Nick Adenhart

Baseball is a young man’s game. A game of quick reflexes, short memories and the daily grind. In the opening week of the 2009 season, 22-year-old Nick Adenhart had already overcome an untimely Tommy John surgery and four seasons in the minor leagues to make the Los Angeles Angels’ Opening Day roster as their number-three starter. The Angels’ top pitching prospect, he pitched six shutout innings in his season debut and appeared to be in the first act of a prosperous career as a big leaguer from a small town.

Instead, the end came immediately after the beginning and Adenhart’s young life was cut short just hours after his season debut in a tragic car accident, leaving Angels fans and his followers back home in Washington County, Maryland, wondering, “What if?”

Nicholas James Adenhart was born on August 24, 1986, in Silver Spring, Maryland, a city bordering Washington, D.C. He was the only child of James, a United States Secret Service agent, and Janet Adenhart, who worked in finance. Janet and James divorced when Nick was a child but he was raised by both parents, and Janet remarried Duane Gigeous, with whom she had a son, Henry. 

Adenhart was raised in Williamsport, Maryland, a small town in the outskirts of Hagerstown where visitors can stand upon Doubleday Hill, a Civil War monument that overlooks the Potomac River into West Virginia; a town of about 2,000 people where local baseball is everything.

Like many big-league ballplayers, Adenhart began to make his name in local youth leagues. At the ages of 11 and 12, he pitched his team in the Halfway Little League to consecutive District One championships, going 9-0 on the mound in that two-year run.

When Adenhart was 12, his best friend, David Warrenfeltz, became his catcher and chief competitor. The boys would play backyard Wiffle Ball between games, testing their skills against each other at anything they could think of. “He was the most competitive person times five,” Warrenfeltz remembered. “When he was younger, he was borderline cocky.”1 Warrenfeltz would catch Adenhart through their high-school careers and has been interviewed about Adenhart in subsequent years. 

In 2001, at the age of 15, Adenhart joined an amateur showcase team called the Oriolelanders, a team of top local players sponsored by the Baltimore Orioles. Nick played in the summer and fall after PONY League season against high-school sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  He played with the Oriolelanders for four years and continue to impress locally.

Longtime Hagerstown sportswriter Bob Parasiliti remembered when he first started covering Adenhart: “Even at a young age, he had the focus to compete and he had the very precise mechanics that he carried all the way through his pitching career. Those were the attributes that gave everyone the impression he was going places.”2

Adenhart initially attended high school at St. Maria Goretti in Hagerstown and played baseball and basketball but transferred to hometown Williamsport High School for his junior and senior years; there he focused solely on baseball. Recalling Adenhart’s competitive fire on the court, Warrenfeltz said, “Janet pulled him out because it was too risky. Plus, he talked so much trash.” At Williamsport High Adenhart encountered his first pro scout.

To cap his junior year, Adenhart lost a legendary 1-0 duel with Allegany High School (Cumberland, Maryland) senior Aaron Laffey in the Class-1A West Regional despite pitching a no-hitter. Laffey pitched a two-hitter (one by Adenhart) and struck out 19 while Adenhart fanned 14 and allowed one unearned run, in front of scouts from 11 major-league teams. It was Adenhart’s only loss of the season. “After that game, Nick thought he let the team down because he didn’t win. That haunted yet motivated him,” Parasiliti recalled.3 Adenhart would start his senior season with a perfect game against Allegany, striking out 15 of 21 batters.

Adenhart signed a letter of intent with the University of North Carolina early in his senior year even though he was unlikely to go to college because of his professional draft prospects. Entering his senior year at Williamsport, he was a projected first-round pick in the 2004 amateur draft and Baseball America’s number-one high-school prospect.4 Remembering the flurry of activity, his coach Rod Steiner said, “He put us on the map. When he pitched, we’d have 500, 1,000 people here. You’re lucky to see 20 people at a normal high school game. But he was special.”5

Adenhart had a dominant senior season and entered the final regular-season game of his high-school career with a 5-1 record, a 0.73 ERA, and 2.2 K’s per inning.6 On May 11, 2004, just two weeks before the amateur draft, Adenhart’s season finale was cut short when he felt a pop in his elbow while facing the third batter of the game.

