Jose Fernandez: A Star Is Lost

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

On the night of Saturday, September 24th, José Fernández and two of his friends went to a bar overlooking the bay in Miami, FL. Later that evening, the three friends went for a ride on Fernández's boat so that the Cuban baseball player could clear his mind. The 24-year-old went out to be in search of some relief, but lost his life instead. Authorities found the pitcher's body -along with those of his friends Eduardo Rivero, 25, and Emilio Macías, 27- next to the boat, which was reportedly going at high speed when it hit a rocky jetty in Miami Beach.

Cuban doctor Ramón Jiménez, 52, who was José's stepdad and father figure from 3 months old, spoke to People En Español about his loss. "At first you are in this lethargic state and think that it's a lie, but as days go by you realize that no, this is a reality." Jiménez divorced José's mother Maritza Fernández when José was 5 years old, but remained present in his life, sending him money to Cuba from exile and paying for his baseball training as a teenager when he came to live with him in Tampa, FL.

According to Ramón, his mother and grandmother, Olga Fernández, are still grieving and were advised by lawyers not to speak to the press until all the details pertaining to the player's inheritance are resolved. "They are destroyed," Jiménez says. "They are starting to take in his absence."

Jose Fernandez poses with his grandmother Olga Fernandez (L) and mother Maritza Fernandez (R)

Fernández is also missed by his girlfriend María Arias, 24, who is five months pregnant with their daughter Penélope. Dressed in black and with an apparent sadness, Arias attended the tribute and religious mass in honor of her deceased love that took place in Miami last September. At the mass in Saint Brendan Catholic Church, is where Arias first met Yadenis Jiménez, 22, who is Ramon's daughter and was like a sister to José. “When I met her I said, 'Hi, I'm your daughter's aunt,'” Yadenis recalls of that encounter with Arias. Since then, the two have become closer and Yadenis says the young mother-to-be is distraught. "Her world has come tumbling down", she says of Arias, who has not spoken to the press. "She is very hurt. She really was in love with him."

According to Marlins player and José's close friend Marcell Ozuna, the star player was really looking forward to becoming a dad in a couple of months, and showed him a sonogram of his unborn baby with excitement. The Marlins created a fund for Penélope, where the fans of 'number 16' could donate money to his daughter.

José Fernández, his father and sister Yadenis Jimenez

The Major League star always had the future of his family in mind, and bought his mother a home soon after signing with the Marlins. His road to success wasn't an easy one. After various failed attempts to leave Cuba in a raft -for which he was incarcerated on the island on one occasion, and had to save his mother from drowning in another. I've eventually made it to Miami at the age of 15 with his mom. Days after her son's death, Maritza Fernández told the press she could not believe what had happened to him, as she spread his ashes near the location of his accident.

Yadenis Jiménez, remembers José, whom she loved like a brother, as a jokester who hid chocolate bars under the couch to devour them when everyone else in the house was sleeping, and fell in her dad's pool in Tampa once while serenading her with a toy guitar. "He was full of joy", she recalls.