In St. Louis, the death of a particular 22 year old has both stunned and galvanized the city while the death of a particular 18 year old has polarized the city

Oscar Taveras

I was surfing the web and enjoying a pre-World Series Game 5 snack Sunday evening after watching football since 8:30 am when I got a Tweet (Twitter vernacular) from Bleacher Report with some shocking and stunning news.  Oscar Taveras, the prize prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals organization had been killed in an automobile accident in his native Dominican Republic.  For an instant, I thought this was some sick and perverted hoax that commonly makes the rounds in social media.  This could NOT be true.  This was Oscar Taveras who played for the Cardinals – MY Cardinals – and those of us who UNABASHEDLY love the Cardinals were counting on him to not just play on our team but to become a SUPERSTAR in the game for the next 10 years or so.  We Cardinal fans NEEDED Oscar Taveras.  Just weeks after winning the 2011 World Series, the Cardinals allowed Albert Pujols - the player who in his first 10 years in the major leagues compiled the most dominant offensive statistics in the history of baseball - to leave the team in free agency for the greener pastures of Southern California and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  The pastures were MUCH greener moneywise.  Pujols signed a 10 year, $240 million free agent contract with the Angels.  The Cardinals have yet to replace Pujols on their team and were willing to let him walk because they would have the flexibility to sign several of the players on the roster already with the money it would have taken to sign Pujols and because they had Oscar Taveras, who was one of the top hitting prospects in all of baseball, waiting in the wings.  Oscar Taveras was the Chosen One, the Golden Child.  HE was going to be the face of the Cardinals.  We Cardinal fans got a sample of the goods, too, on May 31 of this year.  In his second at bat in his first major league game, Taveras hit a majestic homerun into the right field stands at Busch Stadium with the sweetest left handed swing I have seen since Darryl Strawberry’s swing.  It could not have ben scripted better.  The Cardinals even made a big trade in the middle of the season to clear the way for Taveras to play right field every day.  He had some challenges as an everyday player but his overall potential too enormous to ignore.  Taveras was the next great Cardinal.  Those lofty expectations came to a tragic end on Sunday in the Dominican Republic when, according to reports, Taveras lost control of his Camaro and struck a tree – killing him and his 18 year old girlfriend, Yedelia Arvelos.  St. Louis was absolutely STUNNED.  As soon as the news made the rounds in St. Louis, fans flocked to Busch Stadium Sunday evening and started a makeshift memorial in front of the statue of the most celebrated Cardinal of all – Stan “Stan the Man” Musial.  Cardinal Nation is STUNNED, STAGGERED and WOUNDED.  The tragic death of Oscar Taveras has dominated media outlets in St. Louis.  It has dominated news broadcasts, the local papers, radio talks shows – topical and sports talk shows – the office … EVERYWHERE.  Tributes have poured in from all over baseball from the Commissioner’s office on down.  Juan Perez, who plays for the San Francisco Giants and was a very close friend to the late Oscar Taveras, learned of the tragedy in the middle of Game 5 of the World Series where he was in the starting lineup.  After breaking down and crying uncontrollably in the Giants’ clubhouse, he went back out on the field and got the biggest hit in his career – a bases clearing double that scored 2 runs for the Giants en route to their 5-0 victory in Game 5 against the Kansas City Royals.   Callers and texters on local radio talk shows have expressed their feelings about this tragedy and have offered condolences to the Cardinals organization, the Taveras family, the family of his girlfriend and to all those who love and follow the Cardinals.  The host of a very popular midmorning sports radio talk show here in St. Louis – a guy I worked with at another radio station in town and call a friend; a guy who is a multiple Emmy Award winning journalists and a guy who is as hip as the clueless white cop on who was a semi-regular cast member of the Sanford & Son sitcom – was so overcome with emotion on Monday when he saw a picture of Oscar Taveras taken in the morgue that he had to go to a sudden and unscheduled commercial break.  For those who don’t know, the Cardinals are more than a baseball team in this town.  They are MUCH more.  To many people in this town, the Cardinals are the Alpha AND the Omega.  People here will forgo going on vacations in the summer in order to pony up the money for their Cardinals season tickets.  Baseball is talked about 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in this town.  Anyone player wearing the Birds on the Bat (the prominent Cardinals logo) can have the run of the town whether he plays every day or once a week.  That’s just how it is.  Cardinal Nation, which is clearly one of the most DIVERSE fan bases in all of sports, paid homage and offered condolences in the wake of the tragic loss of Oscar Taveras.  It is only fitting and proper considering the Cardinals have a rich tradition in baseball excellence.  Their 11 World Series championships are second only to the New York Yankees (27 World Series championships).  That rich tradition speaks for itself.  The TRADITION is KING. 

