Jose Fernandez was a saint from the moment he took his first step onto American soil. He embodied everything baseball is supposed to be. A kid’s game; where fun and excitement reign. Whether it was on the day he toed the rubber, or the four days between starts where he was merely a spectator in the dugout, Fernandez embodied the heart and soul of every diehard fan. He was known throughout the league for his fierce competitive nature, and his absolute passion for the game of baseball. He would always be on the top step of the dugout greeting his teammates and hanging on every pitch his relievers would throw. When you’d watch him, you’d think you were watching a lucky fan that was pulled out of the nosebleed section and given a chance to pitch in a game. He always looked like he was taking the game in for the very first time.
Now, one of Major League Baseball’s brightest and most talented young stars is gone. Fernandez passed away on September 25th after being involved in an early morning boating accident. At the young age of 24, Fernandez was already one of baseball’s best pitchers. With a career 2.58 ERA and an astonishing 589 strikeouts in 471 innings. Fernandez was unmistakably on a Hall of Fame career trajectory. But losing the 2013 National League Rookie of the Year is just a miniscule part of what Major League Baseball really lost.
Great players seemingly show up every single year. For as good as guys like Derek Jeter and Clayton Kershaw and David Ortiz are, there are always young guys who are ready to take the game to the next level. For every Albert Pujols, there is a Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. But for as good as these young stars are, a Jose Fernandez only comes around once in a lifetime. Major League Baseball lost more than a star athlete. They lost an ambassador who has done more for the game of baseball and the Cuban community than any other player in the league.
Fernandez tried and failed three times to escape his native Cuba and come to America when he was in high school. He finally escaped on his fourth try, and dove into the water in the middle of the ocean to save a woman who had fallen out of the boat. The woman was his mother, but in the dead of night, Fernandez hadn’t even known. He enrolled in high school in Florida and eventually became the Florida Marlins first pick in the 2011 draft. By the time he completed his first professional season, Fernandez was a star, not just in the densely populated Cuban area of Florida, but all over the nation. With his zeal for the game and his extremely selfless work within the community, Jose Fernandez was a one in a million ambassador for the game.
With Jose Fernandez’s life and future and endless impact on the game of baseball cut short, the league now has to find an identity within the tragedy; a way to gather itself and start anew. There have been talks about creating an award in his honor, a charity fund has been created for him and the Marlins have announced that his jersey will be retired, but none of these things can even remotely begin to pay homage to who Fernandez was. Players and fans mourned all over the nation as baseball was struck by this uncommon tragedy. It wasn’t the first time an active player passed away during the season, but it was the first time the player was one who had an impact on the entire league and community.
But Jose Fernandez will never be forgotten. Perhaps that is what is best about Major League Baseball. In the day following his death, the Marlins took the field with heavy hearts and tearful eyes. They honored Fernandez before the game and the second baseman, Dee Gordon, hit the hardest and furthest home run of his career in the first inning, giving the Marlins the lead and rounding the bases with tears streaming down his face. But it wasn’t just the Marlins who paid tribute and felt the weight of the loss. Every team throughout the league held moments of silence in his honor. The Red Sox David Ortiz, a friend of Fernandez, cancelled a retirement celebratory ceremony and wept during a moment of silence. Fernandez’s closest childhood friend, St. Louis Cardinals shortstop, Aledmys Diaz returned to the team after leaving to attend Fernandez’s memorial service and promptly hit a go ahead grand slam, lifting his helmet to the sky in salute to Fernandez.
Life isn’t fair, and as a fan, it is moments like these where you truly appreciate the athletes who take the field every single day. And it is also serves as a somber reminder that our superheroes are human after all. But Jose Fernandez’s legend will live on; in Miami, in Cuba and all over Major League Baseball. He was one of baseball’s greatest young ambassadors and a magician on the mound. But more than that, Jose Fernandez was what every single fan wanted to be: a Major League Baseball player who embodies the childlike love and passion for the game.
Billy Joel stated it best, “Only the good die young,” and Major League Baseball didn’t just lose a good one too young. They lost the best one too young.
