Over this past weekend on Jan. 22, the Major League Baseball community endured two tragedies. Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura was killed in a car accident, as was former major league infielder Andy Marte. While the crashes were separate scenes, both took place in the Dominican Republic, an unpleasantly popular site for such incidents.
In the town of Boca Chica, located roughly 25 miles west from the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, is the Yankees’ baseball academy. Since 2009, it’s been managed by native Joel Lithgow, who’s seen these tragedies occur all too often.
“It breaks my heart,” Lithgow told Dan Martin of the New York Post. “I thought, ‘What can we do better?’ These are guys in the majors, and it’s happening to them.”
Before running the academy, Lithgow investigated identity fraud as an attorney for Major League Baseball. For the last seven years, he’s watched the likes of Gary Sanchez and Luis Severino move their way up the Yankees’ prospect ladder, and over the course of this time, he believes the franchise and sport have made conditions safer for international ballplayers. But when his camp opens its doors in February, he’ll once again feel the need to share an important message.
“We tell players to either be back by Sunday at 6 or Monday morning to avoid driving at night,” said Lithgow, whose academy is located via a dangerous driving route. “I don’t think we’ll change anything we do, just reinforce it. Our first meeting will be about how you don’t own the world just because you have a few bucks. But it’s part of the culture.”
The culture has continued to emerge in the States at a successful rate, and even if a player is American-born, his family roots tend to bring him back to the Dominican. One of those players is New York native and Yankees reliever Dellin Betances, who spends at least a month working out there during the offseason.
“I didn’t know [Ventura] well, but I would always talk to him when I saw him on the field,” Betances told Martin. “It’s just sad seeing guys die at a young age. You always try to advise the younger guys that at a certain age, you need to know what you’re doing and how to stay safe and certain situations to avoid — like driving alone at night.
“They have laws [in the Dominican], but they don’t really enforce them. So guys do what they want.”
While these accidents aren’t just a Dominican issue, the country has been known as one of the most dangerous countries in the world to drive in. According to 2015 statistics from the World Health Organization, there are 29.3 auto accident fatalities annually per 100,000 Dominican residents, ranked deadliest in the western hemisphere. The WHO also rated the country a “2” on a 1-to-10 scale on enforcement of drunk-driving laws, and a “3” for enforcement of speeding laws.
The Yankees are no stranger to this news, either. In 2006, Oscar Acosta was killed in a car accident while working with minor leaguers.
“It’s a third-world country, and drunk driving has a long history here,” said Pat McMahon, who had spent the last five years as the Yankees director of international player development before changing roles this year. “It’s very tragic. We try to be proactive.”
One of the initiatives is bringing in the country’s head of traffic safety to speak to the players. Over a two-day period, graphic pictures and footage of car accidents are shown with the hope of players taking further precaution when on the road.
“There are still problems,” McMahon said. “The roads are terrible. Some young men don’t grow up and they don’t have the laws down here to constrain them. It’s very frustrating. The seminars impact some more than others, and we’ve made significant progress, but we still need to do more.”
If you want to connect with Tom Hanslin, email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @tomhanslin.
