Joel Lithgow runs the Yankees’ baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, so the deaths over the weekend of Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura and former major leaguer Andy Marte in separate car crashes hit home.
“It breaks my heart,” Lithgow said Thursday. “I thought, ‘What can we do better?’ These are guys in the majors, and it’s happening to them.”
Lithgow, a native of the Dominican, has been at the Yankees academy since 2009, after working as an attorney for Major League Baseball, where he investigated identity fraud.
He has seen players such as Gary Sanchez and Luis Severino come through the academy on their way to The Bronx, and during that time, he said he feels the Yankees and the rest of the sport have made strides in keeping their international players safe.