http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2547 ... -venezuela

Former Major League Baseball players Luis Valbuena and Jose Castillo were killed in a car accident on Thursday night, a spokesperson for their Venezuelan team, Cardenales de Lara, confirmed.
Valbuena was 33. Castillo was 37.
Valbuena played 11 seasons in the majors, including his final two with the Los Angeles Angels, who released him in August. He also played with the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, and Houston Astros.

Castillo played in the majors from 2004-08, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants and Astros.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/l ... story.html

Former Angels infielder Luis Valbuena, who played in Anaheim as recently as August, was killed in a car crash in his native Venezuela late Thursday, his winter league team confirmed.
Valbuena and Cardenales de Lara teammates Jose Castillo and Carlos Rivero were traveling back to Barquisimeto after playing earlier in the evening. Their car, driven by Rivero’s chauffeur, collided with a rock and went off the road, according to a report from Beisbolplay.com. Castillo was also killed. Rivero survived the collision, which occurred in Yaracuy, reported Venezuelan journalist Efrain Zavarce.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Don't drive outside of America

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

RIP.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Sad day for JimmyPasta.

Valbuena wasn't particularly good, but he was fun.

Being Venezuela, my initial thought was that somebody ran him off the road for not paying protection money.

Then I read that "a rock rolled in front of them."

Poor bastard. RIP.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

sad to hear rip.

Who the hell would have bet Pasta outlived Valbuena? WTF

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According to reports it was an ambush and they robbed them blind after the intended crash.

Makes sense. U gotta have your head examined to return to venezuelaafter you made more than 100k.. asking for a kidnap _ robbery imo

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This is very common down there.

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Last night Julie was talking about the news that it wasn't an accident, but a crime. She talked about the horrible economic situation in Venezuela. Then she says "desperate people do desperate things". I know she's the blame game queen. But, I'm going to assume she didn't think before uttering such a cold ,stupid comment after a double murder, and give her the benefit of doubt she'd of liked to not of said it.

At least not in Central/South America. Had no real issues in Mexico, but the two times I went were in major tourist areas. Jamaica was worse, but I never felt unsafe. Puerto Plata in the DR though, yowzers. Open bed of a truck, cruising down a mountain road at speeds of 50mph+, with little scooters weaving in and out all the time. My then girlfriend (now wife) and I were goners if we crashed.

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You know she was trying to tie in the double murder to the caravan of immigrants and eventually Trump.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Yeah you are right about the DR. Flew into Santiago and stayed in Puerto Plata a few years back. The cab driver had to stop for gas at some point as we came from the Airport. Some dude came out with a machine gun while the cab driver was pumping the gas. I guess his job was to prevent us from getting robbed. I think I had a couple of hundred in my pocket at the time. When I saw the dude with the machine gun I initially thought he was coming to rob us. I reached for the bread and was going to hand the shit over immediately.

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If the DR is like that I can not imagine what Haiti is like. I was talking to some players years ago about the Haitian side of the island and they said they were scared to death to even get close to the border let alone go over there.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Julie was thinly veiling Chicago ghetto violent crime perpetrators with her"desperate people do desperate things "comennts. She has also in the past mentioned a lot her clients as a public defender were railroaded.

The Venezuelan MLB players need to "do something!"

No, seriously, at some point they have to say "fuck it, we're not going home, we're moving our entire family out of there, fuck y'all."

And if players start doing that, I'd hope that our government would be cooperative in helping those players establish American citizenship after the legal amount of time has passed.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Socialism turned out real well down there if you were related to Hugo Chavez, or were members of the ruling class.

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In capitalism the rich become powerful. In socialism the powerful become rich.
Inside of twenty years Venezuela went from one of the most prosperous counties in South America to a shithole. Ask the poor citizens of Venezuela which system was better for them.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer