Daily Clips
January 22, 2018
LOCAL
A year after Ventura's death, KC still hurting
January 21, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Remembering Yordano Ventura’s legacy 1 year after his tragic death
January 22, 2018By Daniel Barnett, Jared Koller & Stephanie Kayser/KCTV5.com
NATIONAL
Yordano left indelible mark in Kansas City
Late righty helped revive city, Royals in pennant-winning seasons
January 21, 2018By Joe Posnanski/MLB.com
MLB TRANSACTIONS
January 22, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
A year after Ventura's death, KC still hurting
January 21, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Shock. Disbelief and denial. Overwhelming sadness.
One year ago today, Royals players, club officials and fans awoke to the tragic news, likely sifting through an array of emotions as they stared at their cell phones, trying to comprehend the words: Royals star pitcher Yordano Ventura was dead at the age of 25 after an auto accident in the Dominican Republic.
Some Royals players got the news on Twitter. Some got the news through a group text from veteran Alex Gordon, who confirmed Ventura's passing through the club.
"It was just so hard to comprehend," Gordon told MLB.com by phone. "It was so hard to grasp. Why did it happen? How could it have happened?"
Royals general manager Dayton Moore's cell phone began ringing that morning as he boarded an early flight from Kansas City to Atlanta. Friends and other club officials wanted to know if the news was true.
At first, Moore was convinced they were referring to Andy Marte, a former big leaguer whom Moore had known in the Braves' organization in the early 2000s. Marte, coincidentally, also had died in an auto accident in the Dominican several hours earlier.
But by the time Moore's flight landed, the commissioner's office had confirmed to him the awful truth.
"It's almost impossible to grasp right away," Moore said, looking back. "We signed Yordano as a kid and we knew him before he became a man. But as the day went on and the more calls we made, the more it became real to me."
In his role as general manager, Moore really had precious little time to grieve. Duty called. He had a job to do, phone calls and arrangements to make. And above all else, he had to lead the organization, almost as a paternal figure, through this sorrowful time.
Later that night, several players, including Gordon, Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy and then Royals infielder Christian Colon, gathered at Kauffman Stadium for an impromptu vigil. As they neared the front doors, fans already had begun placing memorial flowers and tributes to Ventura outside.
"That night helped me a lot," Gordon said. "It helped to grieve with friends."
Two days later, Moore and other club officials, Royals players including Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez, and other Major League players arrived in the Dominican for Ventura's funeral.
Thousands of Ventura's fans attended and walked the progression through the streets of his hometown of Las Terrenas. And to this day, Perez still can't bring himself to speak of Ventura's passing publicly.
"Everyone grieves differently," Duffy said. "There's no playbook for it."
But an unexpected blessing soon would appear on the horizon. Just a few days later, the club's annual Fan Fest would take place.
"To be honest," Moore said, "it couldn't have come at a better time."
Indeed, there were several hallmarks of healing ahead.
First, there was a private memorial service for players and club officials just prior to Fan Fest. As players and coaches and officials eulogized Ventura, sadness began to be replaced by the joyful memories of Ventura's playful persona.
"He may have rubbed some people the wrong way," Gordon said, "but if you knew him, he didn't mean anything by it. He was just passionate about everything he did. And the kid loved to have fun."
Thousands of fans poured into Fan Fest that weekend to see a special tribute to Ventura's career in a room on the top floor at downtown Bartle Hall -- the tribute was complete with a mound decorated by an "ACE 30" banner.
"As an organization, as a city, as a community, I couldn't have been more proud of how everyone came together and rallied around each other," Moore said. "I don't think I'll ever forget that. I was very honored to be part of this organization through it all."
The next stage of healing came on the first day of Spring Training when manager Ned Yost gathered his players around for his annual first-day-of-camp speech.
"It was a great speech," Gordon said. "Ned talked less about the sadness and grieving and more about just celebrating the person Yordano was, feeling grateful for having known him, remembering his smile, his silly laugh, just the funny way he pronounced things even in his own language. The kid had charisma."
There were more tributes to come, such as the one prior to the first Spring Training game in Surprise, Ariz., and then on Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium.
"Opening Day, to see all those people with tears in their eyes," Gordon said, "that was something. And as each moment like that passed, you move on. You remember but you have to move on."
Still, now a year later, the healing is not completely over.
"I still miss the kid," Duffy said. "Always. All those tributes helped. But it didn't make it any more real for me."
Added former Royal Chris Young, who lockered close to Ventura for two years, "I really can't believe it's been a year since Ace passed away. He was such a youthful, passionate, vibrant person ... a big kid. He had a big heart and was always so outgoing to me and my family. It still saddens me to think about the unfulfilled potential of Ace, not as a baseball player, but as a person."
