Cards rookie Taveras was killed in an automobile accident.
Baseball lost one of its future stars on Sunday. The Dominican Republic has lost one of its cherished sons.
Oscar Taveras, the Cardinals’ top outfield prospect, and his girlfriend, Edilia Arvelo, 18, were murdered in a Sunday afternoon automobile accident near his home on the Caribbean island. He was 22.
Taveras made his major league debut with a home run as rain fell over Busch Stadium in St. Louis. His teammates met him in the dugout with high fives and back pats. As supporters cheered for the young Dominican player, he ran up the steps of the dugout, turned to face them, and waved for his first curtain call.
It was his Major League debut, an appropriate introduction for one of baseball’s most coveted prospects.
This was Oscar’s way of saying “hello.”
Four months later, a crowd cheered Taveras again, this time on the biggest stage in the postseason, when he launched a game-tying pinch-hit homer in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
Another curtain call followed. He took another jog up the dugout steps. He smiled and hurled his helmet into the air, waving to the St. Louis supporters.
This much was certain: Taveras loved his fans, and they loved him back.
But it would be Taveras’ final game at Busch Stadium, his curtain call.
“We are all stunned and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of the Cardinals’ youngest members,” Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. stated. “Oscar was an incredible talent with a bright future who passed away far too soon. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends tonight.
Taveras was driving a red 2014 Chevrolet Camaro in Puerto Plata, about 215 miles north of the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo, when his car collided with a tree on the Sosua-Cabarete freeway at 7:40 p.m. ET, according to a report issued by Brigade General Francisco Romero Lopez of the Northern Regional National Police. Taveras died from various injuries while receiving treatment at
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