World Series hero David Freese had a car accident on Thanksgiving. He was driving his Range Rover in Wildwood, outside St. Louis, when a deer appeared ahead of him. Freese swerved to avoid it, lost control, and drove off the road an into a tree. At least, that's what they WANT you to think.
The Post-Dispatch has been all over this story, and the latest update digs a little deeper into what exactly went down on Wildhorse Creek Road. Now, columnist Bill McClellan isn't saying Freese is a liar; he's just saying the deer story doesn't stand up.
Consider the incontrovertible evidence:
• A cyclist didn't see a deer.
• Freese didn't mention a deer to a neighbor who responded to the accident.
• That neighbor/crime scene investigator doesn't think a pro athlete would swerve off the road.
"I think he was asleep," Mathis said. He explained that there were no signs of braking in the tire tracks. "It's like he had no reaction at all. If you're a star athlete, you have the reflexes of a cat, don't you?"
• The guy who owns the mailbox Freese ran over wasn't home when it happened, but he doesn't believe there was a deer either:
Duff, meanwile, is convinced Freese was speeding. Duff is 76 and retired, and he is tired of people speeding up and down Wild Horse Creek Road.
Consider the plot thickened. This is a strange little article, full of hesitantly advanced theories and tiptoeing around what he really wants to say. McClellan makes sure to mention in the second paragraph that Freese has a pair of DWIs, while waiting until the 10th graf to point out that witnesses and police saw no signs he was drunk. He then brings up a charity boxing event that he attended the night before, to advance the notion that Freese might have been "tired."
Not every athlete's Thanksgiving Day car crash is the start of a world-shattering scandal. It was just that one time. Here's the police report on Freese's accident. Chime in with your own half-baked theories.
Property owner isn't buying David Freese's deer story [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]