Top high school pitcher Stephen Gant commits suicide

Just stumbled on this, never heard of the kid.



http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschoo ... 07446.html



One of the nation's top baseball prospects, a bright student headed to Vanderbilt, was found dead along the side of a Tennessee road on Tuesday after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sending shockwaves throughout the Volunteer State baseball community.

As reported by the Jackson Sun, the Nashville City Paper and a variety of other Nashville-area news sources, Parsons (Tenn.) Riverside High ace Stephen Gant was found dead in Perry County shortly after the local sheriff's office had been called about a man walking up and down the road with a gun threatening to commit suicide.

"We found the body of Stephen Gant about 30 feet from the roadway with a gunshot wound," Perry County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Nick Weems told the Sun. "We do believe at this time that it was self-inflicted; however, we will continue to investigate to look at other possibilities to make sure it was suicide."

To call Gant's death a stunning turn of events is a vast understatement. The senior was a Vanderbilt signee with what many anticipated would be a bright future at one of the nation's most impressive college baseball programs. In all three of his prep seasons he had been named the Sun's Baseball Player of the Year, a remarkable achievement in a tough Tennessee baseball region.

In fact, Gant's arm was so strong that some had even penciled the senior in as a likely first round draft pick in the forthcoming MLB draft.

On Tuesday, the communities that knew him and were looking forward to his arrival were still struggling to come to grips with the teenager's tragic death, as Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin made clear in a statement released to the press.


"This stops you right in your tracks," Corbin said in the release. "These are life occurrences that can't be explained ... there are no 'do-overs.'

"We are all deeply saddened for Gloria, Tony, his brothers and sister as well as the many friends that Stephen had. All we can do is be supportive for the family and be there for them."

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Yeah, this was reported last night and posted.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=160989&hilit=gant

Tragic Shame.

Sometimes those you think have it made, really dont.
Money & Fame does not buy you hapiness, only more grief.
Sad that he thought it was his only way out.......

AMAZIN HOF COLLECTOR said:

Sometimes those you think have it made, really dont.
Money & Fame does not buy you hapiness, only more grief.
Sad that he thought it was his only way out.......

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Agree completely. Some people just have some miswiring in their head. Reminded me of a poem we had to read in high school, and after some research I found it


Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

Great poem.. terrible circumstances with this kid. Really really sad to see someone that has that bad of a mental sickness not be identified, and medicated properly. Depression is real folks, its deadly,and effects a lot of us.

brianga26 said:

Great poem.. terrible circumstances with this kid. Really really sad to see someone that has that bad of a mental sickness not be identified, and medicated properly. Depression is real folks, its deadly,and effects a lot of us.

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While I definitely agree about mental illness being too often ignored, mis-diagnosed, and misunderstood, is there anything to suggest that he falls into this category? There are other reasons people commit suicide that are not due to severe depression.