Such a tragic loss at a young age, after he went through so much to get to the US, and by all reports was a really great guy. I loved watching him pitch, even though I knew that most likely my team was going to lose that day.
Thinking about his family and his teammates today.
They cancelled yesterday’s game.
Very sad. Two others also died in the boating accident.
They said it was around 3 in the morning. And the team had to then travel, I assume the following morning (yesterday), for an out of town afternoon game.
Very sad to have the loss of three very young men. And hopefully a lesson to others not to be travelling at top speed in the dark.
Not sure what they are referring to: Sunday’s game vs. the Braves was a home game, which was cancelled. Today’s (Monday’s) games is vs. the Mets, also at home.
Anyway, RIP Jose. A true talent taken way too soon.
Hmmm-- thought it was an away game. Must have misread. My bad.
Reminiscent of the Bobby Ojeda accident decades ago. Boats, speed, and darkness don’t mix well. Not to mention alcohol.
There’s no mention of alcohol or drugs in this tragic incident.
There has been no mention of drugs or alcohol, but I know where the Jetty is that they ran into, and even though this is at the tip of south beach (it ‘guards’ the entrance to the main miami ship channel cruise boats use, and they likely were heading for), even with the light pollution from the city, it can be very, very hard to see something low lying like a jetty, I don’t know if they had any kind of marker on it. Whoever was driving the boat likely was ignoring the channel markers, in a heavily travelled boat area like that the approaches to the ship channel likely would be well market, and well offshore from the jetty. They likely were travelling close to the beach to be able to look at South Beach at night, and hit the Jetty. Running at full speed like that is also dangerous at night (even in day that close to shore it isn’t smart to do that), the damage to the boat indicates they were moving near full throttle, which on a boat like that would easily be more than 20 MPH (probably 25-30 MPH, not that much on land, but on water that is fast). I am not saying that this isn’t a tragedy, it is, 3 people lost their lives, but it also indicates that people often think that driving a boat is like driving a car, it isn’t, it takes a lot more concentration and awareness, especially at night.
yes, I should have made the point that three young men died, not just Fernandez. As a baseball fan, he was the one I knew about. His story is incredible, as he was jailed, shot at, almost drowned, rescued his mom from drowning, all by the age of 15 when he made it to the US. It’s just sad to see lives ended this way.
I’m a Mets fan, so we have been treated to thrashings by Fernandez many times. He was supposed to face the Mets tonight. Strangely, he was originally scheduled to pitch yesterday, but his start was changed specifically to pitch tonight. If it hadn’t been, he probably would not have been on that boat Saturday night.
Didn’t intend to imply it. There was alcohol in the Ojeda accident.
The boat they were in had a top speed of around 50 mph. That is extremely, extremely fast, and its utterly inadvisable to be traveling anywhere near that speed at night. CNN reports that investigators speculate that they were running full throttle when they hit.
There are plenty of places on the water where its easy to become slightly disoriented regarding exactly where you are even in broad daylight and with plenty of markers around. Have the sun go down and the chance of that goes up dramatically. The photos make it look like they hit the jetty right at the end of it (although its not completely clear). But ten yards difference in the course of the boat and they might have been ok.
@dadx:
Sometimes it is a lot less than 5 yards. One of the problems with people in boats is they think they have enough time to turn, and don’t realize that what is easy with a car isn’t in a boat. I don’t have the details, but for example the driver could have swerved to port, and the boat capsized then went into the rocks due to forward momentum (I can’t tell if it hit head on or not from the pictures). Night on the water is a weird thing, even if you are flying above it, it is very easy to lose perspective and context. If the boat was capable of 50mph on water, that is a pretty fast boat, and running at full throttle at night like that, even if you are on open ocean, is fraught, and in water close to shore it is pretty reckless. I once saw a Donzi that went full tilt over a pair of rocks that at high tide are just below the surface that form a 'V", the next day it made the NY Daily News, the boat was hanging up there, half the bottom was ripped off, and both people on board were thrown off and killed by the sudden deceleration. Idiot driving the boat had a BA of around 1.4, it had been a hot day and this was just before pure night had hit.
I have a cousin who died in a similar accident as an older teenager. He was alone in his boat and struck a log. This was in the ocean in a place with no known rocks or obstacles but something can always be there, floating in the water.
When you’re going fast in a motorboat the front end rises up and makes it harder to see what is right in front of you.
beginning of the game has been wrenching. Dont know how theyre going to play.
This is so sad about these young men. We owned a boat for several years and I was terrified whenever H went out on it.
I had never heard of the other accident referenced so it looked it up. What a tragic story. The name Bobby Ojeda sounded familiar and when I asked my H about it, he reminded me that when we were house hunting 20 years ago, one of the homes that we looked at was the house where Ojeda almost cut his finger off clipping the hedges. It was a very nice house but not big enough for us, although the sauna room would have been fun.
this mournful playing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” last night was spine-chilling:
And @techmom99 --Yeah, don’t ever stand next to Bobby Ojeda–apparently an accident waiting to happen.
Apparently, the early report of them going out fishing wasn’t accurate. Interviews with friends and text messages between one friend and one of the other men on the boat indicate that Fernandez had had a fight with his pregnant girlfriend and decided to go out on the boat. He asked a few teammates to go with him and they declined. He then asked a friend Eddy Rivero to go. They went to a coastal bar/restaurant and another friend left with them on the boat. The original friend urged Eddy not to go, to keep Jose close to shore, and to keep Jose cool. Sadly, Eddy replied “trust me it’s not my time yet”. So very sad for all involved.
It’s awful. As a boater, I rarely go out in the dark. Many inexperienced boaters don’t realize you really can’t see dark objects boating at night…crab pots, fishing lines, logs floating, buoy’s, etc. Speed and nighttime are not a good combo.