“He threw a curve and waved me out,” remembered Warrenfeltz. “He told me ‘No more curves.’ I felt like I could have thrown up.” It was a partial ligament tear, and Adenhart’s high-school pitching career was over.

Adenhart became the team’s designated hitter in the Maryland 1A playoffs, homering over 360 feet to dead center field in his first at-bat.7 Williamsport lost the state title and Adenhart appeared to have lost his chance at being a first-round draft pick as his arm injury required Tommy John surgery, performed by Dr. James Andrews.8 

In June 2004 the Los Angeles Angels selected Adenhart in the 14th round of the amateur draft, the 413th player selected overall. Rather than let Adenhart slip away to UNC, the Angels gave him first-round money and signed him for $710,000 on July 28. Angels scout Dan Radcliffe was credited with the signing. Adenhart reported to Arizona to rehab with the Anaheim training staff. “Being hurt, rehabilitation is the most important part of coming back strong,” Adenhart said at the time. “Being with the Angels gives me the best shot.”9 The Angels also selected future ace Jered Weaver (12th overall) as well as future big leaguers Mark Trumbo (18th round) and Martín Maldonado (27th round) in the 2004 draft.

In 2005, after rehabbing from his Tommy John surgery, Adenhart pitched in 14 games across two levels, pitching in 13 games in the rookie Arizona League and making one start with the Orem Owls of the rookie Pioneer League. Overall, he was 3-3 with a 3.24 ERA in 50 innings pitched, striking out 59.

Adenhart went to major-league spring training in 2006 as a nonroster invitee. He was assigned to the Class-A Cedar Rapid Kernels, where he went 10-2 with a 1.95 ERA in 16 starts, striking out 99 in 106 innings and earning a roster spot on the 2006 All-Star Futures Game. He was moved up to the Advanced-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (California League) for nine more starts and finished the 2006 season with 15 wins and a 2.56 ERA in 158⅓ innings.  

Nick’s family recalled later that his time spent in Cedar Rapids was his favorite on his way to the major leagues. “I think it was where the dream kind of started,” his mother, Janet Gigeous, remembered. “I think it was a happy time for him. This place has a lot of really good memories.”10

Adenhart’s repertoire at this time, according to an internet scouting report, consisted of fastballs “in the high-80s-to-low-90s, topping out at 94 on a few occasions. He is an extreme groundball pitcher.”11 He also threw a curveball in the mid-70s and a circle changeup in the 80s. “My changeup tends to be the strikeout pitch,” Adenhart said at the time, while also reporting that his surgically repaired elbow felt no pain two years after his surgery.

Adenhart spent the entire 2007 season in the Double-A Texas League with the Arkansas Travelers, going 10-8 with a 3.65 ERA. He was 20 years old for most of the season and was the Angels’ top pitching prospect.

In 2008, an injury to John Lackey in spring training opened up a rotation spot in Anaheim and Adenhart battled Dustin Moseley for the role. Mosely got the job and Adenhart was assigned to the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees.

At the end of April, Adenhart was 4-0 with a 0.87 ERA for Salt Lake, which was 21-1, the best start in franchise history.12 After Moseley’s April struggles, Adenhart was called up to make his major-league debut on May 1 in Anaheim in a starting assignment against the Oakland Athletics. Pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his career, he lasted just two innings, giving up five runs on three hits and five walks, getting a no-decision in a 15-8 loss. “There was not much feel out there,” said Adenhart after the game. “I was a little numb.”13

His next start was in Kansas City on May 6; another no-decision in a 5-3 win. Adenhart went 4⅓ innings and allowed three runs on six hits and five walks with three strikeouts.

