First Kirby Puckett, now Jim Leyritz (pictured). Very sad for Leyritz–even sadder for the woman he crashed into while driving drunk.
Addiction expert Doug Thorburn has an interesting analysis below, taken from his monthly Thorburn Addiction Report.
Jim Leyritz, Baseball Hero, Alcoholism Enabled–and an Innocent Person Dies
Jim Leyritz, best known for hitting a key three-run homer in the 1996 World Series, drove off in his 2006 Ford Expedition at 3 a.m. after celebrating his 44th birthday in a Fort Lauderdale bar. Fredia Ann Veitch, who had just left her late-night shift at a steak house, didn’t stand a chance when Leyritz ran a red light and broadsided her 2000 Mitsubishi Montero, causing it to flip. The 30-year-old single mother of two was ejected and died shortly after.
Leyritz reportedly had “red, watery eyes, a flushed face and an odor of an alcoholic beverage” and refused a Breathalyzer at the crash scene after failing several field-sobriety tests. He was tested at the station (the results for which are pending), jailed and released on $11,000 bail just hours later.
The trouble with this tragedy, like almost every other, is there were the proverbial dozens if not hundreds of incidents for which close persons or the law could have intervened, but didn’t. He was known to party hard and had been divorced twice. Court papers from the latest divorce show more than $10 million in earnings over 11 years shrinking to about $600,000, and that he burned through thousands of dollars on high-priced booze, expensive nightclubs and ritzy hotels.
Of course, like any good alcoholic he blamed everyone else on the loss of wealth, including “exorbitant taxes and a shady financial advisor.” If his wife and friends ever attempted to intervene, their efforts were overwhelmed by the strength of his addiction and enablers. (more…)
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