I am a man of small means. My own battle with drugs and alcohol have left me living from paycheck to paycheck because of the opportunities I squandered away years ago. But because of the Porters, my son Josh has a real chance at a future through baseball. This year he will start at shortstop for his high school team and next year as a senior will move back to the position Denny taught him so well, catcher.

The death of Darrell Porter saddens me because of my feelings for the Porter family. Fate is sometimes a cruel thing that is hard to understand. But sometimes I ponder about what would have happened had Darrel not had the problems he had. Would Denny have been there for Josh when he was? I can tell you the influence he had on my son is impossible to fathom. And so, in a way, was Darrells. Denny gave Josh Darrells book to read and his resolve to not get caught up in that life is strong. Further, news of Darrells death and the causes have strenghthened it more. God Bless

In the end, she quietly died of a heart attack watching bad TV and napping. While it would be nice for all of us to go in such a way, I can’t help but feel selfish and want a more dramatic end for her so I would have been able to say goodbye. Heroes give you much needed inspiration, but they also cause you more pain for the exact same reasons.

“If this drug can kill someone as tough as Darrell Porter, it’s too powerful to mess around with.

“Let’s hope that is how people remember the circumstances of his death, because you don’t want kids questioning what he was trying to tell them. You don’t want that lost just because it was too powerful for even Darrell to resist. That should be the message: Don’t even start.”

They were teammates for four or five years. Split was always one of the Royals’ top 3 pitchers, and Darrell Porter was the Royals’ regular catcher, so they worked together a lot.

Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski wrote a really nice piece too. Here’s the last two paragraphs:

They all wanted so much to believe in Darrell Porter. Not just the ballplayer. They wanted to believe in a tough Missouri man who stared down his demons and turned around his life.

Monday’s news took that away. Darrell Porter did not beat cocaine. Cocaine beat him. Cocaine usually wins. Darrell Porter, in the end, was human. That’s all. It’s just that we wanted him to be so much more than that.

That sort of feeling must be hard to resist.