Bill Shanks: Atlanta Braves family suffers great loss
There is never much logic in trying to understand why any 29-year-old dies. And there is no real answer that makes sense in trying to figure out why Tommy Hanson is no longer here.
Young athletes don't die very often, but this one did. At some point, the answer as to why he died will be important. But it's not now.
Hanson was a pitcher, a husband and a son. He was loved by his teammates, and there was a genuine goodness about him. Hanson wasn't perfect, and he never tried to be. But he was someone you were happy you knew if you were lucky enough to have met him.
Hanson was just a kid when I first met him. He was 19, coming off a dominant season in a California junior college league. The Braves signed him, and in three years, he went from a wannabe big leaguer to wearing the Atlanta uniform.
Hanson soared up the minor league ladder. It didn't take long for him to become Atlanta's top prospect. He was tall. He threw hard. He had that Braves makeup the team likes -- a solid teammate and a player who respected the game.
And, Hanson was good. He became the first homegrown Atlanta pitcher to have double-digit wins in his first four seasons with the Braves. Tom Glavine didn't do that, and neither did Steve Avery or Kevin Millwood.
Hanson was 45-32 in his four seasons in the Atlanta rotation. His ERA was 3.61. Despite a sling-shot delivery, his shoulder held up. Well, barely. In his final year with the Braves in 2012, Hanson's velocity was down, and there was concern about whether he was destined for surgery.
He was a bulldog on the mound. Hanson hated when Bobby Cox took him out of games, and sometimes Hanson would show his frustration a bit too much. But Cox knew that was just Tommy. The manager wanted it to be hard to take the ball out of his pitcher's hand, and Hanson never wanted to give it up.
The Braves traded him three years ago for reliever Jordan Walden. Hanson spent half a season with the Los Angeles Angels, but in the middle of 2013, his brother died. It was tough on Tommy, and he possibly never recovered emotionally. The Angels gave him time off that summer, but unfortunately Hanson never pitched in the major leagues again.
Baseball is a family. These players enter a farm system at a young age, turned over by their parents who hope they'll mature and be OK. They meet other players and become brothers. That's what Kris Medlen and Ryne Reynoso were to Tommy.
Like Hanson, Medlen was from California, but Reynoso came from Boston College. The three bonded while in the minor leagues and formed a great friendship. They fished together and eventually were roommates together. You have to feel for those two, who have lost their best friend.
There were coaches who had an impact on Tommy's life and career, along with other teammates who played ball with him from the time he was a child until this past summer. And think of his wife, a Macon girl, Martha Montgomery Hanson. She's suffering, and we hate it for her.
This is a tragedy. Any time a young person dies, it always is. But this is deeper. This is someone I knew, and all of you who watched him on television or saw him at Turner Field did, as well. Tommy was a great young man, and the world is not a better place with him gone.
Listen to "The Bill Shanks Show" from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WPLA Fox Sports 1670 AM in Macon and online at www.foxsports1670.com/. Follow Bill at twitter.com/BillShanks and email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.
This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Bill Shanks: Atlanta Braves family suffers great loss ."