Miami Marlins

Miami Marlins Honor Fernandez in the Best Way: By Playing Again

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Unspeakable tragedy hit the baseball community Sunday morning, when news broke that Miami Marlins’ 24-year-old superstar Jose Fernandez passed away. The Marlins’ Sunday game with the Atlanta Braves was cancelled, but they were back on the field on Monday.

Every team mourned the loss of this happy, uplifting, and inspirational young man. Every game on Sunday was prefaced with a moment of silence and remembrance for Jose. A career that looked like it would end up being one of the best ever was cut short after only 76 games. With heavy hearts, the Marlins began their trek through the final six games of this season without their ace.

The Marlins didn’t look ready to play a baseball game before first pitch. They were embracing, hugging and crying, as they remembered their fallen brother with video packages and notes written in the mound’s dirt. They looked like an emotionally drained group that wasn’t ready to try to move forward with a baseball season, let alone their lives. But when the first pitch was thrown, they looked motivated to honor their friend, their brother, in the best way they could: playing the game he loved. The game that brought them together. The game that made them a family.

It wasn’t easy to play the game, no matter how easy Miami made it look with their bats and gloves. Every member of the Marlins wore a jersey adorned with Fernandez’s name and number 16 across the back. Dee Gordon, Marlins’ second baseman and leadoff hitter, opened the bottom of the first inning by wearing Fernandez’s batting helmet and taking a pitch from the right-handed hitter’s batting box (Gordon is left-handed).

After Bartolo Colon‘s first pitch, Gordon put on his familiar helmet and took his regular place in the left-handed batter’s box. Two pitches later, he took Colon’s offering out of the park to right field, with the ball finally settling in the upper deck. It was Gordon’s first home run of the season, in his 324th plate appearance.

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Gordon couldn’t contain himself as he rounded the bases. He began to break down mid-trot, and had tears streaming down as he crossed the plate and gestured towards the sky. His emotions were matched by his teammates when he returned to the dugout. That wouldn’t be the last of the tears shed on the night.

Monday was supposed to be a Fernandez start, but taking the mound instead was Adam Conley, a young man who had grown with Jose in the Miami organization. They were both drafted in 2011, then by the Florida Marlins, with Jose going in the first round and Conley in the second round. They began their professional careers together that year with the Gulf Coast Marlins. They started 2012 with the Greensboro Grasshoppers together. In late June, they were promoted to the Jupiter Hammerheads together. They were invited to their first big league camp together in 2013.

Conley, wearing the number 16, made his first start in a month-and-a-half in place of the man he grew as a player with. He pitched three shutout innings, giving up a pair of hits and a walk to go with three strikeouts. He wasn’t the winning pitcher, but it was an emotional victory the entire way.

It’s very easy for fans to disassociate the human being from the ballplayer. But on Monday, it was 40-plus human beings struggling as they fought their real human emotions, not ballplayers, that took that the field in honor of their family member.

Maybe it’s exactly what they needed. Maybe going out on to that field and letting all those emotions pour out before the game was just what they needed. Maybe going out there and putting together a very solid win against a potential playoff team like the New York Mets is exactly what they needed. It’s exactly what the city and the fans needed to begin their grieving process.

And maybe, it’s exactly what Jose Fernandez would have wanted them to do the day after. And we can only imagine his rowdy celebrations as he watched his teammates do what they did on the field.

RIP, Jose.

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