Adenhart earned his first and only big-league victory on May 12 at home against the Chicago White Sox. He pitched into the sixth inning and allowed four runs on nine hits and three walks with one strikeout. He was then sent down to Triple A, where he regressed to 1-5 with an 8.80 ERA14 and finished the minor-league season at 9-13 with a 5.76 ERA in 145⅓ innings. His major-league totals for 2008 were 1-0 with a 9.00 ERA in 12 innings pitched.

In 2009, spring-training injuries to established veterans Lackey, Ervin Santana, and Kelvim Escobar put all three on the disabled list and opened the door for Adenhart, still the Angels’ top pitching prospect, to open the season as the Angels’ number-three starter. He made his first start on April 8 in the finale of the season-opening three-game set in Anaheim against Oakland.

Summoning his father to Los Angeles, saying “You better come here, because something special is going to happen,”15 Adenhart had his most effective start yet in the major leagues, going six shutout innings while scattering seven hits and three walks and striking out five. He left the game with a 3-0 lead but the Angels’ bullpen allowed six runs in the last two innings in a 6-4 loss, costing Adenhart his second major-league victory.

After his successful season debut, Adenhart went out with friends to celebrate. He was riding in a Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by a friend, Courtney Frances Stewart, along with passengers Henry Pearson and Jon Wilhite when the car was struck at the corner of Lemon and Oglethorpe in Fullerton at 12:20 A.M., less than seven miles from Angels Stadium. A Toyota Sienna minivan, driven under the influence by Andrew Thomas Gallo, went through a red light at 65 mph and broadsided the Eclipse.16 Gallo, who had a suspended license from a previous DUI, fled the scene and was apprehended a mile away. Stewart (20 years old) and Pearson (25) were killed while Wilhite miraculously survived critical injuries. Adenhart was transported to the UC Irvine Medical Center, where he died in the early morning hours of April 9, 2009, at the age of 22 years and 228 days.

The Angels franchise and Adenhart’s family were stunned. The series finale with Oakland was canceled and a makeshift shrine was erected by fans outside Angels Stadium while the Angels hosted a somber news conference. “His life’s goal was to be a major league baseball player, and he certainly achieved that standard,” said his agent, Scott Boras. The quotes from team officials and teammates were unanimous in their grief for the loss of the promising young man. “I’m at a loss,” Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden, who had pitched against Adenhart in the minors, said. “Talk about a guy who was on his way, about to take baseball by storm. He was ready to bring it to the main stage, and it was all cut short for no reason whatsoever.”17

Adenhart’s family, the Angels franchise, and many of his stops along his path to the major leagues have honored his memory throughout the years.

After struggling to a sub-.500 April in the aftermath of Adenhart’s death, the Angels maintained his locker all season and rallied to win the American League West by 10 games in 2009. They eventually lost the American League Championship Series to the New York Yankees but voted to send a full share of playoff money, $138,039, to Adenhart’s estate.

The Angels created the “Nick Adenhart Pitcher of the Year” award in June of 2009, to be awarded each season to the Angels’ most outstanding pitcher. The player receives a bronze statue of Adenhart with a larger one on display in the team’s trophy case. Jered Weaver, who in 2013 named his son Aden in Nick’s honor, won the first Adenhart Award.18

The Adenhart family created the Adenhart Memorial Fund to raise funds to support youth baseball organizations. The Little League field where Adenhart played in Williamsport was renamed the Nicholas James Adenhart Memorial Field.19 The Cedar Rapids Kernels set up an annual $1,000 scholarship in his memory funded by the Adenhart Memorial Fund.

Adenhart is remembered in his hometown in various ways. He was buried a mile from Williamsport High in Greenlawn Memorial Park. The Williamsport High School gym prominently displays Adenhart’s number 34 on the wall; and the grandstand behind home plate on the field where he excelled in high school has his name and number 11.

Nicholas James Adenhart Memorial Field has a picture of Adenhart in mid-delivery in an Angels uniform hung on the wall in right field. Signs on the concession stand at the Halfway fields recognizing past Division I champions include Adenhart’s 1998 and 1999 teams listing full rosters and coaching staff. And every year in late May the Nick Adenhart 5K is run in Williamsport to raise money for local youth programs.

