I know we’re a few days late on this but I wasn’t really interested in blogging it to be honest. I jotted some feelings down for an Indians website I also write for, but we try to keep things more light-hearted and fun here on Bottlegate. A way to kill a couple minutes of your day and hopefully induce a few laughs. This story was about as far from that as you can get.

For those of you who maybe haven’t turned on Sportscenter or gone on Twitter the past few days, baseball unexpectedly lost one of its brightest young stars on Sunday. 22-year-old St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras and his 18-year-old girlfriend Edilia Arvelo were killed in a car accident while driving in the Dominican Republic. He has been all over every “top prospect” list since he first signed with the Cardinals in 2008, finally making his MLB debut in May of this year (and ended up leaving the yard for his first major league hit). A couple weeks ago, he was called on to pinch hit with his team down one run to the Giants in Game 2 of the NLCS. He did this:

That would turn out to be the second-to-last hit of his career.

Baseball aside, it was an unspeakable tragedy. It’s especially heartbreaking when young people are taken from us too soon. And while the news is still fresh and just as shocking as it was three days ago, sometimes tragedies bring people together. They create a support system. Fans and players from around the league, and many people with no baseball affiliation whatsoever, are coming together to support not only Oscar’s family and the St. Louis Cardinals, but each other as well. That’s why I wanted to blog this. In a time of Ebola scares, political disagreements, rising concerns about domestic violence and all sorts of other stuff, people are able to put all of it aside and be there for whoever needs it. Sort of gives you a little bit of hope, doesn’t it?

(Click to play, last night’s moment of silence before Game 6)