Every Player On The Marlins Will Wear Jose Fernandez’s Number On Monday Night

The death of Marlins phenom Jose Fernandez from a boating accident on Sunday morning has rocked the baseball world to its core. It’s going to take a long time for anyone who knew Jose either personally or from afar to process his untimely passing, and until then, he will remain on everyone’s minds, even as the baseball season moves on.

The Marlins appropriately canceled Sunday’s game in the wake of the news, but with precious little time left in the regular season, games still must be played. They will take on the New York Mets on Monday night in Miami, and the team has decided to put Fernandez’s name and number on everyone’s jersey.

Only Jackie Robinson has ever received this sort of treatment before, in recognition of how he broke the MLB’s color barrier. Though Fernandez didn’t ever have an accomplishment so transcendent, he was still a significant figure not because of his talent — though it was prodigious, and just scratching the surface — but because of his passion and verve for life and baseball, and the moving story of his struggle to reach the United States from Cuba to realize his dreams, like so many Cubans who populate South Florida. Jose was a symbol of Latino joy, perseverance and openness, and he deserves to be remembered in a fashion befitting the outsized impact he made in his all-too-short career and life.