Photo credit

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Angels.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted www.baseball-reference.com, www.ancestry.com, and the Nick Adenhart player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. The author is particularly grateful for the time granted by David Warrenfeltz and Bob Parasiliti in Williamsport, Maryland.

Halfway Little League (https://www.leaguelineup.com/topnews.asp?url=halfwayll&itemid=369534)

Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35686684/nick-adenhart)

Mike Matthews, “Laffey vs. Adenhart: A Battle to the Finish, a Game for the Ages,” Cumberland Times-News, May 13, 2003. Accessed online October 6, 2021, at https://www.times-news.com/sports/local_sports/laffey-vs-adenhart-a-battle-to-the-finish-a-game-for-the-ages/article_27d6f20c-769b-52fd-9075-9633205bc3e6.html

Mike Matthews, “Allegany: 1 Run, 0 Hits, 1 Victory,” Cumberland Times-News, May 13, 2003. Accessed online October 6, 2021, at https://www.times-news.com/sports/local_sports/allegany-1-run-0-hits-1-victory/article_f0dbeedf-d1e7-5e84-9244-931047571bbe.html

Cedar Rapids Community Scholarship (https://www.milb.com/cedar-rapids/community/adenhart-scholarship)

Nick Adenhart 5K (https://runsignup.com/Race/MD/Williamsport/NickAdenhart5K)

Notes

1 Author interview with David Warrenfeltz on May 22, 2021. Unless otherwise attributed, all direct quotations come from this interview.

2 Rick Maese, “Remembering Nick Adenhart,” Baltimore Sun, April 16, 2009. Accessed October 6, 2021, at https://www.baltimoresun.com/bs-mtblog-2009-04-remembering_nick_adenhart-story.html.

3 Maese, “Remembering Nick Adenhart.”

4 Dan Steinberg, “When You Get a Good Kid … It’s Sad,” Washington Post, May 29, 2004. Accessed October 6, 2021, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2004/05/29/when-you-get-a-good-kid-its-sad/843a5519-d63c-4eb2-baf3-77f231f75a85/.

5 Rick Maese, “Back Home, There’s No Letting Go of Adenhart,” Baltimore Sun, April 11, 2009: 17.

6 Steinberg, “When You Get a Good Kid … It’s Sad.”

7 Steinberg, “When You Get a Good Kid … It’s Sad.”

8 Roch Kubatko, “Top Prospect Adenhart to Have Elbow Surgery,” Baltimore Sun, May 22, 2004: 5C.

9 Mike DiGiovanna, “Moreno: Price May Be Too High for Johnson,” Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2004: D5.

10 Jim Ecker, “Special Funds Keeps Adenhart’s Memory Alive,” perfectgame.org. Accessed October 6, 2021, at https://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=4871&mode=full.

11 Rich Lederer, “Nick Adenhart: A Rising Star (Once Again),” baseballanalysts.com. Accessed October 6, 2021, at http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2006/07/nick_adenhart.php.

12 Mike DiGiovanna, “Angels Report,” Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2008: D7.

13 Mike DiGiovanna, “Angels’ Rookie Has Wild Debut,” Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2008: D1.

14 Bill Shaikin, “Angels FYI,” Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2008: D12.

15 A quote widely attributed in the following days’ reports with subtle variations.

16 In December 2010 Gallo was sentenced to 51 years to life in prison.

17 Mike DiGiovanna, “Pitcher Had Fought Back After Injuries,” Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2009: A26.

18 As of 2021, the winners of the Adenhart Award have been Weaver (2009-2012), C.J. Wilson (2013), Garrett Richards (2014), Huston Street (2015), Matt Shoemaker (2016), Yusmeiro Petit (2017), Andrew Heaney (2018), Hansel Robles (2019), Dylan Bundy (2020), and Shohei Ohtani (2021, 2022).

19 Kevin Baxter, “Painful Anniversary for Angels,” Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2010: C6.