A special Jose Day
Fernandez’s family marks his birthday by private visits, including to Marlins Park
MIAMI — Dee Gordon carried Penelope Jo Fernandez, wearing one of her father’s jerseys with numbering and lettering too big for her tiny back, through the Miami Marlins’ clubhouse and to the far corner, the one with the Plexiglas window that preserves his old locker and the equipment inside it.
Penelope, as 5-month-olds tend to do, began to cry, and Gordon continued about their trip around Marlins Park.
It was a brief but tender moment Monday on what should have been the late Jose Fernandez’s 25th birthday. Instead, it served as another emotional step toward acceptance for the Fernandez family and the Marlins.
“We looked forward to this. This is a little piece of Jose in this world. For us, it means the world.” Miguel Rojas, on meeting 5-month-old Penelope Jo Fernandez
Visiting the ballpark and attending the team’s game against the Washington Nationals was among the stops on the family’s Jose Day itinerary, a series of mostly private meetings across Miami-Dade County. For most of Jose’s former teammates, it was their first time seeing his 5-month-old daughter.
“We looked forward to this,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “This is a little piece of Jose in this world. For us, it means the world.”
The day began with a morning trip by Maritza Gomez Fernandez, the pitcher’s mother, and other relatives to the site of his fatal boat crash last fall.
Wearing a “Jose Day” T-shirt and baseball cap with an orange No. 16 on it, Maritza Fernandez brought flowers and candles to the Government Cut jetty off Miami Beach, where Jose crashed his boat Sept. 25, killing himself and two others. A state investigation