Graphic photo of late Cardinals OF Oscar Taveras' body circulates
Graphic pictures of St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras made the rounds on social media on Monday, as details of the car accident that killed the 22-year-old rookie started to emerge, reports Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today.
Taveras died Sunday in the Dominican Republic, killed when the car he was driving lost control off a curve and slammed into a tree. Eighteen-year-old Ydelia Arvelos was also killed in the crash.
Taveras will be buried Tuesday in Sosua, Dominican Republic. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny as well as Taveras teammates Yadier Molina and Carlos Martinez are expected to attend the services.
According to the report, a picture of Taveras’ body at the morgue, showing facial injuries and a bruised upper body, started to circulate on Twitter, with several people, including Martinez, retweeting the picture. That tweet was later deleted.
Lieutenant Colonel Jose Armando Brito, a spokesman for the national police that covers the region where the accident happened, said that when a famous person dies, reporters go to the hospital to try to take a picture of the body.
"It's common here for those kind of photos to circulate without any kind of objections,'' Brito told USA Today. "If they were suppressed, people would claim their freedoms are being abridged. They're not aware of the psychological impact these photos could have on the relatives and on people who shouldn't see these kind of things. It's very impactful.”
Taveras was ranked as the No. 3 overall prospect by MLB.com and Baseball America, and hit .239 with three home runs and 22 RBI in 80 major league games this season.
"To say this is a horrible loss of a life ended too soon would be an understatement,” Matheny said in a statement released by the team. "To talk about the potential of his abilities seemed to be untimely. I know the hurt that comes along with buying into the brotherhood of a baseball team. That hurt is just as powerful as the joys that come with this."
- Scooby Axson