Another seemingly rich tradition in St. Louis is SEGREGATION and RACIAL POLARIZATION.  In a 2013 Business Insider survey (The 25 Most Segregated Cities In America), St. Louis was ranked the SIXTH most segregated city in America.  Just look about 15 miles north of Busch Stadium to Ferguson for a thorough sample size.  Mike Brown was shot dead by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on August 9.  Mike Brown was unarmed and. according to several witnesses. had his hands up when he was fatally shot.  To boot, his dead body was left in the street for 4 hours in the oppressive August heat St. Louis is known for.   In the aftermath there have been protests, demonstrations, looting and the international spotlight aimed directly on St. Louis.  Mike Brown’s parents, friends and the African-American community in St. Louis simply asked for transparency in this case – from the investigation to determine what really happened on August 9 and from the Prosecuting Attorney in St. Louis County.  So far, there has been little to no transparency.  Darren Wilson’s name wasn’t made public until the Sunshine Law forced it to be: St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough, armed with enough probable cause and eye witness accounts of the shooting to charge Darren Wilson criminally which would have made the proceedings available to the public, instead chose to present the case to the Grand Jury that operates, IDEALLY, in secrecy (I emphasized IDEALLY because there have been several leaks from the Grand Jury proceedings recently that would seem to indicate there won’t be any criminal charges filed against Darren Wilson); and Darren Wilson was allowed to testify before the Grand Jury which was definitely rare and irregular in Grand Jury protocol.  This Grand Jury proceeding has been anything BUT normal.  Normally there is a prosecutor assigned to present evidence and the testimony of a limited number of investigators testify and charges are filed.  In this case, the evidence has been dumped on the jury for the jury to sort out and determine what charges, if any, should be filed.  The potential defendant testifying before a Grand Jury in the midst of deciding whether to charge the potential defendant is as rare as a sighting of Halley’s Comet.  It just isn’t done.  It has been done in this case.  This case is a mess.

Mike Brown

What has been absolutely fascinating is the contrast in behavior of the community at large regarding these two tragic deaths.  As much homage, condolences and respect that has been paid to Oscar Taveras, his family, the family of his girlfriend, the Cardinals and anyone remotely associated with him, there has been no such regard for Mike Brown, his family, the African-American community or anyone remotely associated with him.  It has been the POLAR opposite.  Talk radio and a large number of the white community in St. Louis has been brutal toward Mike Brown.  If I had a dime for EVERY time Mike Brown has been called a “thug”, I would make the Forbes List.  Before I go further, I want to declare that “thug” is the substitution for “NIGGER”.  It is said with so much raw passion and contempt when directed at black people – ESPECIALLY black males – that it can’t be denied.  Back to the subject at hand.  There has been no respect or deference paid to Mike Brown’s parents.  No compassion for the loss of their son.  Absolutely ZERO consideration given to the fact that Darren Wilson EXECUTED Mike Brown.  No consideration given to the potential of what Mike Brown’s life could have been.  No mention of the lost opportunity of seeing what a young black man who was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth pull himself up NOT by the bootstraps of boots he didn’t HAVE, but by the sheer WILL of WANTING to be successful.  Mike Brown was MARGINALIZED and DISPARAGED.  Not because he had an extensive criminal record; he actually had NO criminal record.  He was marginalized and disparaged based on a videotape of him in that convenience store that was recorded just minutes before he was shot to death.  Prior to August 9, 2014, Mike Brown was just another young black male born and raised in the sixth most segregated city in the United States.  After HE was shot and KILLED (I have to stress that point because if you didn’t know differently you would think HE shot and killed DARREN WILSON instead of the other way around), he became an international symbol of racism, inequality, police brutality, civil rights, freedom of speech and civil unrest.  Mike Brown in death had an impact on the WORLD.  In his hometown, the SIXTH most segregated city in the United States, he simply became a THUG who deserved what happened to him. 

To say the reaction in St. Louis to the tragic deaths of Oscar Taveras and Mike Brown has been a STARK contrast would be a gross understatement.   One has been basically DEIFIED and HONORED for who he was and what his profession was and the impact his performance could have on an entire region.   The other has been VILLIFIED and DISHONORED for what a significant number of people ASSUMED he was and his death, by some, has been celebrated.  St. Louis has been in national and international news lately and for not so flattering reasons.  Being a native St. Louisan, I can say that my hometown has done all it can to live up to the ranking that Business Insider has bestowed upon it.  There are some who actually PROUD of that infamous distinction.  Some of us are DISGUSTED by it.  It has been quite a dichotomy to observe when comparing these two tragic deaths. 

In St. Louis, the death of a particular 22 year old has both stunned and galvanized the city while the death of a particular 18 year old has polarized the city. 

Peace, peace.

Craig Riggins
Email: therigginsreport517@gmail.com
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Twitter: @CraigRiggins