DENVER _ Two thousand and sixty-one miles from Marlins Park, where they gathered and sobbed and tried to understand a year ago, the Miami Marlins marked the first anniversary of Jose Fernandez's death at Coors Field, where they began a series Monday night against the Colorado Rockies.
Their schedule, created and released before the tragedy, allowed them this small reprieve amid the endless reminders that come with the one-year mark.
"It would be even harder if we were in Miami," Martin Prado said. "It doesn't take all [the pain] away because we're in Colorado, but when you get to the field in Miami, everything just reminds you of him."
Inside the visitors' clubhouse at Coors, it was largely a normal Monday.
Players sat in their large, cushioned chairs by lockers, the pitchers chit-chatting or looking at their phones after their early-afternoon stretch. At 4 p.m., the team had its first-day-of-the-series hitters and pitchers meetings. Then the position players stretched together and took batting practice.
Hovering, however, was the memory of Fernandez.
"It's something that you're remembering, but he doesn't really go away, just because of the way he was," Don Mattingly said. The manager cited all of the usual characteristics: his passion, his energy, his often childlike enthusiasm for everything, including baseball. It was infectious, Mattingly said.
In a year without Jose Fernandez, what has changed? Quite a lot.
At home, Mattingly has a photo hanging of him and Fernandez, hugging after Fernandez's last game on Sept. 20, 2016.
"It's hard for me to process right now," Prado said. "After a year, it seems like yesterday."
Said Kyle Barraclough: "He seems like yesterday he was still here, and I think some of us are still kind of waiting for him to walk through the door."
And Jose Urena: "For us, he's still alive in our heart."
The Rockies had a brief pregame tribute to Fernandez on their video board. Denver was cold and rainy, pushing first pitch back by about 30 minutes, but that was OK given the circumstances under which the Marlins didn't play a year ago.
"It's hard to replace a person that brings so much to the game. It's so empty, knowing that it's so hard to find another guy like him," Prado said. "This is going to stay here for a long time. It's not just the first year, second year. It's going to be forever."
