It’s okay to be sad.
It’s okay to hear the story of Jose Fernandez – a triumphant and trying escape from Cuba, his rise to superstardom, his pregnant girlfriend, a tragic boat crash – and feel despondent.
You didn’t have to know the 24-year-old Miami Marlins ace personally. It’s okay if you never met him; if you never saw him throw a pitch. It’s okay to be sad even if you didn’t know who he was until the news broke of his sudden death in a Miami boat crash Sunday morning.
There’s nothing wrong with feeling pain for his mother, Maritza Fernandez, who he saved from drowning years ago when the two fled Cuba together.
You didn’t have to spend any time with Jose Fernandez to see that he radiated positive energy and loved the game of baseball with a burning passion that could never be taken and could rarely be matched.
It is completely normal to feel an entire wave of emotions when you see photos of Fernandez’s teammates huddled as one around the pitching mound – all wearing No. 16 jerseys – celebrating a 7-2 win over the New York Mets on Monday, a game Fernandez was scheduled to start.
It’s fine if you shed a tear when you watched video of Dee Gordon rounding the bases after hitting a leadoff home run in that same game, barely able to keep his emotions intact. Gordon collapsed into the arms of his teammates once he crossed home plate, possibly knowing that he had started the healing process for his grieving baseball family.
Grief is a part of life and we don’t get to choose when we feel this emotion. So it’s a natural reaction to feel sorrow for the loss of a “pure life,” as ESPN’s Eduardo Perez described. Aside from his talents on the baseball diamond, it is clear that Jose Fernandez’s star shined brighter than stadium lights off the field as well.
Just amazing, @FlashGJr. #JDF16 pic.twitter.com/Tgg03ZSJlt
— MLB (@MLB) September 26, 2016
The story of his resilient chase of the American Dream, and a better life for his family, is one that could warm your heart … even 3,000 miles away in New England.
His ascent into the ranks of baseball’s elite pitching corps feels like a fairytale now in some ways. Hearing how high the odds against Fernandez were stacked, and realizing that his climb was as hard anything you could imagine, gives you a different perspective on his demise.
They say the good die young. That’s how some can rationalize the loss of any life taken too soon. But “good” was never a word used to describe Fernandez. He’s always been great.
In the age of instant knowledge, where the answer to almost every question is at our fingertips, there’s also pain in never knowing how great Fernandez could’ve been. The four lines dedicated to him on baseball-reference.com can’t capture Fernandez’s talent.
Because make no mistake about it, “he was must-see TV,” as Houston Astros Manager A.J. Hinch put it.
Fernandez was the fastest starting pitcher in MLB history to get to 500 strikeouts, doing so in July on his 1,587th batter. After averaging 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings through his first three seasons, he averaged 12.5 K’s per nine through 29 starts this year. He had never posted an ERA above 3.00. Fernandez won Rookie of the Year in 2013, beating out Yasiel Puig, Shelby Miller, Julio Teheran and Nolan Arenado.
There was no question that Fernandez was great on the field, maybe even great enough to be honored in Cooperstown one day. As Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe put it, “It probably shouldn’t matter that Jose Fernandez was heading to Cooperstown. A life is a life. But it makes us all even sadder.”
And to think that what he did on the field was such a small portion of his overall impact.
It was “his light” that made him truly special as Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper put it. Fernandez, who was 7-0 against the Nationals all-time, struck out Harper six times in 19 at-bats. And the 2015 NL MVP hit just .211 off the Marlins ace. Of players to face Harper at least 19 times, only Matt Harvey (.038) has held him to a lower batting average.
“Being able to play All-Star games with him, being able to see him pitch when he was young and things like that, just words can’t explain how saddened baseball is. We lost a good one really young,” Harper said Monday.
His experiences made him tough and his skills made him special, but it was his smile – his light – that made him irreplaceable.
(Michelle Berthiaume can be reached at 369-3338, mberthiaume@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@MonitorMichelle.)