Source: El Nuevo Herald / Getty
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Last year on this day, an emerging Major League Baseball (MLB) superstar’s life was snuffed out in tragedy, at the very moment it seemed like his entire life was ahead of him. Jose Delfin Fernandez was expecting his first child. He was 25, and invincible.
The entire MLB and the city of Miami reeled at the shocking news that the ace pitcher was killed in a boating accident. He lost his life alongside his friends, Emilio Macias and Eduardo Rivero. It was later discovered through an autopsy report that Fernandez had cocaine in his system, which cast a dark shadow on the events of his death. It’s an issue that his mother, Maritza Fernandez, continues to fight against. She says that he often rode his boat in the area where he died, and it seemed unfathomable that he would have any issues navigating such familiar territory. But sadly, the hero of Cuban America and Marlin fans alike has a legacy mired in toxicology reports and endless litigation, as the families of Macias and Rivero have pending lawsuits against Fernandez’s estate. However, Maritza has dedicated her life to clearing her son’s name.
With an unbreakable bond that got him through unspeakably dangerous times as just a child, Jose was the all-star of his mother’s life. The two attempted to leave Cuba four times. On the fourth try, Fernandez had to rescue his mother after a wave threw her overboard. “I dove to help a person not thinking who that person was,” he told the Miami Herald in 2013. “Imagine when I realized it was my own mother. If that does not leave a mark on you for the rest of your life, I don’t know what will.” At just 15 years old, he swam 15 minutes with his mother on his back until they reached safety back on the boat. The two arrived in Mexico, where they entered the U.S. through the Texas border. Their story is one that so many Cuban Americans can relate to in a quest for freedom and opportunity in the states. And from that moment, Jose vowed to make his mother not want for anything. The day he landed his contract, he called and told her to leave her job. He had her from there.
A year later, Maritza is just as devastated as she was when she received that horrific phone call. She attended her first and only Marlins game since her son’s death, on July 31, and brought along her granddaughter, then-five-month-old Penelope, to meet her father’s teammates.
Fernandez is survived by a little girl he sadly never met. Her resemblance to her father, especially her wide eyes, is striking. Marlins infielder Miguel Rojas shared, “She has the same face as Jose. Even the hair. Kind of the messy hair like his when he came out of the showers. That’s a little piece that we kind of need to remember him. This is a little piece of Jose in this world.”
It’s hard to not imagine him suited up alongside this season’s new crop of MLB stars, like Mr. All Rise, New York Yankees rookie Aaron Judge. As the world remembers his death, we want to remember him in life. For those who didn’t get to witness Fernandez on the field, this video illustrates his tenacity. Watch the last inning of his career in the clip below.
