This is going to be the shortest Rockpile I've ever written thanks to unforeseen circumstances that came up this morning on my end, but it's actually not a terrible day for that because I'm not in much of a mood to talk baseball.
When the San Francisco Giants moving within a game of a World Series title isn't even close to the worst news coming out of the sport right now, you know it's a sad state of affairs.
Last night, Oscar Taveras was killed in his native Dominican Republic in a car accident along with his girlfriend. He was just 22-years-old. So much potential, and so much life seemed in front this young man just 24 hours ago, and it's gone in a flash. It brings back all the awful memories from Nick Adenhart's death in 2009.
I'm not ready to fully discuss how this may impact the landscape of the NL going forward yet, but make no mistake, Taveras is a devastating loss for St. Louis; both as a person and a player.
If you want the fresh emotion from fans most connected to this player, visit Viva El Birdos, our Cardinals SB Nation site for more.
In other baseball news, central Florida has already lost Andrew Friedman to the Dodgers and Joe Maddon to who knows where, but if they don't get their stadium situation in order soon, they might lose the entire Rays franchise to Montreal.
Finally, this is a very interesting link about postseason shares which includes a story about how the Rockies helped out the wife of a former minor league coach after tragedy struck that family.