NEWSLETTER
With great sadness, I wanted to let you all know that, according to multiple reports, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras has died after being involved in a car accident in the Dominican Republic. Taveras was just 22, and his girlfriend was also killed in the accident.
There’s no right way to process news like this, and we’re all just going to feel how we feel. For me, I’m just very sad.
It’s heartbreaking when anyone dies so young, so suddenly. But our connection to Taveras is baseball, and that’s the context in which we receive this news. For baseball fans – yes, even Cubs fans – this is particularly sad. Taveras had all the talent in the world, and would have been the kind of player we all love to watch – and lament when he was beating your team. You can’t perform any better in the minor leagues than Taveras did, and he seemed to be right on the cusp of a years-long breakout at the big league level. Whenever I thought about the Cardinals’ future, Taveras was always among the first players that came to mind.
The game of baseball certainly lost something today, but don’t lose perspective: two families lost young people. My heart genuinely goes out to them, to the people of the Cardinals’ organization, to the fans who cared about Taveras, and to everyone who takes a moment to reflect on their own loved ones.
