Reese Kaplan -- Life is Bigger Than the Number of Wins & Losses

With the Mets' abrupt departure from the 2022 postseason which put a damper on many would-be celebrations about the 101 victories, RBI leader, batting leader and all-world reliever.  However, while many folks allowed their emotions to run away from them, the fact is that life goes on for most of us regardless of what happens on the diamond.

One unfortunate soul for whom life ended rather suddenly was former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs.  The 6'4" southpaw starting pitcher was a back-of-the-rotation level of talent and finished his career under .500 at 28-38 with a 4.41 ERA.  His WHIP was an adequate 1.33 and he exercised good control with a nice strikeout-to-walk ratio.  

Unfortunately health was always an issue for the man, missing time with a UCL injury, Tommie John Surgery and various other ailments that curtailed his availability to the Angels throughout his career.  Perhaps it was just his personality or his frustration about how much time he was unable to pitch, but he began using illegal drugs.  

It unfortunately culminated during a road trip to play the Texas Rangers when he was found in his hotel room unconscious and died later that same day.  The coroner found that in his bloodstream was a combination of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone.  

This week the story came out that the former Angels Communications Director, Eric Kay, was found guilty of supplying the drugs to Skaggs and was sentenced to serve 22 years by the court. On the night before the young pitcher died he asked Skaggs for painkillers to help relieve the discomfort he was experiencing.  Investigators found 30 mg oxycodone, 5 mg oxycodone, several other anti inflammatories and white powder all over the floor.  

The actual cause of death was Skaggs having asphyxiated on his own vomit after succumbing to the drug and alcohol cocktail in his system.  

While no one is forgiving Skaggs' poor judgment in how he cared for his body and his pain, the players and team were highly respectful in their epithets and by wearing his uniform number on their jerseys for the remainder of the year.  The Tarrant County District Attorney's office had not opened any kind of investigation.  It took action by the late pitcher's family engaging a Texas attorney to push the matter forward.  

It turned out that the attorney pressed the Angels about them knowingly giving a man with substance abuse history himself unfettered access to the players and did nothing to relieve him of his professional duties.  Sports medicine experts were brought into the trial to testify against how Los Angeles handled the incident.  

The actions and lawsuit against the Angels prompted the Major Leagues to start randomly testing players for both cocaine and opoids, though how vigorous and effective the program was is a matter of debate as they declared not a single violation in two years of subsequent testing.  

What made this situation even worse were jailhouse conversations Kay had about Tyler Skaggs and his blatant accusation that his surviving family only wanted money rather than justice.  He was quoted as saying horrific things, including "He's dead.  F--k him!" 

Two lawyers representing the defense were removed during the proceedings and the final one had hoped to somehow wrangle leniency from the judge.  However, when more details came out and tearful pleas from Skaggs' family took place, it became clear that there was going to be no light sentence applied to Kay.  In fact, the exact cause of death was reported to be the fentanyl which was in counterfeit oxycodone pills Kay provided to Skaggs.

While no criminal sentence will bring back Tyler Skaggs, the fact is that justice was served and hopefully sets an example to the rest of the world that contributing to someone's ultimate demise carries a very heavy price.  The Angels did not look much better than did Kay, but hopefully now that he will be spending the next few decades in jail the incident can finally be put to rest.