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Oct/14
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Baseball mourns the loss of Taveras

Revue de presse

Bob Elliott, Toronto Sun, le 28 octobre 2014

Oscar Taveras SAN FRANCISCO — Raimondo Callari was in section 321, second row, seats 13-14 with his daughter Olivia at AT&T Park on Sunday night.

Callari scouts Canada for the San Francisco Giants.

The Montrealer wears a 2010 World Series Giants ring on his left hand and a 2012 World Series ring on his right.

On a beautiful evening, Callari and his 13-year-old daughter settled into their seats to watch Madison Bumgarner fool Kansas City Royals hitters in one of the most picturesque parks this side of PNC Park.

And then in the second inning the cell phone in his back pocket buzzed for the first time. The text was from Montreal Giants sandlot coach Frank Martinez.

And it was awful, awful news.

Oscar Taveras had been killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic.

Callari said he went numb when he was told the news.

Taveras, who turned 22 on Aug. 22, and his girlfriend, Edilia Arvelo, were in the fatal crash.

In between texts and phone calls from home and fellow Giants scouts who knew of Taveras’ Montreal background, Callari watched Bumgarner shut out the Royals 5-0 as San Francisco moved within a game of its third World Series title in five years.

“It was a bittersweet, sombre victory,” said the scout. “This stinks. It is awful.

“I have kids. I can’t imagine if this was one of my kids. This boy was just a kid at heart. The key word being kid.”

* * *

Very sad news about #OscarTaveras today #RIPOscarTaveras my condolences go out to his family and his loved ones

Jose Bautista, @JoeyBats19

* * *

Giants back-up outfielder Juan Perez heard the news when he was working out in a room behind the team’s third base dugout.

Actually he overheard from someone from the commissioner’s office say “Oscar Taveras had been killed in a car accident.”

“Are you sure,” Perez asked.

Perez and Raul Burgos, Taveras’ brother, were good friends and teammates.

How could Perez and Taveras not be friends when he finally became a teammate in 2011 in winter ball with the Aguilas Cibaenas? “Every day Raul would tell me, ‘My little brother, he’s going to be special,” said Perez.

And 10 days earlier in the National League Championship Series, Taveras bounced out to end the top of the ninth with the bases loaded before Travis Ishikawa hit a walk-off three-run homer to send the Giants to the World Series.

Not believing or wanting to believe Perez raced to the stairs to the clubhouse to look at his phone. There was one message after another, likely 20, from friends that Taveras and his girlfriend had been killed.

Perez broke down.

“When I found him he was crying,” said Giants hitting coach Hensley Meulens. “I asked him what was wrong. I didn’t know.”

Reliever Santiago Casilla told Perez not to look at the Twitter picture of the red car.

* * *

I am just 10 years old and we never met but I am sad and will miss watching you and will wear #18 for you forever. RIP.

Ben Tyler
Franklin, Mass.

On Facebook

* * *

Francisco Munoz, Taveras’ father, and Callari played on the same fast-pitch team in Outremont about 10 years ago.

Running around the outfield were Ismael Pena and Taveras. An outfielder, Pena, born in Montreal, signed with Arizona last year receiving a $750,000 US signing bonus.

“Back then Oscar was clumsy, rolly polly, he was 12 or 13, hanging around on his father’s coat tails the way kids do at a park,” Callari said. “Oscar was always smiling, saying to me, ‘Hey will you throw with me please.’

“We had fun. It was like baseball in the Dominican. Everyone was happy. Playing for fun. Loud music playing.”

Then, Taveras signed up for baseball and Callari saw him again on the Montreal sandlots.

“His talent played above his age group,” said Callari, who said Taveras made the Montreal Orioles midget triple-A league as an under-ager at 15.

“People don’t know what a large Latin community we have in Montreal,” said Callari. “Didn’t matter where a kid was from — The Dominican, Nicaragua, Venezuela — Oscar Taveras was a good role model to all those kids.

“Everyone in Montreal who ever met the kid is devastated.”

Callari heard from most Sunday night, plus Giants scouts Paul Turco and John Castlebury.

Taveras returned to the Dominican, needing a Canadian passport to gain entry.

* * *

Last 30 minutes I’ve been sick to my stomach. Keep thinking about Oscar’s big smile in the dugout whenever we made a big play/got a big hit

Revue de presse publiée par Jacques Lanciault.

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