Late last night, as the baseball world continued to discuss the Houston Astros cheating scandal and the players attempts to cover it up- side note: this is an absolute pubic relations nightmare, it’s blatantly obvious the players don’t actually feel remorse about this- the baseball world lost longtime Toronto Blue Jay infielder Tony Fernandez at the age of 57.
Tony Fernandez, who played for seventeen years in Major League Baseball for seven different franchises, will mostly be remembered as a Toronto Blue Jay, playing in their infield for parts of twelve seasons. During his career, Fernandez was a 5x All-Star (‘86, ‘87, ‘89, ‘92, ‘99), 4x Gold Glove winner at Shortstop (‘86-’89), and was part of the 1993 World Series winning Blue Jays. During that World Series, Fernandez drove in 9 runs, the most by a shortstop (see page: 136).
Tony Fernandez also spent one season donning the Yankee pinstripes on the field, in 1995 and spent the 1996 recovering from an elbow injury, and has forever become a part of Yankees history. In the early part of that 1995 season, Fernandez suffered a minor injury which first allowed future Yankee legend Derek Jeter to break into the MLB, playing from May 29th to June 11th. (Read more about June 11th, 1995 here.) That next season in 1996, an elbow injury Fernandez sustained kept him out for the whole year, allowing Derek Jeter to slot in as the full-time Yankees shortstop- a position he would not give up for the next 19 years. RiverAveBlues had a great story about the 1996 shortstop competition, “Tony Fernandez: The Derek Jeter Insurance The Yankees Never Needed” from a few years back.
In his career, Fernandez wore many different numbers, but today we remember Number 1. We wish our condolences to his family, friends, and loved ones.
May God bless you Mr. Fernandez, as you find eternal peace in heaven.Embed from Getty Images
Rest In Peace legendary Blue Jays shortstop Tony Fernandez. Our thoughts and prays are with your family and your legacy as a Blue Jay will live on forever. pic.twitter.com/afXz1tmsg2 — Toronto Blue Jays (@T0r0nt0BlueJays) February 16, 2020
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