Culture of Drinking, Driving and Drug Use

It should come as no suprise that mixing alcohol and vehicles is a dangerous combination. It should also come as no suprise that mixing drugs, alcohol and driving is a VERY dangerous combination; I would further suggest that when you have an organization that has had two players who at the time of their untimely death had drugs in their system (illegal drugs I might add) and a member of their staff who has also been charged with a DUI, there is an inherent problem within that organization.

Yes, I am talking about the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.

Any other company who had two employees who at the time of their death had illegal drugs in their system, and where at least one of them was involved in a vehicle accident from which alcohol was a contributing factor, the wheel of justice would be grinding away to penalize them with enough force to turn granite into sand.

Darryl Kyle and Jock Hancock are both dead. That is a tragedy, what is even more tragic is the fact that they were both employed by the same company and they both had illegal drugs. What makes this entire sad episode even more horrendous is their immediate supervisor, Tony La Russa, has been charged with a DUI and apparently after each game the company provides their employees with all the beer then can consume.

If this were a trucking company, the Department of Transportation would have already taken steps to revoke their authority to operate, as they should.

I am sorry that Josh Hancock is dead, I am sorry that Darryl Kyle is dead; what I am not sorry about is calling this what it is - a horrendous crime. It is a crime that the Cardinals baseball team has cultivated a culture in which their employees operate as though they are above the law; a team that without any leadership, and a team that has destroyed what goodwill they acquired last year by winning the World Series.

Personally, I think the owner, Bill DeWitt, should be criminally charged for his apparent lack of control and inhibing of his personnel.