Royals’ Ventura killed in car crash in Dominican Republic
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Yordano Ventura quit school as a teenager so he could begin working a construction job to help his family make ends meet, labouring day after day in the hot sun of the Dominican Republic.
It was a chance tryout with the Kansas City Royals that changed the trajectory of his life.
Yordano wowed scouts with an electrifying fastball, the best they had seen in years, and a confident demeanour that bordered on brash and arrogant. And both of those traits served him well as he rocketed to the major leagues, helped the Royals win a long-awaited World Series championship in 2015, and became one of the most popular players in a city that embraced baseball one again.
Ventura, whose nickname “Ace” fit so perfectly, died Sunday in a car crash on a stretch of highway near the town of San Adrian in his native Dominican Republic. He was 25.