it but I remembered thinking "what about the poor kids feelings?" At the time I wondered how he was handling it but no sources followed the story. I totally forgot about the whole thing until I stumbled upon this article today on ksl.com http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=249&sid=5753725Turns out after a long hard year the Odom just could not take it anymore and overdosed on drugs. He was butt end of many jokes in the club house and ridiculed by opposing team's fans. The article says in the beginning he was able to laugh it off and joked about it frequently. He at one time even refered to himself as the batman. Eventually however it started to ware on him. One night as he warmed up to pitch in Amarillo, TX the opposing team had the batman theme song playing on the PA. In between innings fans blasted him. That was basically the icing on the cake. He just could not take it anymore. He eventually told his coach he needed to go home and figure things out. He fell back into some bad habits and ended up killing himself with drugs.
The part of the story that really disturbed me was the fact that the team that traded him in Calgary did it as a publicity stunt. Thier president Peter Young was offered $1000 for him but insisted to make the trade for ten maple bats. Riplys Believe or Not ending up buying the bats for $10,000 dollars to put in one of their museums. Hey Riplys I have an idea, why don't you put those bats in your Hall of Shame?! Calgary wanted a publicity stunt and they got one. Who's laughing now?
