Blues Reflect On The Passing Of Oscar Taveras

The shocking and sudden passing of Cardinals outfielder and top young prospect Oscar Taveras and his girlfriend, Edilia Arvelo, has left all of us St. Louis sports fans heartbroken. Saying it rendered me speechless would be an understatement. I would be lying if I said that tears didn't come to my eyes when I saw the news. No one should leave us like that, and it seems all the more unfair when you look at how young they were and how much potential that Taveras had to be great.

KMOV spoke with members of the Blues after practice today in Dallas regarding the news, and as expected, the team was in shock.

An obviously emotional Backes said he was so shocked by the news, he didn’t even know what to say to reach out to fans and teammates on Twitter.

"I couldn’t even muster out a tweet," he said, "A 22-year-old kid with the world in front of him. You can forget about the baseball part of it, he had a lot of life to live. It hits home when it’s in the St. Louis family.

"Even as a new guy that’s just breaking into the league, people talk about losing a great baseball player, but for me this goes well beyond that. Baseball – sports – is a small window in our lives and we’re very grateful to be playing, but in the end he had a family that he cared about to go back to in the offseason and you can’t even think of words to say to make anything better. Unfortunately we’re one short in the St. Louis sports family today."

Sometimes I'll poke fun at St. Louis sports synergy; sometimes I say how much I love seeing it. WIth something like this, I wish we never had a chance to see how the teams support each other.