Regarding reports of Oscar Taveras dying in a car crash, GM Mozeliak heard from Taveras’ agent about 35 minutes ago with the news…
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) October 27, 2014
From Mozeliak: “Obviously, we have deep condolences to his family. We are still waiting for more details before issuing a full statement.” — Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) October 27, 2014
140 characters never seemed so powerful, so gut-wrenching.
Oscar Taveras, the prime prospect in the Cardinal organization, a player that tantalized fans with promise and provided an amazing moment in his first at bat, is gone. A player, a young man with so much promise, so many plans in front of him is taken before he can even start that journey.
We don’t know the details, we don’t know the how or why, but it doesn’t matter. We’ll never see if Taveras could be that prospect that we always had dreamed he could be. We’ll never know if he can be the next Albert Pujols, as John Mozeliak thought he could be. We’ll never know if he’d eventually take his place in the parthenon of Cardinal greats, up there with Ozzie Smith or Bob Gibson. Who knows, he could have flamed out and been a guy that moved on to another team, never fulfilling that promise.
I always felt with that smile and that joyous spirit, Taveras was going to be a huge fan favorite in St. Louis as soon as he started producing enough to let folks see that spark. His excitement in the dugout when big things happened was infectious enough, but seeing him grin while standing on first after a big base hit was just superb.
Taveras was with his girlfriend in the car, who also passed away in the accident. There are two families grieving tonight, two families who can’t even think of tomorrow when getting through the next minute is tough enough. We hurt with those families as well, even if our shock and grief is at a remove. We only knew the baseball player and, as selfish and as callous as it may seem, we only knew him for what he brought to the team. We didn’t know him as a son, a friend, a possible son-in-law. We didn’t know his girlfriend at all. The pain we feel is just a small shadow of what they are going through tonight.
I’m rambling, spitting out cliches and wishing I had something profound to say in this time of mourning. Unfortunately, so often in these times, there is nothing to say. We grieve, we pray, we mourn. That’s all we can do. It’s inadequate, but it’s all we have.
Cardinal fans have been through this with Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock, but familiarity doesn’t ease the sting in any form. This is going to hurt for a long while.
