On night heavy with grief, Dee Gordon produces magic
Smallest guy on field homers after tribute to fallen teammate
Dee Gordon was holding the bat. We know that.
But the forces that swung it through the strike zone?
Those are impossible to know, to quantify, to attribute.
Carl Sagan says that "if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Maybe Sagan could explain the dynamics that were at work at Marlins Park on Monday night, but it's a fool's mission to even try.
Let's just say that the magic Gordon delivered with a leadoff home run was a lot bigger than any one player, especially the smallest one on the field.
"We had some help," Gordon said.
On Sunday, when the news of Jose Fernandez's death was as fresh as it was heartbreaking, Martin Prado admitted it would be tough to go on.
They beat the Mets, 7-3, then circled the pitcher's mound marked with Fernandez's No. 16. They started on their feet, locked arm in arm, and many ended on their knees. While fans in the crowd of 26,933 chanted, "Jose, Jose, Jose,'' the guys in uniform stayed a long time before leaving their caps near the pitching rubber and heading off the field.
When the Marlins took their positions to face the Mets, after Sunday's game against Atlanta was postponed, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Gordon and other players had tear stains mixing with their eye black.
They couldn't have known where they'd find the strength to take their first steps without Fernandez.
Yet Gordon, the skinny leadoff man listed at 170 pounds, showed them.
A left-handed hitter, he went to the plate to bat right-handed, the way his friend Jose hit. He wore a batting helmet marked with Fernandez's No. 16.
Gordon took the first pitch for a ball, then exchanged the first helmet for his own and moved over to the left side. He looked at ball two, then took a big swing at one of Colon's trademark 85-mph fastballs. The baseball soared high and far, into the upper deck in right field, Gordon's first home run in 306 at-bats, since the final game of the 2015 season.
Then, in the time it took him to circle the bases, he fell apart.
Gordon was crying before he touched home plate, then started sobbing as he received hugs from his friends. First, Marcell Ozuna, the on-deck hitter, then Stanton and essentially everyone else who, like him, was wearing a black, No. 16 Fernandez jersey.
"I told the boys, 'If y'all don't believe in God, you might as well start [believing],'' Gordon said. "I've never hit a ball that far, even in batting practice.''
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/203591...-brings-magic/
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RIP Jose, what a horrible tragedy
