José Fernández made his major league debut tin the middle of my first year overseas. It was kind of hard to follow baseball halfway across the world, but he grabbed my attention with his presence in the game. This 20 year old was not only exciting to watch he instantly became one of the top players in Major League baseball, and that is why his death hit the baseball community so hard. José died in a boating accident early in the morning on September 25th.
Early October 29th the news broke that José had cocaine and alcohol in his system. For a lot of people this type of news would deter them for honoring his memory, and saying that his death wasn't a tragic accident. I want to honor José because of what he did for the baseball community, and for everybody who looked up to him. José's story is one that seems straight out of a movie he defected from Cuba three times, and failed the first two times which followed a prison sentence. On the third time he succeeded, but his mother fell from the boat and rescued her. José did all of this as a teenager.
Once José made it to the big leagues he was not only an instant phenom he was regarded as a candidate for the Cy Young award. He dominated the league on a very subpar Miami Marlins team. After the completion of his first year he won the National League Rookie of the Year. What people didn't know is at the end of this year he was still waiting for his grandmother to make it to America. During an interview in the offseason José was surprised by the interviewer because his abuela was brought to the interview. He was brought to tears, and for me thats what separated him from other athletes. The fact that he was so relatable made me want to cheer him on at all times.
That is why early in the 2014 campaign when he went down with a season ending injury I feel like his fans all over the globe felt his pain. Not only would we not be able to watch him pitch, but we would miss seeing his infectious smile while playing baseball. José Fernández touched so many people, and for me his death will always be a tragedy because we lost such a young good hearted person that also happened to be a great baseball player.
