Red Sox catching prospect Flores, 17, dies of cancer

Boston Red Sox catching prospect Daniel Flores died on Wednesday due to complications from cancer treatment, the team announced. The Red Sox signed the 17-year-old out of Venezuela last July, giving him a $3.1mn deal as they envisioned him as their future catcher. Flores had been undergoing cancer treatment in recent weeks, though the team did not disclose it. “Everyone at the Red Sox was shocked to hear of Daniel’s tragic passing,” Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in a statement.“To see the life of a young man with so much promise cut short is extremely saddening for all of us. On behalf of the Red Sox organisation, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to Daniel’s family.”Flores was a 6-foot-1 switch-hitter who was noted for his strong arm. He had yet to begin his career in the Red Sox minor league system.Retired pitcher Roy Halladay’s plane flew low before crashWitnesses said retired baseball star Roy Halladay manoeuvred his plane at low altitude before he died when it crashed off the coast of central Florida, a federal official said on Wednesday.As tributes poured in for Halladay, investigators are trying to find what caused the crash of Halladay’s ICON A5 single-engine amphibian aircraft on Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico, less than a mile offshore from the city of New Port Richey.Halladay won a Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in both the American and National Leagues, was named an eight-time All-Star and amassed 203 regular-season victories.Video from boaters shows his plane making a turn as it descended toward the water. The footage was posted online by celebrity website TMZ, which reported the boaters said the plane repeatedly went from an altitude of about 100 feet (30 metres) to 5 feet (1.5m).National Transportation Safety Board investigator Noreen Price declined to give a full account of what witnesses told investigators, citing the ongoing probe, which she said could take a year or two.Halladay became a certified pilot in 2013, the year he retired from Major League Baseball, and had logged 700 hours in flight, Price said. He took off on Tuesday from Odessa, Florida, north of Tampa.He did not send out any distress calls, authorities said, and two data recorders were recovered from the wreckage. Halladay began his career with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998 and was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009. In 2010, he threw the second no-hitter in MLB post-season history, playing for the Phillies in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds.