What a week this has been in the world of sports and baseball, in particular. It began with former Florida Gator star Tim Tebow hitting a home run and creating quite a stir in Southern Florida with the New York Mets minor league team; and ending with the conclusion of two great ballplayers and the journeys of their respective careers.

News broke early Sunday, September 25 that the Miami Marlins had lost their young star pitcher Jose Fernandez. The bright-eyed, outgoing, respectful, and ultra-talented Fernandez was in the midst of his best season as a Major Leaguer with a 16-8 record, 2.86 ERA, and 253 strikeouts. His last start was perhaps the best we have seen of the young right hander 8 innings of shutout baseball against the division rival Washington Nationals. This story however, is not to focus on the baseball talent of young Jose instead to highlight what he meant to his family, his friends, the Miami community, and the baseball world.

In 2007, at the age of 15, Jose tried for the fourth time to defect from his native Cuba and this time succeeding, even jumping into the ocean after his mother had fallen over board due to strong waves. He had been thrown into prison once after a failed defection and that boat he escaped on in 2007 was riddled with bullet holes as Cuban Soldiers tried to stop them. He once told reporters before his major league debut when asked what he was scared of, he responded by saying “I have been in prison and shot at, their isn’t much to be scared of now.” Then went out and stymied the Mets for five scoreless innings. Who knew that a career with some much potential would end so soon? As MLB.com reporter Anthony Castrovince put it so well “Everything about Jose Fernandez raditated hope . . . Jose Fernandez was hope. How is it possible that he’s gone?”

On the other side of the country, the career of perhaps the greatest broadcaster the sport has ever seen wound down after 67 years in the broadcast booth. Vin Scully, long time broadster of the Los Angeles Dodgers, made his final play-by-play broadcast in Dodger Stadium today in front of a packed house of 50,000+. Vin has been at the helm of the Dodgers broadcast for all of their best moments including two perfect games, 20 no-hitters, and probably one of the most incredible pinch hit home runs in the history of the game.

Vincent Edward Scully was born in the Bronx in 1927 and fell in love with the game of baseball on October 2nd, 1936 when he saw the score of the Yankees beating the New York Giants 18-4. Living near the Giant’s stadium he felt sympathy for them and went to many of their games. He later became a broadcaster while attending Fordham University. Out of school he took a job doing fill-in broadcasts for a CBS radio affiliate in Washington. He joined the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcast booth in 1950 and never left. His poetic style of weaving the game of baseball made it easier for fans everywhere to picture what it might be like to be there. He was so good that when other teams were playing the Dodgers, their fans would tune in to listen to a Scully broadcast because you never really knew what story he would tell. Vin was so good he once was asked to read a grocery list on air and only he could make something so mundane and boring into a beautiful tale of groceries. Definitely worth a listen here

Scully will travel to San Francisco for the last three games of the Dodgers schedule against their rivals and round out that of a storied career. You can bet that Jose Fernandez will be watching that game and every game, as the baseball world mourns the storied career that could have been. Not only are these men heroes on the field for so many of us, but it is their off-the-field actions and stories that will continually remind us that some things are bigger than sports.

Read Vin Scully's letter to fans here

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