Remember Greg Reynolds? The former Rockies and Reds pitcher was the second overall pick in the 2006 draft. Colorado chose him ahead of Evan Longoria, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, and Max Scherzer, among others.
Despite the pedigree, his big league career didn’t turn out that well. He played only three major league seasons -- 2008, 2011 and 2013. He pitched in only 33 big league games -- 21 as a starter -- compiling a 7.01 ERA and a K/BB ratio of 53/42 in 123.1 innings. In 2014 he spent a year in Japan and that turned out no better, as he posted a 5.46 ERA for the Seibu Lions.
Then something interesting happened that offseason: on January 16, 2015 he was attacked by a dude on LSD.
The dude -- one Domenic Pintarelli -- was at a party at the home of Reynolds’ next-door neighbor, one Connor Pope. Pope and Pintarelli dropped acid and Pintarelli wandered next door to Reynolds’ house, where he attacked the former big leaguer. Reynolds punched him in self-defense and broke his pitching hand. That knocked the then-unsigned Reynolds out for the 2015 season. He tried to come back and pitch again in 2016, having been signed by the San Diego Padres, but he didn’t make the club out of spring training and, after a brief minor league stint, was released. He has not played baseball since.
Reynolds sued both Pintarelli for the assault and Pope on the theory that his out-of-control party was what led to it. The verdict came back earlier this week. Reynolds won:
I wonder if the defense made some argument about how, based on how he did for the Rockies and Reds, the idea that Reynolds could move and control the baseball before the attack was not clearly established. If so, they did a poor job of it. Maybe they needed a better baseball analyst on the trial team. Oh well, their loss.
Now Reynolds is in for the biggest challenge of his life: trying to collect $2.3 million from a couple of dudes who drop acid at parties and randomly attack people. Guys like that tend not to have deep pockets in my experience, but good luck, Greg.