I’m still having a hard time believing Jose Fernandez is really dead… and I never even met him. I can’t even begin to imagine how the news of his passing is affecting his teammates, friends and family members.
Jose Fernandez
Tag: Jose Fernandez
Highlights from a pair of 2014 Donruss Series 2 packs
I may not have found any Topps Update packs yet, but I did get to open some baseball cards last week. One of my friends gave me a couple of packs of Donruss Series 2, and I have to admit that the set is growing on me.
I did pretty well – I ended up pulling Travis d’Arnaud, the only Mets player in the 100-card base set.
I also found Masahiro Tanaka‘s Rated Rookies and Diamond Kings cards – in the same pack. I normally don’t get that excited about Yankees cards, but I really enjoyed watching Tanaka pitch this year and these are his first baseball cards that have landed in my hands. Panini’s lack of a license to show Major League Baseball logos hurts the Rated Rookies card, but the Diamond Kings card works for me.
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9 moments from 2013: The marathon Mets game
During the final nine days of 2013, I’m going to revisit nine memorable baseball moments from the year.
This one was an awfully long “moment.”
On June 5, it rained. On June 6, it rained some more. I took a chance and bought a ticket for the June 7 game, hoping I’d get to see a doubleheader with Matt Harvey pitching one of the games against the Miami Marlins.
The Mets disappointed me by deciding to go with a single game on June 7 and a doubleheader in September. As it turned out, that was a really fortunate decision.
I got to see Harvey match up against Jose Fernandez, but considering the overall quality of both team’s lineups, it’s tough to say how much credit to give them for it being a 1-1 tie when they left the game.
Actually, considering the Mets and Marlins bullpens both pitched five scoreless innings, I’d say the “credit” mostly belonged to the talent levels of the two teams’ hitters.
Then when inning 13 came around, both teams turned to the starters who would have pitched except for the rainout.
For the Mets, it was Shaun Marcum, who entered the game with an 0-6 record and had generally been terrible, though on occasion he did pitch almost well enough to win… if he played for a team that scored runs.
For the Marlins, it was Kevin Slowey. And for seven more innings, they matched zeros.
Naturally, in inning 20, Marcum finally allowed a run. And mercifully, Rick Ankiel, Omar Quintanilla and Daniel Murphy were unable to extend the game further in the bottom half of the inning.
It took 6 hours and 25 minutes to play, 561 pitches were thrown, 41 players were used, and of an official crowd of 20,338 fans, only a few hundred remained to see the end.
I was one of them.
You can follow Paul’s Random Baseball Stuff on Facebook or Google+, see my photos on Flickr and Instagram, and follow @PaulsRandomStuf on Twitter, where I talk about about a variety of things in addition to baseball.
9 moments from 2013: A Rookie of the Year’s debut
I wish you a blessed Christmas. During the final nine days of 2013, I’m going to revisit nine memorable baseball moments from the year.
Today’s game didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but I noticed it when I was flipping through my scorecards.
On Sunday, April 7, 20-year-old Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez made his major league debut against the New York Mets, who started journeyman Aaron Laffey.
I was only at the game because SNY distributed free tickets to people who signed up for them, but I was curious about the guy the Marlins thought could jump from Single-A to the majors.
Although Fernandez had a great first outing – five innings, three hits, one walk and one run, eight strikeouts – it was tough to tell whether his success was based on skill or a Mets’ lineup that included Collin Cowgill, Ike Davis, Lucas Duda, Mike Baxter, Ruben Tejada and Anthony Recker. And from the upper deck Promenade, it’s impossible to gauge pitches.
Fernandez went on to become an All-Star, then the National League Rookie of the Year and the third place finisher in the National League Cy Young voting. (Laffey would make one more start and two relief appearances before the Mets placed him on waivers.)
Neither starting pitcher factored into the decision and both were out of the game after five innings. Marlon Byrd, who came into the game in a fifth inning double switch, got the game-winning walk-off hit against Steve Cishek.
At this point, I’d been to three games and the Mets won them all. I wouldn’t see another Mets’ victory until the last day of the season.
You can follow Paul’s Random Baseball Stuff on Facebook or Google+, see my photos on Flickr and Instagram, and follow @PaulsRandomStuf on Twitter, where I talk about about a variety of things in addition to baseball.
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