Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident Sunday morning. The 24-year-old right-hander was 16-8, with an ERA of 2.86, and he had the second-most strikeouts, 253 in 182.1 innings, in the major leagues. On Wednesday, he pitched 8 innings of shutout baseball against the Washington Nationals, which Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds thought was Fernandez’s best outing of the year.
I watched the game on TV and saw Bonds and Fernandez embrace each other in the dugout and laugh. As the AP reported, Bonds shouted, “I love you.”
Yes, one of the best hitters ever, but also one of the game’s notorious sourpusses. And yet Fernandez clearly brought the best out of him, joy. Here’s Fernandez photo-bombing Bonds during an interview in June. When the broadcast team alerted Bonds that Fernandez was making fun of him, Bonds turns and grabs him. “He’s like my kid,” says a laughing Bonds.
That sounds right. Critics called the Cuban-born Fernandez a hot dog—he admired his first big-league homer too avidly for the taste of the opposing Atlanta Braves, who cleared the bench after Fernandez touched home—but I think Bonds got it right: Fernandez was a kid, who rightfully enjoyed his own abilities. He also made the most of the opportunities fate put in his way.
Fernandez, said Orlando Chinea, one of his first pitching coaches, “loved the baseball.” Chinea also worked with fellow Cubans Livan Hernandez, Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, and Jose Contreras but said, “I’ve never known anybody who loves baseball as much as Jose.”
This Grantland article from 2013 shows how hard Fernandez worked at it. Shortly after Fernandez arrived in the United States, he met Chinea, who
The Marlins took him in the first round of the 2011 draft and, writes Grantland‘s Jordan Ritter Conn,
Fernandez’s story, how he defected from Cuba as a teenager, became legend. His mother was washed off the boat and he leapt in the sea and saved her. This morning, Miami and baseball mourn his death. If the 24-year-old had yet to realize fully his talent, there’s little doubt his energy, charisma, and love of baseball will continue to move and inspire his fans, including one of the greatest hitters of all time.
