Students are devastated by the death of 22 year old St. Louis Cardinals outfielder, Oscar Taveras, who died sunday night in a car crash in his native country, the Dominican Republic.
Taveras was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Camaro on his way to his hometown of Sosua when his car hit a tree near the city of Puerto Plata around 6:40pm St. Louis time (Fox2now). Dominican police confirmed the death of Taveras and his girlfriend Edilia Arvelo, 18, who was in the passenger seat (USA Today).
The unforeseen death of the talented Taveras shocked the entirety of the Major League Baseball community just as Game 5 of the World Series began.
Taveras was only in high school when he signed with St. Louis as an international free agent in 2008, and in 2014 he was ranked the #3 prospect in the major leagues by MLB.com and Baseball America. Many St. Louisans have watched Taveras’ inspiring journey to the top, including senior Carly Beck.
“So crazy that just months ago I watched him hit his first home run in the major leagues and now he’s gone #RIPOscar,” Beck tweeted Sunday night.
Senior Andrew Kaiser also mourns the loss of Taveras. Kaiser, like many other Cards fans, can’t help but contemplate how things would be different if the Cardinals had made it to the World Series.
“Crazy to think if we’d beaten the Giants in the NLCS he’d be playing for the World Series right now instead of going to the Dominican…” Kaiser said. “So tragic for a young guy with such a bright future.”
Nobody expected Taveras’ game-tying pinch-hit home run in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series to be his last. To the Cardinals, Taveras was just getting started.
The doleful loss of Taveras has shattered the uplifting attitude that Cardinal nation is known for. Sophomore Luke Trail paid his respects to Taveras with a tweet expressing the risks of optimism.
“These are the reasons why I don’t like when coaches say ‘there’s always next year’ because for some people there isn’t. #RIPOscar,” Trail tweeted Sunday night.
Trail’s tweet received 40 favorites as of Monday evening. It appears that many students are grieving the tragic, unexpected death of Oscar Taveras.
“#onenation #RIPOscarTaveras” junior Johnny Hall tweeted.
