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Baseball mourns the deaths of Yordano Ventura and Andy Marte
Monday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the reactions to the tragic passing of Yordano Ventura and Andy Marte.
Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images
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We’re going to skip the editorial and get right to the stories this morning, as baseball lost two players to car accidents in the Dominican Republic on Sunday morning: Royals’ pitcher Yordano Ventura and former top prospect and infielder for a number of big-league teams, Andy Marte.
- Marte has been around the game for a long while, but he was just 33 years old, and was traveling alone in his native Dominican Republic when the crash occurred.
- Later that same morning, it was reported that Ventura had died in a separate accident, also in the Dominican Republic.
- Grant Brisbee writes that these crashes force us to remember not just these two players, but that nothing makes sense.
- Michael Baumann described Ventura as a joy to watch, saying “his flair for the dramatic was unparalleled. ”
- Joe Posnanski described the rise of Ventura from a skinny kid to the ace of the Royals.
- Regardless of your own memories of Ventura or Marte, we can all come together in the knowledge that they’ve left us too soon.
- Not that it would change the level of tragedy, but you might be happy to know that there was no sign of alcohol at the site of Ventura’s accident. Well, “happy” is a strong word for what you’d feel, but there it is.
- Ventura wasn’t wearing a seat belt, however, which is tragically a common experience in the Dominican Republic: it’s the deadliest country for motor vehicle-related deaths, and as Jorge Arangure Jr. wrote after Oscar Taveras’ death, the rules of the road are merely suggestions there.
- Ventura and Marte make five baseball deaths due to car accidents in the Dominican Republic in the last year.
- We’re not going to end on the depressing state of driver safety in the home country of Ventura and Marte. Here’s a tribute from KCTV5 for Ventura.
- And last, fans offered Ventura’s teammates, Danny Duffy and Christian Colon, condolences outside Kauffman Stadium.
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