BOB NIGHTENGALE

Marlins will grieve Jose Fernandez for years, but give him one night of glory

Bob Nightengale
USA TODAY Sports

This was supposed to be the night Jose Fernandez pitched, making his final start of the season Monday for the Miami Marlins.

Marlins pitcher Tom Koehler wipes tears away after greeting all the New York Mets players at the pitchers mound in honor of the late Jose Fernandez.

There was a Marlins pitcher on the mound wearing Fernandez’s uniform, but it was Adam Conley. There were Fernandez’s No. 16 jerseys all over the field, with every single player wearing his number.

None was being worn by Fernandez himself.

The Marlins officially retired Fernandez’s number before Monday’s game against the New York Mets.

Thursday, friends and family are expected to memorialize him.

“When generations of people come to Marlins games, they will always know Jose Fernandez was part of this franchise,” Marlins President David Samson said.

Fernandez, 24, and two of his friends, Emilio Jesus Macias, 27, and Eduardo Rivero, 25, died early Sunday when their boat crashed off the shores of Miami Beach.

Marlins to honor Jose Fernandez by retiring No. 16

“The way we talk about Jose and his personality, you are not going to forget that,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Jose will have a presence in this organization even after we’re long gone.”

The Marlins, the South Florida community and all of baseball still can’t fathom that he is gone.

St. Louis Cardinals All-Star shortstop Aledmys Diaz, who grew up on the same Eighth Street block as Fernandez in Cuba’s Santa Clara neighborhood, couldn’t emotionally stay with his team. He left to be with Fernandez’s family in Miami. The wild-card race can wait. This is family. These are just baseball games.

“He needed to be there,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “He had to be there. He couldn’t stay. He needed to grieve and be there for them.”

The plaza outside Marlins Park, normally filled with bands and salsa music, was eerily quiet, with nothing audible but the shuffling of footsteps. There were hundreds of fans dropping off flowers and lining up to sign a wall memorializing Fernandez, writing messages under his number and a black ribbon bearing his name.

“I feel like I lost one of my family members,” said Jennie Bird, 41, who signed the wall. “I didn’t even know him, but it just felt so different with him. That joy, that passion, you can’t fake that. That’s why you see all these people here today.”

The Marlins, who canceled their game against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, still didn’t feel like playing Monday. Their clubhouse was closed to the news media before the game, and they loosened up in a stadium as quiet inside as it was out.

They stood for the national anthem, with eight Marlins players skipping across the foul line to the pitcher’s mound in Fernandez’s customary style, with no one any longer trying to hold back tears.

When the national anthem ended, the Mets players and coaching staff walked across the field and embraced the Marlins. The players stayed on the field, knelt in front of the mound and prayed, with many using their fingers to draw 16 on the mound.

Giancarlo Stanton, the most prominent Marlin, gathered the players together near the mound. Tears streaming down his face, Stanton gave them a brief pep talk, and it ended with them pointing their fingers toward the sky in tribute.

And if you don’t believe that No. 16 was gesturing back, how do you explain what happened to Dee Gordon, who walked to the plate with tears in his eyes as the Marlins’ leadoff hitter?

After honoring Jose Fernandez, Dee Gordon hits home run

He was wearing Fernandez’s batting helmet and stepped into the right-handed batter’s box against right-handed pitcher Bartolo Colon, even though he bats left-handed. He took a first pitch from Colon, handed Fernandez’s helmet back to the ball boy and stepped into the left-handed batter’s box.

One pitch later, he swung with all of his might and hit his first home run of the season.

Dee Gordon rounds second as he's overcome with emotion after homering.

He put his head down, trying to make sure he didn’t trip with tears streaming down his face while rounding the bases. He crossed home plate, patted his chest several times, pointed toward the heavens and fell sobbing into the arms of Marcell Ozuna. He was embraced by the rest of his teammates as he reached the dugout, looked up into the sky, said a few words and disappeared down the steps toward the clubhouse to regain his composure.

It was one of the greatest home-run moments in the history of the game.

It was a game the Marlins really didn’t want to play, but, oh, was it needed, just to ease the pain for a few hours, providing a momentary distraction.

The Cardinals, perhaps more than any other major league team, can certainly relate. They lost rookie outfielder Oscar Taveras two years ago when he died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic. Rookie pitcher Josh Hancock was killed in 2007 when his car ran into a truck on the freeway. And in 2002, Cardinals veteran pitcher Darryl Kile died of a heart attack in his sleep on a road trip in Chicago.

Time goes by, but the pain never goes away.

Jose Fernandez's presence heavily felt at Marlins Park

“Once you get past the shock,” Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak says, “you’re always wondering if you’re going to wake up and realize there’s a different ending.

“And there won’t be. The finality of death hits people so differently.”

The Cardinals still grieve the loss of their three players, everyone from Cardinals scouting director Randy Flores, who was best friends with Hancock, to former Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who called Kile one of his greatest team members, to Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez, who wears Taveras’ uniform number out of respect.

“For everybody who has gone through something like this, you’re never the same again,” La Russa said. “It’s the most difficult, challenging things you’ve gone through. I don’t care what the age is or what the talent level is, the death of a teammate is a horrific experience.

“You realize how fragile everything is in life.”

The Marlins only have five more days together until they part for the winter. They will have to grieve alone when the season ends. Matheny and Mozeliak traveled together to the Dominican Republic to see Taveras’ family and met the family, telling them their son would forever be remembered.

Sunday, Mattingly and the Marlins front office took on that role.

“It was awful,” Mattingly said. “Watching his mom and grandmother reminded me of my brother who was killed at 23. I was 6 years old. They shielded me. I was not really a part of all that. I didn’t know what was going on.

“But now I know what was going on. So I knew the pain. I could see my mom and my sister-in-law in everything they are going through. It was awful.”

The Marlins still don’t quite know the details of what happened that fateful evening. It was Fernandez’s boat, officials disclosed Monday, that was involved in the accident, but it’s unknown who was driving or whether alcohol or drugs played a factor.

Identities of men killed in Jose Fernandez boat crash released

Regardless, Fernandez and his two friends are gone, and nothing will bring them back.

“A loss is a loss,” said Cardinals catcher Brayan Pena, a friend of Fernandez’s who also defected from Cuba. “Everybody is entitled to live their lives. No matter what they find, who are we to judge people?

“He really doesn’t deserve that.”

All that truly matters are the memories of this beautiful man, who was a gift to the game of baseball and a hero, especially to the Cuban community in South Florida.

“This was not just a loss for the baseball world, this was a loss to this community,” Samson said. “Jose represented the possibility. That’s what he represented. The possibility of freedom, the possibility of what America can mean to the Cuban people.”

And never, ever, the Marlins vow, will Jose Fernandez be forgotten.

Contributing: Walter Villa and Alan Gomez in Miami.

GALLERY: Emotions high as Marlins honor Jose Fernandez