Welcome back to volume 14 of today with baseball. For those who are unfamiliar with what the phrase means. Check out the intro blog here.

Today’s Moment? Dee Gordon’s leadoff homerun following the death of Jose Fernandez

The death of Jose Fernandez rocked the baseball world in the worst way. Waking up on what I believe was a Saturday morning to find out Fernandez was involved in a boat accident the previous night was a gut punch that no one saw coming.

The Marlins postponed games for a day or two and resumed play early in the next week. Anytime there is a tragic death in baseball, it just flat out sucks. However, Fernandez just felt different because we were truly robbed of a player with Hall of Fame potential who wasn’t even close to entering his peak.

Once the Marlins finally resumed playing, all eyes were on them as each player wore a #16 Fernandez to honor their fallen brother. Dee Gordon, the leadoff hitter who has 18 career homeruns in over 4000 plate appearances was the first to take the stage following the death of a teammate, son and ultimately, a friend. What happened on a 2-0 count? of course the 5’11” 170* pound speedster hits a no doubt upper decker off Bartolo Colon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkTy9p91YQc

You can see by the time that Gordon reaches home plate that he’s already emotional from just being caught up in the moment. It was one of those moments that you had to get choked up. I’m not even one of those people who cries because I see someone else crying. But on that night, I was emotional for not only Jose and Dee Gordon but everyone in the Marlins organization who was ever ever lucky to witness that infectious Jose Fernandez smile.

Jose was someone who you saw and you just knew that he was happy what he was doing. Jose was put on this Earth to entertain us on the baseball diamond for many summers in a row. Now although he was taken away from us too early, the game will always and continues to live on with him in mind.

22 days till opening day!

Ernie El's
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