SANTO DOMINGO (AP) — Octavio Dotel, who pitched for 13 Major League Baseball teams in a 15-year career and won the World Series with the Saint Louis Cardinals, was confirmed as one of the deceased after a roof collapsed at a nightclub in his native Dominican Republic, where he was attending a merengue concert.
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Initially, authorities said that Dotel had been rescued from the rubble and taken to a hospital, but Satosky Terrero, spokesperson for the Professional Baseball League of the Dominican Republic, confirmed to The Associated Press that he died shortly after. He was 51 years old.
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At least 58 people died and 160 were injured following the collapse at the Jet Set nightclub, authorities said. Tony Blanco, who played one season in MLB and eight years professionally in Japan, also died after the collapse, Terrero said.
Who was Octavio Dotel?
Dotel signed with the New York Mets in 1993 as an amateur free agent and made his Major League debut in 1999. Initially a starter, he became a reliable reliever and at times dominant, appearing in 758 games from 1999 to 2013.
When he took the mound with the Detroit Tigers on April 7, 2012, he set the record for playing for the most MLB teams, with 13. Edwin Jackson broke the record in 2019 when he pitched for his 14th team.
The Mets observed a moment of silence for Dotel before their game against Miami this Tuesday, and a Dominican flag was displayed on the video scoreboard.
Dotel’s best years were with the Houston Astros in the early 2000s, coming out before star closer Billy Wagner, with 302 appearances and registering an ERA of 3.25 over more than four seasons. He was the fifth of six pitchers to combine for a no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 2003.
The following year, he was part of the three-team trade that sent Carlos Beltrán to the Astros.
Dotel played for nine teams before joining the Cardinals. He appeared in 12 postseason games, including five in the World Series that Saint Louis won dramatically in seven games against Texas.
In 2013, he played on the team from the Dominican Republic that won the World Baseball Classic with a record of 8-0.
Dotel ended his career in Major League Baseball with 1,143 strikeouts in 951 innings, a magnificent rate of 10.8 per nine innings. He had a career record of 59-50, 109 saves, and an ERA of 3.78.
In 2019, Dotel and former Major League Baseball player Luis Castillo were among the 18 people arrested during a major operation by law enforcement forces from the United States and the Dominican Republic against drug trafficking and money laundering. Dotel and Castillo were released when a Dominican magistrate judge found insufficient evidence to link them to the operation.
Rescue efforts continue
Early Tuesday morning, the roof collapsed at an iconic nightclub in Santo Domingo where politicians, athletes, and others were attending a merengue concert, authorities reported.
The rescue teams were searching for possible survivors among the rubble of the one-story Jet Set nightclub, stated Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the Emergency Operations Center.
“We assume that many of them are still alive and that is why the authorities present here will not give up until there is not a single person left under those rubble,” he stated.
Nearly 12 hours later, the rescue teams were still pulling survivors out of the rubble. At the site, firefighters were removing broken concrete blocks and sawing wooden planks to use them as levers to lift heavy debris, while the noise of drills drilling into the concrete filled the air.