Bad News Bears Remake Star Sammi Kane Kraft Dies in Car Crash at Age 20

**Waterslide** · October 12th, 2012, 11:06 AM

Bad News Bears Remake Star Sammi Kane Kraft Dies in Car Crash at Age 20

Oct. 12th, 2012 at 9:28 AM

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Sammi Kane Kraft, the real-life baseball player who portrayed Amanda Whurlitzer in the 2005 remake of Bad News Bears, died in a car accident in Los Angeles, E! News reports.

The athlete and actress was 20 years old. Authorities told E! that Kraft was the passenger in an Audi "traveling at a high rate of speed" when it rear-ended a big rig and was then hit by another car. Kraft was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The driver, 21-year-old Molly Kate Adams, survived with moderate injuries, and was arrested for suspected felony drunk drinking.

Kraft played the tomboy character originated by Tatum O'Neal in the original 1976 Bad News Bears.

"I could never fill Tatum O'Neal's shoes," Kraft (who had a 70 mph fastball) said in 2005, "but I tried to make the role my own."

California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.

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'Bad News Bears' actress, 20, dies in car crash

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(Photo: Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images)
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8:07AM EDT October 12. 2012 - Sammi Kane Kraft, who played a pitcher in the 2005 remake of Bad News Bears, has died in a Los Angeles car crash. She was 20.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Kraft was a passenger in an Audi that rear-ended a big rig and was struck by another car at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 10.
Her brother, Frankie Kane, tells the Times that Kane was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The California Highway Patrol says the Audi's driver was treated for moderate injuries and arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving, reports AP.
Kraft was 13 when she was discovered on a Los Angeles baseball diamond and cast in the role of pitcher Amanda Whurlitzer, made famous by Tatum O'Neal in 1976.
After graduating from high school in 2010, Kraft studied at San Francisco State and started a folk-country-rock band called Scary Girls, reports the Times. After returning to Los Angeles this year, Kraft enrolled at Santa Monica College and often performed as a solo singer-guitarist at small venues. She and her brother had just collaborated on a musical.

'Bad News Bears' actress, 20, dies in car crash

I know most people probably won't remember her, but I really thought this was sad.

**greysfang** · October 12th, 2012, 11:09 AM

That is sad to die so young. I didn't even know they remade BNB, much less knew who she was.

**sputnik** · October 12th, 2012, 11:32 AM

Who? And she's a dumbass for getting into a car with a drunk at the wheel.

**gas_chick** · October 12th, 2012, 11:45 AM

Way too young. Always amazing how drunks usually walk away without a scratch.

**Waterslide** · October 12th, 2012, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by sputnik

Who? And she's a dumbass for getting into a car with a drunk at the wheel.

I agree about that. People will never learn.

I remembered her very vaguely from the remake, I couldn't have named her if I tried, but it was one of those stories that just struck me. She seemed to have things going for her, too.

**rollo** · October 12th, 2012, 01:55 PM

Sad. RIP

**Neptunia** · October 12th, 2012, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by gas_chick

Way too young. Always amazing how drunks usually walk away without a scratch.

That's so true. My friends was in a car accident with a drunken driver last year, her husband was killed instantly, she was in a coma and needed rehab for months (fortunately their daughter who was strapped in a car seat, was fine but the car flipped and she was upside down until they could pry her out, poor baby!) The drunken driver's teen son was paralyzed from the waist down and the drunk...nothing but a broken wrist! It was his third drunken accident too!

**rollo** · October 12th, 2012, 02:52 PM

^ That's terrible, Neptunia.

**Bluebonnet** · October 12th, 2012, 02:53 PM

Her poor family.

**Waterslide** · October 12th, 2012, 02:53 PM

That's awful, Neptunia. All that just because one person couldn't stop from drinking and driving.

**Karistiona** · October 12th, 2012, 03:51 PM

Just a baby, how terribly sad

**juggernautofsin** · October 12th, 2012, 04:27 PM

This is really sad. RIP.

I would just like to point out that it's actually not true for the drunk driver in these crashes to be more likely to survive. They are over 50% more likely to be killed or severely injured than anyone else involved. Our perception is simply warped because these events get more media attention when an arrest is made.