January 22, 2017

Royals Pitcher Yordano Ventura Dies in Car Crash: Kansas City Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura died in a car crash Sunday in the Dominican Republic. He was 25. Ventura, who set an MLB rookie record with an 103 mph fastball, pitched his last game in a cap that paid tribute to friends and fellow Major Leaguers Jose Fernandez and Oscar Taveras, who both also died tragically in crashes in recent years.

posted by rcade to baseball at 12:28 PM - 4 comments

Extra weird coincidence:

Former major leaguer (and one time top prospect) Andy Marte was also killed this morning in a drunk driving accident. His plate appearance in the majors (August 2014) was against Yordano Ventura.

Drunk driving deaths are far too common in the DR.

posted by grum@work at 01:14 PM on January 22, 2017

Major League Baseball has a crisis of driving under the influence. I don't know what they currently offer prospects and other young athletes to educate them, but it's time to put together a stronger awareness campaign throughout the sport.

Ventura seemed like a talent who was going to put it all together and dominate the game. Such a shame.

posted by rcade at 01:31 PM on January 22, 2017

Ventura seemed like a talent who was going to put it all together and dominate the game.

Actually, he looked like a talent that was losing control. His ERA kept climbing and his head-hunting/fight-starting ways were making him unpopular with his teammates (just watch Salvador Perez's nonchalant effort to stop Machado going after Ventura, plus comments from his manager suggested he wasn't really defending him any more).

This also wasn't the first time he was drinking and driving. An advisor at a baseball academy tweeted this on October 16th:

Got to the DR this am & in just one night I've seen multiple MLB players and prospects drinking and driving. Man the culture needs change

He then tweeted this morning (after news of Ventura came out):

I tweeted this the morning after seeing Yordano out at the clubs drinking and driving 😢😞 RIP. Didn't want to use his name at the time

It sounds like he was on a self-destructive path. It's a shame someone couldn't pull him out of it before it ended like this.

posted by grum@work at 03:49 PM on January 22, 2017

Actually, he looked like a talent that was losing control.

He was only 25. In the short term he was losing it mentally but most players get their head right as their 20s progress.

posted by rcade at 04:11 PM on January 22, 2017

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