HE BEAT YOU WITH A SMILE
Marlins’ Fernandez combined unmatched talent and joy
For all of his spectacular talent, Jose Fernandez was destined to be remembered as someone who changed the game with his electric personality, someone whose pure joy could bridge the gap on the hotly-debated celebration issue in baseball.
At least that’s how I felt watching him pitch.
Actually, had he not died in a boating accident in Miami early Sunday morning, Fernandez may well have become one of the most famous, greatest and important players in the history of the sport.
He was that good, back to dominating hitters this season, his first full season back from Tommy John surgery in 2014, with his 98 mph fastball and his Bugs Bunny slider that left hitters shaking their heads in astonishment.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a slider like that,’’ Wilmer Flores said in the quiet Mets clubhouse on Sunday morning.
Without question the Marlins’ star was one of the handful of best pitchers in the majors, still only 24 years old and ticketed for the Hall of Fame someday.
Yet he seemed bound for more than baseball immortality. After this season Fernandez would have been two years away from free agency, at age 26, with good health sure to become the highest-paid pitcher in the history of baseball.
Had he landed in the Bronx with the Yankees, L.A. with the Dodgers, or stayed in Miami, where his Cuban heritage made him such a perfect fit, Fernandez was on his way to becoming as much a face of baseball as anyone in the game.
After all, at a time when so many people in baseball, beginning with commissioner Rob Manfred, are determined to make the sport more appealing to younger fans, Fernandez was the perfect player to help do that.
It was Bryce Harper who last spring started more conversation about breaking down the old-school barriers about showing emotion, via bat flips or whatever, when he said “Baseball is tired’’ in a national magazine story.
But unlike Harper, whose edgy personality makes him more of a polarizing figure, Fernandez seemed to strike a different chord even while emoting on the field in ways that could antagonize opponents.
Mostly he just seemed to be having so much fun, while competing so hard, that even if he irritated opponents along the way, it was hard to stay mad at him.
“You just wanted to get a hit off him because he was so competitive,’’ said Flores, yet Fernandez had a way with people, even as a kid who pushed the limits of emotion.
As a rookie, remember, he infuriated the Braves after hitting a home run and spitting near third baseman Chris Johnson — he’d had an angry exchange with him earlier — as he rounded third, prompting Brian McCann to get in his face as he crossed the plate.
To his credit Fernandez recognized his mistake immediately, saying after the game that he was embarrassed and needed to begin acting more like a professional.
A couple of years later I asked McCann about the incident, and he said, “I appreciated that Jose understood where I was coming from. He gets it. He’s great for the game because he plays with so much emotion. He does it without showing people up.”
That’s the crux of the ongoing debate in baseball about showing the type of emotion on the field that may make baseball more appealing to fans, especially young ones: where is the line between celebrating with emotion and showing up the opponent?
The debate may never be settled, but certainly Fernandez, perhaps more than any other player, was changing the norm to some extent, making demonstrative celebrations OK in baseball.
Because, as Terry Collins said Sunday, “Everybody loved him. He had great respect for the game, and had so much fun playing and talking to other players. I wish more guys were like that and had fun like he did playing the game.
“He was one of the players that bring people into the ballpark because they love to see him play and perform.’’
Toward that end, players were tweeting their condolences on Sunday, and at least a couple captured the essence of Fernandez’s impact and popularity.
“We were all jealous of his talent,’’ said Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy, “but deep down I think we most envied the fun he had while doing something so difficult.”
Added Pirates star Andrew McCutchen: “Jose Fernandez brought an intensity to this game that could naturally ignite an entire stadium.’’
Those are both thoughtful, insightful tweets that tell you how much Fernandez will be missed.
Above all, of course, the tragedy is that he was simply a young man, months away from becoming a father for the Bfirst time. ut from a baseball perspective it’s hard to imagine a bigger loss. Fernandez was a singular talent and a transformative personality who had come along at just the right time, it seemed, in so many ways.
Hard to believe he’s gone.