In August, Jose Fernandez's girlfriend, Maria Arias, presented him with a special cake at a family dinner to celebrate that they were going to have a baby.
Her father, Orlando A. Sanfiel, posted a video of the event on Facebook as the Marlins' star pitcher, laughing with excitement, cut a wedge into the three layers, revealing pink cake inside.
He was having a girl.
"I knew it! I knew it!" he said, jumping up and down in his chair as family members hugged him.
For Fernandez, becoming a father marked a new milestone in a young life that had already been brimming with milestones: fleeing Cuba multiple times before making it to freedom in the United States; drafted by the Marlins in the first round in 2011; making the 2013 and 2016 All-Star teams; winning the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2013, and becoming a U.S. citizen last year.
This year, he racked up 253 strikeouts, a new Marlins' franchise record.
More dreams were about to come true for the 24-year-old pitching phenom: after signing with the franchise in 2011, he was earning $2.8 million salary this year. But his agent and others estimated that he would get a long-term deal paying as much as $30 million a year when his current contract ran out in 2018.
But whatever joys and sorrows awaited Fernandez both on and off the field will never be known. Early Sunday morning, well before dawn, he was killed along with two others, Eduardo Rivero, 25, and Emilio Macias, 27, when their boat crashed into a jetty off of South Beach.
Friends, family and teammates continued their mourning Tuesday. Very few people close to Fernandez spoke to the news media, and those who did, did not want to be named.
There were unconfirmed reports that Arias had been taken to the hospital for observation Tuesday. Meanwhile, his friends streamed into his mother's home in Southwest Miami to pay their respects.
The investigation, led by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is ongoing. Investigators are trying to piece together what led to the crash, where the trio had been and where they were headed. It's still not known whether drugs or alcohol played a role, or who was at the helm of Fernandez's 32-foot SeeVee when it flipped on the jetty about 3 a.m. Sunday.
