Tuatara decide to play on
The Auckland Tuatara considered cancelling this week’s series against Perth following the sudden death of Ryan Costello, but the players were determined to go on.
The club begins its second season in the Australian Baseball League tomorrow, but everyone involved with the team is still stunned following the death of 23-year-old third baseman Costello on Monday morning.
The team’s management fronted the media at North Harbour Stadium yesterday, with chairman Noel Davies admitting everyone is struggling to come to terms with the news.
‘‘Everyone is totally devastated by the death of Ryan and we struggle to come to terms with what happened,’’ Davies said.
‘‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, the players and the coaching staff.
‘‘We’ve introduced a support network for the players.
‘‘We’ve been overwhelmed with support from the baseball community, both locally and internationally, the sporting community as a whole and baseball supporters across the world.’’
Davies confirmed that there had been talks about whether to go ahead with this week’s series. It was left to the players to make that call and they’ve decided to go ahead.
‘‘We talked about that and coach Steve Mintz has spent a lot of time with the players and the overwhelming view was that we continue,’’ Davies said.
‘‘We will be doing things to recognise this loss and recognise Ryan.
‘‘We will be putting his initials on shirts for the whole of this season.’’
Costello will be honoured by the club and players in a pregame ceremony tomorrow.
His parents live in Connecticut and want to come to New Zealand as quickly as possible, although they need to sort out passports.
Costello is with the Minnesota Twins organisation and Mintz has been in discussions with them.
‘‘I had about five hours of contact with them yesterday,’’ Mintz said.
‘‘Our biggest thing yesterday was making sure that the parents were notified correctly and we didn’t want them to find any way other than the proper way.’’
There is likely to be an inquest into Costello’s death, but Tuatara CEO Regan Wood says the indications so far are that he died from natural causes.
‘‘The first responders said it was natural causes, the police turned up and also said it was natural causes,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s fact, but like everyone else, you do wonder.
‘‘But they were out for dinner, three of four of them, they were in at 9.30pm, I saw them walk through the door with water, so we’re at a loss just like everyone else.’’
It’s not going to be easy for anyone to think about playing baseball after what’s happened and Mintz says he’ll rely on a few senior figures at the club to help out the younger players.