The entire MLB was saddened the morning of January 22nd, 2017 when we received news that beloved pitcher for the Royals Yordano Ventura was killed in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic. It was confirmed by his agency, ISE Baseball, that Yordano Ventura is no longer among us. The Royals have also confirmed Ventura’s death and released a statement.
Many baseball fans remember the heartbreaking day in October of 2014 that Oscar Taveras was killed in a car crash at age 22 along with his girlfriend who was just 18. Angels fans remember the death of Nick Adenhart in a car crash just hours after pitching six shutout innings against the Oakland A’s in 2009 all too well. Also, we all remember the shocking death of Jose Fernandez who at approximately 3:00 AM in the morning on September 25th was killed in a boat crash with alcohol and cocaine in his system.
Well, today the baseball world was hit by two more deaths, the first came to 33-year-old Andy Marte who also died in an unrelated car crash to Ventura’s in the Dominican Republic, and of course, the second, to Yordano Ventura.
In his career, Ventura pitched 94 games in his career with a career 34-31 career win-loss percentage. He also had a career 1.34 WHIP, 470 career strikeouts, in 547.2 career innings pitched. He was well known for his outstanding fastball that could reach triple digits, and his constant beanball wars. According to Nate Bukaty, Ventura was like a “little brother” to the teammates.
Ventura was always a class act. When Oscar Taveras passed in 2014, Ventura had “12 R.I.P O.T” written on his cap, when Fernandez died, he wrote “16 R.I.P J.F” right next to it. Little did he know that he would be next.
Today, the baseball community has reached out to Ventura and Marte via Twitter, here are some of the countless Tweets regarding their deaths.
The death of Yordano Ventura leaves a hole in the Royals starting rotation, but this is not the time to be talking about baseball. Instead, we should honor Ventura, and let his teammates and family heal from the pain of this massive loss, not just to the MLB but to the World. So I speak on behalf of everyone when I say, “Yordano, R.I.P”.
Doubleday Double Talk 