For some, there are lessons to be learned from the tragedy.
"So often we get so wrapped up in our daily lives, the day-to-day existence, that we don't stop to realize how short life is, how fragile it is," Moore said. "I think Yordano's passing was a reminder to all of us of that, to take the time to stop and appreciate."
For others, the Royals clubhouse will never be quite the same.
"I want to keep his spirit around," Duffy said. "Sometimes I really believe he is still around.
"But yes, he's gone. I know that. But I also know we'll see him again. Just not in this place."
Remembering Yordano Ventura’s legacy 1 year after his tragic death
January 22, 2018By Daniel Barnett, Jared Koller & Stephanie Kayser/KCTV5.com
On January 22, 2017, exactly one year ago, the Royals, the Kansas City community and the entire sports world mourned the loss of 25-year old pitcher Yordano Ventura.
While a car accident in Ventura’s home country of the Dominican Republic cut the promising young ace’s life and career short, his legacy still lives on in 2018.
Ventura spent just three full seasons in Kansas City but his impact on the ballclub, organization and fan base was on full display throughout the 2017 regular season.
Every Royals uniform was adorned with a black “Ace 30” right sleeve patch, with many Kansas City players like Salvador Perez, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer all touching the patch every time they rounded third following a home run.
Ace 30 banners, murals and tributes scattered throughout Kauffman Stadium and the team held an emotional celebration of life at the 2017 home opener, capped by Hosmer speaking on behalf of the organization.
“I can assure you that there was no place that felt more like home than on that mound, in front of all you guys, for Yordano,” Hosmer said.
A couple months later, on the day that would have been Ventura’s 26th birthday, former teammate, mentor and Dominican Republic native Edinson Volquez threw the first no-hitter of his career while pitching for the Miami Marlins. He dedicated the performance to Ventura after the game.
Ventura’s legacy is even more present in the small fishing town of Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic, where the right-hander first learned how to pitch and now is home to his final resting place. Members of the organization have visited the town multiple times over the past year, including a group of current Royals prospects working in the community earlier in January.
The Royals plan to renovate the ballpark where Ventura pitched and re-name the space in his honor. Serving as the location for Ventura’s funeral processional that several Royals players attended last January, many signs and paintings honoring their hero can still be seen at the park and throughout the town.
Money raised through the Ace 30 Fund, set up soon after Ventura's passing, were used to fund the renovations.
“The funny thing about Yordano is that he attended this very event that we went on to the Dominican a year ago, just about 10 days before he died. He was excited that in his name we were transforming this field so, a year later, as horrible as it is what happened, we are going to be able to celebrate that with his life,” Royals' Vice President of Community-Affairs and Publicity Toby Cook said.
Other subtle reminders of Ventura’s brief but memorable time in Kansas City reemerged throughout the season. The 2017 MLB Futures Game reminded many of when a then 5’11, A-ball, 21-year-old kid started the 2012 Futures Game in a packed Kauffman Stadium.
An intraleague series against the San Francisco Giants brought back memories of perhaps Ventura’s crowning achievement, starting and winning two World Series games in his first ever taste of the postseason. After allowing just two runs en-route to a Kansas City win in game two of the 2014 series, he threw seven scoreless innings in game six, pushing the series to the brink.
Ventura dedicated the performance to Oscar Taveras, a friend and fellow Dominican Republic native who passed away in a car accident, two days before the game. A tribute eerily similar to what Volquez would do for Ventura, less than three years later.
But part of Ventura’s legacy will forever be tied to what the future may have looked like. As Kansas City prepares to enter a rebuilding phase of some kind in 2018, one can only wonder how different things would be if Ventura, fully entering the prime of his career by now, was still a mainstay in the rotation.
As Hosmer, Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar all test the free agent waters, Ventura was one of the few players signed long-term in Kansas City. Paired up with left-hander Danny Duffy, the two were meant to headline the rotation through at least 2020.
Instead, the Royals have struggled to fill Ventura’s role in the rotation, let alone his spark in the clubhouse.
While his 2016 season was the least impressive of his three big league years, the upside was still very high with a 100-mph fastball and devastating off-speed stuff.
Now, instead of serving as a role model or ideal to strive to for many Latin America born players in the Royals organization, Ventura serves as a sobering reminder of how precious time is and how vulnerable everyone is, regardless of status, talent or age.
The moments, memories and feelings Ventura gave Kansas City are still there one year later and the impact he had on the organization and fan base will continue to live on for years to come. But just as the good side of his legacy lives on, so will the lasting thought of what could have been for both Ventura and Kansas City.
