Salute to Jose Fernandez
If you’ve ever looked up into the night sky as stadium lights turned on, felt the thrum of the bat as you hit a line drive down center field, wipe the dirt off your pants to the cheers of a crowd, or smelled your hands after a long day, you know the things that Jose Fernandez loved.
Jose was fourteen when he and his mother attempted to defect from Cuba. They tried to flee three times and failed. Jose spent a year in a Cuban prison. When he got out, he and his mother planned to try to escape again. They took a longer route this time that was less-policed. Along the way, he had to save his mother from a near-drowning experience in the middle of the sea. A large wave had crashed over their boat and she had been swept overboard. Without thinking twice, he dove in after her and swam her back to the boat using his pitching arm while she held onto his left shoulder.
April 5th, 2008, was the day Jose and his mother Maritza finally made it to freedom in the United States. Nine days later, Jose met Orlando Chinea, Cuban defector, former pitching coach in the Japanese league and for the Cuban national team. Chinea took Jose under his wing and trained him that summer everyday from Eight a.m. to 1:30 p.m. He never touched a baseball all that summer, only trained. Each day he stretched for an hour and the rest was workout, “plyometrics, weight-lifting, swimming, throwing medicine balls, and of course, flipping tires and cutting down trees.” Starting high-school, Jose’s pitching speed was 94 mph. He wanted 98. So, everyday after school he went to baseball practice, and from there he practiced with Chinea from Six to Nine p.m. He got up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and also worked out on holidays.
In the 2011 MLB draft, the Miami(at that time, Florida) Marlins made him the fourteenth overall pick. He made his debut on April 7th, 2013 and yes, Jose was amazing. From there he stunned the baseball world with his insane 99 mph pitches and signature “defector” pitch. But it was not to be.
At 3:20 a.m. on September 25, 2016, Jose Fernandez and two others died in a boating accident in Government Cut, south of Miami Beach. That night he had a break before his next game and being a big boating fan, he went out for a late night spin. His close friends had decided not to come, and a few had even warned him not to go. It’s also said that he had an argument with his pregnant girlfriend and was in unusually low spirits. The Coast Guard found the three bodies at 4:00 a.m. and the wreckage of his boat, the “Kaught Looking”, on a jetty.
Jose is being mourned by many people all over Florida and across the United States. He is missed sorely by his mother and girlfriend and team members on the Marlins. During the Marlins subsequent game all of his team members wore his #16 jerseys to honor him. His teammate Dee Gordon (who bats left-handed) took the first pitch right-handed as Jose would have. The entire team spelled out his number on the pitcher’s mound.
The next time you walk onto a field at night under the bright stadium lights, hit a line drive to center field, wipe the dirt off your pants after a slide into home, or smell baseball on your hands, remember Jose Fernandez, Cuban defector, and joy-filled pitcher extraordinaire.