RIP Yordano Ventura

[Jim Dolan]

what is going on down there in the DR......sad for their families. RIP

[Wo1verine]

I know it's different in the DR but having the police head honcho post a picture of the crash with Yordano's dead body featured is disrespectful to his family.

While i didn't agree with some of his throwing decisions it was hard not to absolutely LOVE his passion for the game!

Rest in peace.

[Skin Blues]

So how many people have been killed by baseball players driving cars/boats drunk, while we currently hand out 30+ game suspensions for unverified accusations of domestic abuse?

I don't think it's fair to compare the two. If he had gotten into an accident while driving drunk and caused injury or death while surviving himself, he would be being criminally prosecuted right now. He wouldn't even be allowed back into the United States, let alone play in MLB.

With unverified cases of domestic abuse, the criminal system can't do anything, but MLB still has to act in order to show that they're tough on the issue.

Please share with me the list of Dominican players that have been suspended or otherwise prevented from playing for their team due to drinking and driving. Jung Ho Kang just had his 3rd DUI in Korea last month and will have no problem returning, again, the the US. Apparently the first 2 DUIs weren't enough to keep him out of the country, or off the baseball field. He also has been arrested for an alleged sexual assault in Chicago. And Miggy Cabrera, he of the tearful emoji tweets from yesterday, had his own incident:

"Inside the vehicle, Cabrera smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and took a swig from a bottle of scotch in front of a deputy, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. He refused to cooperate and more deputies were called to the scene.

According to the police report, Cabrera was wandering into the road with his hands up before he was handcuffed. The report quoted him saying, "Do you know who I am? You don't know anything about my problems," and cursing at deputies who tried to get him into a patrol car.

One deputy struck Cabrera in the left thigh several times with his knee after Cabrera pushed into him, causing the ballplayer to fall into the patrol car. Cabrera refused to take a breath test, deputies said.

He was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and resisting an officer without violence."

He didn't face even a one game suspension for that. As far as I can tell nobody has ever been suspended for DUIs, and you know there have been tons of them.

MLB doesn't have to act on a police report that either never leads to charges, or one where the charges are dropped due to lack of evidence. They choose to do that because that's what the public wants. Being accused of hitting a woman (not a man, obviously - that's fine and quite common, both on and off the field) is far worse than driving drunk and being convicted of a DUI. Crazy. And then stuff like this weekend happens and nobody wants to talk about it because it's disrespectful to the families. Yeah, screw that. This is when it needs to be talked about. When people are paying attention.

[JN]

So how many people have been killed by baseball players driving cars/boats drunk, while we currently hand out 30+ game suspensions for unverified accusations of domestic abuse?

I don't think it's fair to compare the two. If he had gotten into an accident while driving drunk and caused injury or death while surviving himself, he would be being criminally prosecuted right now. He wouldn't even be allowed back into the United States, let alone play in MLB.

With unverified cases of domestic abuse, the criminal system can't do anything, but MLB still has to act in order to show that they're tough on the issue.

Please share with me the list of Dominican players that have been suspended or otherwise prevented from playing for their team due to drinking and driving. Jung Ho Kang just had his 3rd DUI in Korea last month and will have no problem returning, again, the the US. Apparently the first 2 DUIs weren't enough to keep him out of the country, or off the baseball field. He also has been arrested for an alleged sexual assault in Chicago. And Miggy Cabrera, he of the tearful emoji tweets from yesterday, had his own incident:

"Inside the vehicle, Cabrera smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and took a swig from a bottle of scotch in front of a deputy, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. He refused to cooperate and more deputies were called to the scene.

According to the police report, Cabrera was wandering into the road with his hands up before he was handcuffed. The report quoted him saying, "Do you know who I am? You don't know anything about my problems," and cursing at deputies who tried to get him into a patrol car.

One deputy struck Cabrera in the left thigh several times with his knee after Cabrera pushed into him, causing the ballplayer to fall into the patrol car. Cabrera refused to take a breath test, deputies said.

He was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and resisting an officer without violence."

He didn't face even a one game suspension for that. As far as I can tell nobody has ever been suspended for DUIs, and you know there have been tons of them.

MLB doesn't have to act on a police report that either never leads to charges, or one where the charges are dropped due to lack of evidence. They choose to do that because that's what the public wants. Being accused of hitting a woman (not a man, obviously - that's fine and quite common, both on and off the field) is far worse than driving drunk and being convicted of a DUI. Crazy. And then stuff like this weekend happens and nobody wants to talk about it because it's disrespectful to the families. Yeah, screw that. This is when it needs to be talked about. When people are paying attention.

How about they both are punished?

Why argue which is worse or attempt to diminish domestic abuse.

[Skin Blues]

That's a whole other can of worms, but my point is for a much less severe crime which often has little evidence and if never even prosecuted, we have very severe punishments. I think the domestic abuse suspensions got way out of hand, and it's because the public reacts so strongly to them. It's just amazing that the public doesn't seem to care about athletes' DUI charges despite how many innocent people they kill every year.

