i'm sure that most of you know by now the sad news that marlins ace jose fernandez, and two others were killed
saturday night (9/24) in a boating accident in miami. apparently, their 32-foot boat, traveling at high speed, hit a rocky
jetty in the harbor and flipped.

i saw fernandez pitch on tv against the mets recently and he was terrific, allowing only three or four hits in
eight or so innings. but he was terrific for most of his short career.

fernandez, who was only 24, was 38-17 over four years, pitching for a not very good team, but 29-2 (!) at home
(with an opponents' batting average of .185) while throwing in front of many of his cuban compatriots. he tried
to escape from cuba four times before he was 15, fleeing in rickety boats, and was jailed for it once. he once dove
into the carribbean to save a woman who had fallen overboard from their fleeing boat. as he grabbed her arm,
he realized it was his mother. every report i've heard about him was that he was warm, outgoing and loved
the game. his girlfriend is pregnant with their first child.

the ny times wrote this: "It is not a stretch to say that Fernandez, though very young, was on a Hall of Fame trajectory.
He had a 95-mile-per-hour fastball and a mastery of four pitches, and in each of his four seasons, he had an E.R.A.
below 3.00. Over all, he was 38-17 with a 2.58 E.R.A. in 76 starts, with 589 strikeouts in just 471 innings.

i heard mets radio announcer howie rose say: "you want a way to understand what weve lost? think buddy holly. "

i also thought: no one is guaranteed a long life, nor a long life in baseball. we should treasure the days we get.
from everything i've read or heard about jose fernandez, he did.

-mike



-- Edited by mhart on Sunday 25th of September 2016 04:53:49 PM