Marlins' Dee Gordon Hits Magical Lead-Off Homer In First Game Since Fernandez's Death

If this was the last time we see a No. 16 jersey on the field for the Marlins, Gordon and the rest of Fernandez's teammates made sure it was represented in the best light possible. There were a lot of amazing things that happened on Monday. In addition to Gordon’s power show, there was also slow-footed Marlins first baseman Justin Bour legging out his first career triple. Beyond his pitching, Fernandez was known for his charismatic, fun-loving personality.

Yet that doesn’t mean that it’s unhealthy to remember the emotions, the pure, unfiltered sorrow and despair. There will be a perfect time and place for that, no, perfect times and places, whether that’s next week or 50 years from now. It’s hard to imagine anything like it, an instant tribute to Jose Fernandez that devastated a million people who assumed they were already as devastated as they would get. Before the 360-foot trip of pure catharsis began, I wasn’t sure how Gordon, how anyone, could pretend to be composed out there. It turns out they were just hanging on, just propped up enough to pretend they were fine. Dee Gordon of the Seattle Mariners smiles while running the bases after hitting a solo home run in the fifth inning of the spring training game...

Dee Gordon on HR: Jose Fernandez should've been there cheering

In a tribute to his teammate, Gordon, a lefty batter, stepped to the plate batting right and wearing Fernandez’s batting helmet. After taking the first pitch, Gordon swapped the helmet for his own, and switched to the left-handed batters’ box. With a 2-0 count, Gordon homered to right field to give the Marlins the early 1-0 lead. It was a moment of unmistakeable power that guarantees we’ll remember just how this all felt at the time. We were going to remember it in some capacity, but not with this kind of focus and clarity. Gordon had an "RIP" shirt made in honor of Fernandez and wore it under his jersey, which was another way for Gordon to keep Fernandez close during the game.

d gordon home run

The entire team wore No. 16 jerseys and gathered around the pitcher’s mound, many overcome with emotion. In honor of Fernandez, the Marlins pitcher who died in a boating accident early Sunday in Miami Beach, every Marlins player on Monday wore a jersey with his name and number, 16. The Marlins canceled their game that was scheduled for Sunday, against the Atlanta Braves, but they returned to Marlins Park on Monday to face the Mets in an emotional game.

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And in the future it probably would have been time for all of us to remember the immediacy of the grief, remember that rawness. It was going to be tough for anyone to place themselves right in the middle of it. Probably because our brains usually do a fine job building up those emotional ramparts, and we’re happy to have the help.

The 6-3, 265-pound Bour completed the play by belly-flopping into third base as fans roared. “I saw him crying right when he rounded first base,” Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. When he crossed home plate, tears were coming down his face, and they were coming down mine, too. When Gordon went up to bat in the bottom of the first, he had “No. When he wasn’t pitching, he was all about the team, giving a pretty fair impersonation of a cheerleader.

MLB Home Runs Hit by Dee Strange-Gordon | Baseball Almanac

It’s not like if Gordon’s home run didn’t happen, we’d have to invent it. There wouldn’t have been that one moment where we remembered just how it felt. We weren’t going to revisit the calls or the texts or the news reports or the tweets or however we all found out. There wasn’t going to be a video of what was going on inside your head for the first five minutes, the first hour, the first day, something easy to rewind and replay again.

While there’s a great chance that Dee Gordon’s home run on Monday will be the most emotional baseball moment any of us will ever witness, it’s not a great idea to power rank emotional moments. That’s doubly true when you’re in close proximity to one of them. Pitting Gordon’s home run against, say, Mike Piazza’s post-9/11 home run is like having a debate between food and water. The first pitch was eventually thrown, but the tributes and emotions didn’t stop there. When Gordon stepped to the plate to start the bottom of the first inning, he did so wearing a helmet with Fernandez’s number on it. The left-handed Gordon also stepped into the opposite batter’s box and took the first pitch right-handed in honor of Fernandez.

Every Miami Marlins player wore a jersey with Jose Fernandez’s name and number in the game. Gordon’s home run is the monument sticking out of that point in time now. It’s the unmistakeable beacon jutting out of the ground, a waypoint we can return to again and again and again when we want to remember the uncut devastation as it was.

Marcell Ozuna of the Miami Marlins is congratulated by Dee Gordon after hitting a solo home run during a game against the Oakland Athletics at... Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins celebrates with Dee Gordon after hitting a three run home run against the Washington Nationals in the fifth... We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. About Baseball Reference Batting Glossary, Pitching Glossary, Wins Above Replacement Explainer, WAR data archive, BR Data Coverage, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, ...

Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins is congratulated by Ichiro Suzuki after he scores a 3RBI inside the park home run during a game against the San... Dario Alvarez of the New York Mets reacts after Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins hit a two run homer in the ninth inning on September 15, 2015 at Citi... Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins is congratulated by Dee Gordon after hitting a two run home run in the first inning during a game against the... Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins celebrates a two run home run in the third inning with Dee Gordon during a game against the Philadelphia...

d gordon home run

Taking one pitch — and danged if he didn’t look like he was thinking about swinging -- as a right-handed batter was a touching gesture. But we wouldn’t look back on it and be transported right back to the emotional hurricane. But Dee Gordon made sure that we’ll never forget what it was like to experience the loss. Gordon is not a home run hitter — he’s now hit just nine in nearly 550 career games — but the emotional scene at Marlins Park had nothing to do with that. The Marlins spent the pregame honoring Jose Fernandez who died in a tragic boating accident on Sunday. The scene was about as emotional as you’ll ever see prior to a professional sporting event.

Think of it in contrast to the planned tribute, the gesture Gordon made at the beginning of the at-bat in honor of Fernandez. He put on a right-hander’s helmet and stepped in from the right side, taking a pitch as a way to physically acknowledge his friend. It was touching, but it was a tribute that existed because Gordon didn’t know what else he could do. He might have preferred to stop the game, lie on home plate, and just stare at the sky for an hour, but he knew he had to get up and play baseball eventually.

It’s the difference between a demon actively stabbing you with a pitchfork and a demon sitting on your shoulder whispering things you don’t want to hear. The entire night was handled beautifully by the Marlins organization — organic, simple, gorgeous, raw. During the game, the Marlins and their home crowd reinforced each other, held each other up. After the game, the players went back to the mound because they had to, acutely aware of how the night got progressively lonelier and lonelier. Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins celebrates with Dee Gordon as Christian Yelich looks on after hitting a home run during the eighth inning... Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins leaps to celebrate with teammates including Dee Gordon, right, after he hit his 56th home run of the season in...

'First-class' Mets balance respect with wild-card race on emotional night6yAdam Rubin

Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins celebrates with Dee Gordon after hitting home run during the game against the Atlanta Braves at Marlins Park... Dee Gordon of the Seattle Mariners is congratulated by third base coach Scott Brosius after hitting a two run home run in the third inning of the... David Freitas of the Seattle Mariners congratulates Jean Segura of the Seattle Mariners after Segura hit a three-run home run off of starting pitcher...

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