2002
JOSH HANCOCK   P

Josh Hancock was born on April 11, 1978, in Cleveland Mississippi. He graduated from  Vestavia Hills High School Vestavia Hills, Alabama. After high school, he was selected in the fourth round of the 1996 Major League Baseball draft by the  Milwaukee Brewers, but did not sign.

He instead attended college at  Auburn University because they offered him a better scholarship. He was selected by the  Boston Red Sox in the fifth round (155th overall) of the  1998 amateur draft and signed with the Red Sox, making his major-league debut in September, 2002.

In December 2002 he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and in July, 2004, he was traded along to the  Cincinnati Reds.

On the first day of Spring training in 2006, he was released by the Reds for being 17 pounds overweight, thus, violating a clause in his contract. He promptly signed with the  St. Louis Cardinals and had his best season, pitching 77 innings, compiling a 4.09  earned run average ERA, and appearing in the 2006 postseason with the Cardinals. He performed in a variety of roles for the Cardinals' bullpen, from short term relief appearances, to less desirable roles when the game was out of hand.

Josh Hancock died on April 29, 2007, when he was killed in a motor vehicle accident. The SUV he was driving, while intoxicated and talking on his cell phone, struck the rear of a flat bed tow truck in the break-down lane, on I-40 in St. Louis. He was 29 years old.