Hancock released after spring training incident

LAKELAND, FLA. — Everett Hancock was finishing up his first spring training with the Detroit Tigers last week, awaiting assignment for the upcoming season.

The last place he thought he’d be assigned was home.

The Tigers released Hancock, a Havelock native and member of Havelock High School’s 1998 state championship team, and two other players Friday after an incident in which one of the players made an off-color comment about the wife of minor league manager Randy Ready.

Hancock, a 6-foot, 185-pound lefthander who throws in the low 90s, was scheduled to pitch Friday in Lakeland, the Tigers’ spring training home, but was called into a coach’s office that day and given his release. By Friday night, he was in Greensboro.

“It was a big surprise,” said Hancock, who, along with the other two players, played under Ready for the Tigers' Class A affiliate in Oneonta, N.Y., last season.

Hancock said the comment in question came during “Skit Night,” an annual hazing ritual in which first-year spring training players have to perform a talent of some sort in front of other players and coaches, generally with the purpose of making fun of people in the room.

“All the other guys said that you can get up there and do whatever you want, say whatever you want,” Hancock, who was drafted last summer in the 28th round, said. “It’s pretty much open to whatever you want to do, as long as you do something.”

Hancock, 23, and two teammates from Oneonta, Luke Carlin and Jesse Carlson, decided to write and perform a rap song at the gathering last Wednesday night.

Over Hancock’s advice, he said, Carlin “said something about sleeping with [Ready’s] wife last year at Oneonta during the nightlife.”

Hancock says he saw Ready, a 13-year major league veteran, laughing at the barb.

Two days later, however, all three players were called into an office and released for what Hancock says the Tigers called “sexual harassment.”

“We were pretty much guilty by association,” Hancock said of himself and Carlson. “Because of that, they said legally and morally they had to release all three of us.”

“We conducted our own internal investigation, and we’ve taken actions that are in the best interests of our baseball club,” Tigers Senior Director of Communications Cliff Russell said Tuesday.

Hancock, who pitched five innings this spring, allowing no earned runs, walking one and striking out nine, said he and the other players have contacted attorneys about the matter. Meanwhile, he says his playing days are probably over, even if another club wants to sign him.

“I’m kind of leaning towards not playing anymore, really,” he said, adding that he wants to finish his degree at UNC-Greensboro and start a baseball coaching career. “I have so much other stuff in my life I want to achieve.”

Hancock went 0-1 with a 4.61 ERA in 13 appearances at Oneonta last season. He signed with the Tigers with a year of college eligibility left after an injury his senior season.

“Something inside me says this might be a sign that, for some reason, I wasn’t supposed to be in the Tigers organization, that I wasn’t supposed to be playing ball if something like this could happen,” Hancock said.