hancock’s death last weekend — and subsequent relevations the St. Louis hurler was legally drunk last Saturday night and might well have been inebriated behind the wheel a few days earlier — the Cards have banned alcohol from their clubhouse. Such bans have been invoked previously, most notably by the A’s after Esteban Loaiza’s arrest in 2006, as the Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers recalled yesterday. White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen obstensibly read the same piece…and would’ve prefered to have his name left out of it, as the Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley explains.
“We have few rules on this club about drinking,” Guillen said. ”I’m not going to say I’m not against banning alcohol from the clubhouse. In the meanwhile, you don’t want that to happen to anyone. But in the meanwhile, people think like it’s the clubhouse’s fault or baseball’s fault about this accident. This accident happened a long time after the game was over.”
Guillen said drinking and driving is one of the first topics he brings up with his players in his annual spring-training meeting. He said he also has a rule about cutting off drinks an hour before the team charter lands.
”I was upset,” Guillen said of the column. ”Everyone has a responsibility, and they run the clubhouse the way they know how. With all respect, Billy Beane looks like a hero. But we banned alcohol when we were playing. I think it was Larry Himes.
”But in the meanwhile, I have a problem with one of my players because of that. And it was a couple years ago. I told him I don’t want you to go out there drinking and feel that way.
”Most of the people [who] have family here should know when to do it and how to do it. Don’t blame the clubhouse, don’t blame baseball, don’t blame Bud Selig, don’t blame [Walt] Jocketty, don’t blame Tony La Russa. Don’t blame any of those guys. Just blame the people who don’t have common sense or do stuff they’re not supposed to do. This happened. Too bad. There have been a lot of people blamed because of that.”
O.G.’s clean and sober White Sox are leading the Angels, 4-3 after 5 innings in Anaheim.
If you’re near a TV and/or not blacked out at the moment, the Yankees’ Chien-Ming Wang has a perfect game through 6 innings against Seattle. Wevie Stonder I ( allowed just a run through the first 5 innings before the roof caved in during the home 6th, and might well stay in the Mariners’ rotation for at another turn or two.