No, I don't ...... really. At least, any more than I think it's generally tasteless and senseless for grown men to douse themselves in alcohol because "it's what's done" to celebrate an accomplishment. I think that the Angels wanted to symbolically "bring Adenhart in on the celebration", and since that's how sports teams celebrate, that's what they did. It's a shame that Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver, but what if he had been killed in some other fashion? Would it have been OK then? Or would it have been OK if they doused his jersey in Coca-Cola instead of champagne? The fact that the other guy was the one that was drunk says nothing about Adenhart except that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you know how society is: The problem wasn't the alcohol, it was that the other guy made the bad decision to drive while impaired. "Alcohol doesn't kill innocent people -- people kill innocent people." We all know the drill.

I suppose there is an argument to be made that since Adenhart was killed in a manner involving alcohol that it was somehow demeaning to him to have alcohol involved with his jersey as part of the celebration. But the message somehow gets lost in the translation to me.

It seems to me that the reason that J.D. Drew is unimpressive to a lot of people is that he is invisible. He's invisible personality wise, because he seems to blend into the woodwork and does not call attention to himself. He's invisible role wise, because he isn't an anchor of any kind in the lineup, he just sort of floats around and fills the role that seems to be needed at any particular time: leadoff, #3, #5, #6, #7, even #8 at times. The club I'm sure sees him as valuable for being able to do that, but it doesn't make him the focus of attention. And maybe most important, he's invisible production-wise.

If you look at runs produced (RS + RBI - HR) per game played for the principals in the lineup this year, the numbers look like this: Ellsbury 142 runs produced/150 games; Pedroia 166/150; VMart 57/52; Youk 161/132; Papi 144/146; Bay 181/147; Lowell 112/117; Drew 124/136. Drew's production, for all his fancy peripherals, doesn't especially lead to scoring. People simply aren't cheering him, and saying "look what he did!!" all that much, because he isn't causing all that much to happen that shows on the scoreboard. Let's face it, on the offensive side of the ball fans pay attention to, and cheer loudest for, the plays that lead to runs scoring. Heck even invalid Mike Lowell has a slightly better RC/Game than Drew. Ellsbury is in the same range -- but for most of the season he's batted immediately behind the chasm at the bottom of the lineup. And this is SOP for Drew -- his seasons in Boston at least have been sort of cookie-cutter. Now I'm not saying that Drew can't do wonderful and valuable offensive things. He does. But for whatever reasons, the results don't follow to an extent that glamourizes him.