BASEBALL Photographs by JOHN W. MCDONOUGH Touched By an Angel Inspired by the memory of Nick Adenhart— and the remarkable recovery of his friend Jon Wilhite—L.A. has overcome a bleak start to seize control of the AL West | BY LEE JENKINS hen Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher walked out of the UC Irvine Medical Center at dawn on April 9, one of his players was dead, two of the player’s friends were dead and a third friend was on Wlife support, his skull no longer attached to his spinal column. Butcher wanted to believe that the third friend could pull through, but after what he had seen that night, hope was hard to muster. “His chances,” Butcher says, “were slim to none.” Dr. Nitin Bhatia, the 36-year-old director of the Spine Center at UCI, had delivered the grisly diagnosis: internal decapitation. “I read the CT scan, and it was depressing,” Bhatia says. “Ninety-five percent of people with internal decapitation die immediately or within a day or two. Of the other five percent, most are either quadriplegic or on a ventilator the rest of their lives.” By the afternoon of April 9 the baseball world had learned of the death of Angels starting pitcher Nick Adenhart and his friends Courtney Stewart and BOUnd BY TRAGEdy Weaver (left) pays tribute Henry Pearson in a car crash, and information started to emerge to Adenhart before every about that other passenger, a 24-year-old youth baseball coach start and had a hug for named Jon Wilhite, who had been a catcher at Cal State–Fullerton. Wilhite (right), who threw out the first pitch in One television network reported that he too was dead. Anaheim on Aug. 29. After a somber meeting with Jim Adenhart, Nick’s father, in SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 | SPORTS IllUSTRATED SportS IlluStrated 09/14/2009 aNGELS.l/o leFt PAGe 54/1 oF 5 SportS IlluStrated 09/14/2009 aNGELS.l/o righT PAGe 55/1 oF 5 Version: 21 09/06/2009 05:59pM / Mcadams / Crawford / lemire Version: 24 09/06/2009 05:59pM / Mcadams / Crawford / lemire a.d./ext: long Name Here/x0000 09/06/2009 03:23pM sskalocky1271 a.d./ext: long Name Here/x0000 09/06/2009 03:23pM sskalocky1271 revise comments: ART FINAL revise comments: ART FINAL___OOF to aljust headline 09/06/2009 08:20pM sskalocky1271 ±local read± ±Conference± ±art approval± ±HOLD:updates/Checks ±HOLD:art ±local read± ±Conference± ±art approval± ±HOLD:updates/Checks ±HOLD:art ANGELS their clubhouse that afternoon, the Angels RallYING SUPPORT vowed to use baseball as their sanctuary. There can be a different hero every day for the Angels, here celebrating a 12th- But on the first road trip after the crash, inning win over Boston, but Morales they lost five of six games, suggesting that (below) has provided the biggest lift. there was no escape. By the time they came home to Anaheim lungs, fractured disks, torn muscles, broken on April 21, their most feared hitter, Vladimir ribs and swelling in his brain. Bhatia screwed Guerrero, had gone on the disabled list, join- a ring, called a halo vest, into Wilhite’s skull ing four of their starting pitchers. Their bull- and sent him to the intensive care unit. “They pen had an 8.31 ERA, worst in the majors. brought his body back to life,” Bhatia says. Their lineup had scored the second-fewest Six days after the crash Wilhite lay face- runs in the AL. Worst of all, their top pitching down on an operating table as Bhatia and prospect was gone and never coming back. a team of 30 prepared to reattach his skull “What’s happening to us right now is men- to his spine. A nurse asked Bhatia, “Are tal,” centerfielder Torii Hunter said then. you nervous?” He certainly had reason to “Guys miss Nick. They’re mourning.” When the team gathered on April 23 “Big events bring for a private memorial service at Angel Stadium, you together or tear manager Mike Scioscia told the players to move you apart,” says on in their own time and in their own way. But Jepsen. “Nick’s death he reminded them: “We will move on.” made us closer.” The Angels have won the American League be. “Every step could kill Wilhite could not re- his parents what exactly had happened to people are still out there,” says Weiss. “It’s Morales, who hit five homers and knocked West four times in the past five years and were him,” Bhatia says. “Turn- member anything about him on April 9 and what had happened to become a part of all of us.” in nine runs during that stretch. Morales is widely expected to do it again this season. ing him the slightest bit on the evening of April 9. He the others in the car. The Angels kept Adenhart’s locker no stranger to emotional struggle. He tried Despite losing free- agent first baseman Mark the table could give him could not remember going His parents told him the truth, that every- intact—complete with the water bottle on 12 times to defect from Cuba. Either his boat Teixeira to the Yankees and closer Francisco permanent paralysis. It’s to the Angels’ game and one else in the car had been killed, but Wil- the top shelf—and reserved a locker for him didn’t show or wasn’t seaworthy or police Rodriguez to the Mets last winter, they had a tightrope. Every step has watching Adenhart pitch hite’s pain medication was so strong that on the road. Relief pitcher Scot Shields hung caught him in the act. Three times he was gone 26–8 in spring training, leading the to be perfect.” six scoreless innings, or the reality did not completely register. In Adenhart’s jersey in the dugout before every arrested and sentenced to 72 hours in jail. majors in batting average and runs. But on Bhatia and his team start- hopping into Stewart’s sil- fact, Wilhite was so disoriented that he kept game, and after Shields went on the DL in After Morales finally escaped in 2004, he May 1 they were 9–13 and stuck in third place ed by cutting a nine-inch in- ver Mitsubishi Eclipse af- insisting to friends and family that he was in May, equipment manager Ken Higdon took signed with the Angels, and even though he in their division. “We had the worst month a cision into the back of Wil- terward and heading to a Texas, even though Wilhite had a clear view over the duties, followed by relief pitcher is making $21.4 million less than Teixeira baseball team can possibly have,” Hunter said hite’s neck. They inserted a country bar in Fullerton, or of Angel Stadium through his window. Kevin Jepsen. “Nick pops into your head this season, his offensive numbers are just recently. “It’s like we were all telling ourselves, titanium plate beneath the being blindsided less than It was not until Wilhite watched an An- when you least expect it,” Jepsen says. “There as impressive. “When I lie down at night, I Hey, it’s just a game, it’s not that important, it’s skull and connected it to a 50 yards from the bar by gels game in late April on television in his are still days I come in and just stare at his think about how difficult it was to get to this nothing compared to life and death. That went titanium rod running into an allegedly drunk driver hospital room and saw the players wearing locker. It’s like it’s never going to go away.” point,” Morales says through an interpreter. on for a month— maybe two months.” the neck, in effect creating named Andrew Gallo, who black patches on their chests embroidered Jepsen was sent down to Salt Lake City on “But it was worth it.” The malaise spread all the way to the a new spinal column. The ran a red light in his min- with number 34 that he realized what had May 4, and when he returned to the Angels Angels’ Triple A team in Salt Lake City, procedure lasted five hours, ivan and was later arrest- occurred. “That’s Nick’s number,” Wilhite on June 10 he noticed a subtle change in the wo weeks after the crash Wilhite where Adenhart had spent the 2008 sea- and when it was over Bhatia ed after fleeing the scene. told himself. “Nick died in the crash.” clubhouse dynamic. “Guys were hanging out climbed out of his bed at the UC Ir- son. “I’d take the mound, look back at the was confident Wilhite would live. Under what (Gallo is awaiting trial on Nov. 9 for three more, talking to each other more,” Jepsen T vine Medical Center. A week after outfielders, and they’ve got their heads conditions, though, he had no idea. counts of second-degree murder.) And he n front of Angel Stadium a memorial says. “Big events either bring you together or that, when he was able to stand and take a down,” says righthander Matt Palmer, Two days after the surgery Bhatia woke certainly could not remember being extri- to Adenhart swelled like an amoeba, tear you apart. I think this made us closer.” few steps, he left UCI for the Rehabilitation who started the season in Salt Lake be- Wilhite from a medically induced coma cated through the car’s blown-out back win- I with caps surrounded by photographs The day after Jepsen’s call-up, the Angels Center at Long Beach Memorial Medical fore his promotion to the bigs on April 23.