David Freese crashed his Range Rover on Thanksgiving. Freese told police that he had swerved to avoid hitting a deer and lost control of the vehicle. At least that is what he would like you to believe! Some people who did not see the accident occur aren’t buying the third baseman’s story. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

But while most of the readers were unhappy with the story’s references to Freese’s past, which includes a history of drinking and driving, Duff was unhappy for a different reason. He doesn’t think there was a deer.

“That story makes no sense,” he told me.

The tree that Freese hit is on Duff’s property.

I wonder if he saw something different!

Duff was not home

Oh.

A cyclist who witnessed the accident left a note on his door. Also, a neighbor from across the street heard the accident and rushed to the scene.

I spoke with both of them. The good news for Freese and his many fans is that both say they saw no sign of impairment. In that regard, they obviously agreed with the county police officers.

OK…

On the other hand, they were skeptical about the deer story.

Here comes the heat. I can tell this is about to get good.

The cyclist, Dave Fleming, was just turning onto Wild Horse Creek Road from Rieger Road. He said he had a view of the area at which Freese left the road. He said he saw no deer.

The deer didn’t stay to fill out an accident report? Or maybe there aren’t any deer in the area.

By the way, Fleming and Mathis agree there are plenty of deer in the area. Fleming said he saw a large buck on Rieger Road earlier that afternoon. Mathis said he has hit more deer than he can remember. Fleming said he didn’t want to speculate about what happened, but Mathis had a theory.

So what happened?

“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?”

So Freese might have fallen asleep. Or he swerved to avoid a deer. At least those are two working theories of people who didn’t see the accident.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]