[rarefind]

Ventura used to head hunt guys with 98 mph fastballs, and he was drunk when he crashed? Not sure how much sympathy I can have for this guy.

Trash post.

The guy threw at people's heads on purpose. He started several feuds by doing that. Based on his actions on and off the field, we're lucky he only killed himself. I'm not saying I'm happy he died or something.

Still a pretty crappy post tbh, especially when you factor in no evidence of alcohol. Tox reports due in a few weeks, but someone is dead. The gravity of that is greater than anything baseball related. If Adam Eaton and Jose Bautista can both be empathetic of Ventura's passing, it should speak volumes to you.

[vaff87]

Trash post.

The guy threw at people's heads on purpose. He started several feuds by doing that. Based on his actions on and off the field, we're lucky he only killed himself. I'm not saying I'm happy he died or something.

Still a pretty crappy post tbh, especially when you factor in no evidence of alcohol. Tox reports due in a few weeks, but someone is dead. The gravity of that is greater than anything baseball related. If Adam Eaton and Jose Bautista can both be empathetic of Ventura's passing, it should speak volumes to you.

Nobody's happy that he died here. I'm just not sure how much I should care about a guy I didn't know that was kind of **** head. It's not that I don't care, I just don't care as much as I did when Jose Fernandez died, for example.

[wamco]

You monster

[LBJSeizedMyID]

They really need to rethink the DUI thing over there. Too many lives are being lost because this type of behaviour is accepted.

[theinfamous07]

Just came across this headline: Pedro Martinez Calls For Investigation Into Yordano Ventura’s Death

http://nesn.com/2017/01/pedro-martinez-calls-for-investigation-into-yordano-venturas-death/

In English, Martinez’s tweets say, “It’s shocking to know that a life like Yordano’s could have been saved if not for him being looted the way he was looted. Now it’s more painful to know that Yordano was alive after the accident, and instead of someone coming to his aid, they robbed him and left him for dead. I hope an investigation is brought up because if accurate evidence of this exists, I’ll feel embarrassed for my country.”

[vaff87]

Just came across this headline: Pedro Martinez Calls For Investigation Into Yordano Ventura’s Death

http://nesn.com/2017/01/pedro-martinez-calls-for-investigation-into-yordano-venturas-death/

In English, Martinez’s tweets say, “It’s shocking to know that a life like Yordano’s could have been saved if not for him being looted the way he was looted. Now it’s more painful to know that Yordano was alive after the accident, and instead of someone coming to his aid, they robbed him and left him for dead. I hope an investigation is brought up because if accurate evidence of this exists, I’ll feel embarrassed for my country.”

Yeah, my friend sent me that today. Some people are sick. Guy is dying, and instead of helping, you beat him up and take his things. Smh.

[I_Like_Dirt]

That's a whole other can of worms, but my point is for a much less severe crime which often has little evidence and if never even prosecuted, we have very severe punishments. I think the domestic abuse suspensions got way out of hand, and it's because the public reacts so strongly to them. It's just amazing that the public doesn't seem to care about athletes' DUI charges despite how many innocent people they kill every year.

I don't think they're mutually exclusive. I tend to think the domestic stuff is fine, although personally I think it really comes down to the criminal justice stuff being too lenient and in an ideal world those kinds of suspensions wouldn't be necessary. Honestly, that's a point I think also applies to DUIs as well. DUIs kill a lot of people, but it's tough to say that athletes specifically kill a lot of people with DUIs, much as domestic stuff winds up killing a lot of people each year, even if it isn't necessarily athletes doing the killing. Personally, I think the domestic suspensions are fine and would also be in favour of ramping up suspensions for DUIs, particularly when things like marijuana in pro sports are so hammered down upon. The public reacting more negatively to the domestic stuff over DUIs I get, though; rightly or wrongly, there is the initial shock because the action, while not necessarily resulting in death, is absolutely intending harm and shocking, whereas a DUI is nothing of the sort until it actually results in an injury when things go wrong, so the intent is clearly different. Personally I tend to think stupid is stupid and denormalizing both behaviours is a positive.

[rbp246]

I don'y have actual stats to back up this number but i'm sure over 70% of the population has at one point went out for supper and consumed 2 to 3 drinks during that span and proceeded to drive home after. This would be enough to put you over the legal limit in most places. I'm all for suspensions for dui's but I am sure there is some leniency because of the fact that most people at some point in there life have operated a motor vehicle after consuming some alcohol.

If you really want to crack down on drunk driving, the automakers should be installing breath analyzers in all vehicles. Will this ever happen? Likely not..the legal system makes to much money off of drunk driving cases.

[I_Like_Dirt]

I generally agree, rbp. I think there are much better ways of handling those kinds of behaviours than having employers hand out public suspensions through the court of public opinion. The reality is that we don't, though, and the court of public opinion is one of the few that really gets enforced, sadly. Not sure what to make of that, but I'm getting off topic from baseball.

[rbp246]

Ventura used to head hunt guys with 98 mph fastballs, and he was drunk when he crashed? Not sure how much sympathy I can have for this guy.

Have you ever played any competitive sport? Im thinking not.