Memorial baseball tournament to be held for Brockton teenager killed in 2017 car crash
BROCKTON — Isaias Caban was a 15-year-old freshman at Brockton High School when he was killed in a car crash on his way home from baseball practice.
Seven years after the fatal crash, the Brockton Baseball Association is honoring Caban’s love of the sport by hosting a memorial tournament in his honor.
Before he was the president of the Brockton Baseball Association, John Stevens watched his two sons grieve the loss of their teammate and friend.
“I’ve always wanted to bring a tournament to the city,” Stevens said. “I wanted to have a tournament and I wanted to memorialize someone who was important to my family and the community. Someone who loved the game so very much. I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring those two things together.”
Isaias Caban 1st Annual Memorial Tournament
The Isaias Caban 1st Annual Memorial Tournament will begin on August 1 at 5 p.m. with an opening ceremony, followed by a series of games that will be played by multiple 12 and under teams from the Brockton Baseball Association.
The tournament will be held at the Downey Elementary School field, located at 55 Electric Ave. in Brockton.
The first four games will be held on Thursday and Friday, starting at 5:30 p.m., followed by a second game at 8 p.m. At the time of this article’s publication, the game schedule for Saturday and Sunday had not yet been announced.
Spectators are welcome to watch the tournament and there is no fee for entry.
Leaving a lasting legacy on youth baseball in Brockton
For most of his life, Caban wanted to be a professional baseball player.
“I taught him how to play when he was little,” his father, Osvaldo Caban Sr., told The Enterprise in 2017.
Osvaldo Sr., who was a professional baseball player in the Double-A minor league, always believed in his son’s dream.
“I never made it to the major league, but Isaias said he was going to make it all the way, and I believed it,” he said.
Caban played in three different leagues when he was in middle school and joined the freshman team at Brockton High the year he was killed.
At the time of his passing, his teammates told The Enterprise that Caban was always smiling at practice and helped them to stay positive.
“He was the spirit of the team,” one teammate said. “If we were down, he helped us, picked us up.”
Stevens hopes that the tournament will inspire other youth to get involved in the game Caban loved so much.
“His love for the game was infectious, that’s what my boys talk about all the time,” Stevens said. “The tournament memorializes Isaias, but it also brings baseball some visibility in the city. Hopefully it gets other kids excited. [Isaias] touched a lot of people’s lives, and I don’t want him to be forgotten.”
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Memorial baseball tournament held in memory of Brockton's Isaias Caban
