Written by Joe Lucia at Bloguin
Early on Tuesday morning, after rumors had been circulating all night, reports confirmed that former Atlanta Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson had passed away at the age of 29. As someone who grew up a Braves fan and got into writing because of my fandom, his death really hit me hard. Hanson was just two months younger than me, and made his major league debut just days before I started blogging on my own (at a site called BravesHeart, for what its worth).
Hanson represented everything I love about sports. He filled me with hope, excitement, and joy. When I watched Hanson in one of his final minor league starts before his major league callup, against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in Allentown, those feelings grew stronger. Here was a guy that was everything you could want in a pitcher – he had a large frame, a blazing fastball, and a beautiful curveball that completely fell off the table and left hitters shaking their heads. He was baseball’s best pitching prospect, and I (along with all of my closest friends in the Braves blogosphere) had watched him blossom into this player that we all expected we’d be watching dominate for years.
It didn’t exactly go that way. Hanson was called up for good at the beginning of June 2009, and ended up finishing third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. In 2010, Hanson had the finest year of his all too brief career, pitching to a 3.33 ERA in 202 2/3 innings, striking out 173 hitters and walking 56 along the way. Injuries and ineffectiveness plagued Hanson throughout the rest of his career. In 2011, he made just 22 starts, pitching to a 3.60 ERA. He made 31 starts in 2012, and his ERA jumped to an unsightly 4.48. The Braves traded Hanson to the Angels in his home state of California, but he made just 15 appearances of 5.42 ERA ball with them before being cut loose.
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