John Odom, the minor-league pitcher who became a national punchline when he was traded for ten baseball bats last May, died recently at the age of 26 from an accidental overdose of heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine, and alcohol. As is often the case with “accidental overdoses,” it may not have been all that accidental. A drug addict who had gotten sober for a time, the trade, which he had tried to laugh off, seems to have sent him spiraling back into active addiction.

“I really believe, knowing his background, that (the trade) drove him back to the bottle, that it put him on the road to drugs again,” said Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year on the Laredo Broncos of the United League. “There were some demons chasing him, they’d been after him for a long time.”

Three months after the trade, Odom quit baseball. Three months later, he died alone in Georgia. According to an Associated Press story, the medical examiner’s office figured out Odom’s fame when they saw a tattoo on his right elbow over suture marks that read “Poena Par Sapientia” — a rough Latin translation of “Pain equals wisdom” — and did a Google search.