All these conflicting thoughts, feelings and memories will not be lost amongst Royals fans, as the fan base mourns on the one-year anniversary of losing one of the game’s bright young faces.
NATIONAL
Yordano left indelible mark in Kansas City
Late righty helped revive city, Royals in pennant-winning seasons
January 21, 2018By Joe Posnanski/MLB.com
As the years go on, and memory grows faint, it will be difficult to explain just what sort of impact Yordano Ventura made on baseball ... and an entire region of America. His back-of-the-baseball-card numbers -- 38-31 record, 3.89 ERA, 470 strikeouts, 211 walks, no All-Star appearances or American League Cy Young Award votes or seasons with even 200 innings pitched -- will not hint at it.
As we move farther and farther away from the Kansas City Royals' remarkable back-to-back pennants in 2014 and '15, those will lose much of their power. Already, everyone has moved on. In the intervening years, the Cubs won their first World Series in more than a century. The Astros won their first World Series ever. Time moves on. The Royals had their moment. And their moment is gone.
But for a big chunk of the American heartland, in the cities and towns and farms across Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska that endure the scorch of summer and the chill of winter, Ventura meant much more than the numbers and baseball achievements, and a couple of dusty pennants he helped win. Ventura was a symbol of what was possible.
The Royals signed Ventura for $28,000. He was 5-foot-6 and weighed 135 pounds … not coincidentally, the Royals at the time were also roughly 5-foot-6 and weighed 135 pounds. Kansas City signed him in 2007, the same year that it lost 93 games -- a quantum leap forward considering the club had lost 100 games each of the previous three seasons.
Hopeless? Yeah, it was hopeless in Kansas City.
Royals scout Rene Francisco liked the way that Ventura's arm worked. This is scout-speak for that difficult-to-find pitching rhythm that some gifted pitchers simply have. The ball seemed to jump out of Ventura's hand. Francisco recalls Ventura breaking 90 mph with the fastball even then, though others doubt that he was throwing that hard. Either way, he was a Royals kind of player -- too small, too scrawny, too many things had to go right for other teams to have much interest.
They signed him for peanuts and, strangely for the Royals, things started going right. Ventura grew. He gained weight. And his fastball took off. After just a couple of years, he had the club's attention.
"We've got a kid down in the Minors," I remember Royals assistant general manager J.J. Picollo telling me in 2011, "and he's just 20, so we don't know what he can be yet. But he's throwing 100 mph. He looks like a young Pedro Martinez."
It was easy to be skeptical throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The Royals had a lot of future Pedro Martinezes ... and George Bretts ... and Greg Madduxes … and Frank Thomases. Somehow, they never turned out quite that way. But Ventura kept getting better and better. Before the 2014 season, he was one of the better pitching prospects in the game.
Ventura showed up for Spring Training and he changed the complexion of the Kansas City Royals. They called him "Ace" after the Ace Ventura movies, but the name fit better than they expected because Ventura absolutely saw himself as the ace. He was bold and cocky and, as the club's coaches and management said time and again, utterly fearless. His calculation seemed simple: "I have a 100-mph fastball. Who the heck is going to hit me?"
The analysts, the computer simulations, the projection systems predicted another lost season for the Royals. But they won anyway. Ventura was very good in 2014. He won 14 games with a 123 ERA+, had a solid strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.3 to 1) and he allowed only 14 homers all season. But as mentioned, numbers do not explain him or what that Royals team meant to so many. They made Kansas City and towns 100 miles or more in every direction fall in love with baseball again.
That team was young and energetic and unflappable. They didn't mind people doubting them; they loved it. They put the ball in play, were aggressive on the bases, played otherworldly defense and closed the door in the late innings. And, they never really stopped believing they would win. When they were down, 7-3, in the 2014 AL Wild Card Game against the A's -- a game in which Ventura surprisingly had been brought in for relief and gave up a three-run homer -- Royals manager Ned Yost said, "I wasn't worried. I knew they'd find a way. I know people say that kind of thing all the time, but I'm serious. That group, I just knew they'd find a way."
They found a way. They made it to the World Series and all the way to Game 7, when a superhuman pitcher named Madison Bumgarner beat them almost singlehandedly. Then came 2015, and the Royals from Opening Day knew they were destined to win it all.
The team had leaders in every direction -- Mike Moustakas led with unfailing optimism, Alex Gordon led silently, Eric Hosmer led by just having more fun than anyone else, Lorenzo Cain led by running down fly balls no one else could reach.