Marlins plan to unveil Jose Fernandez sculpture
Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria says that the team plans on unveiling a statue of pitcher Jose Fernandez later this year.
In an interview with ESPN.com, Loria says the team plans on honoring Fernandez with setting aside his locker in Miami's clubhouse. The team already wearing a No. 16 patch on their uniforms.
Fernandez and two others were killed on Sept. 25 when the boat Fernandez was driving crashed outside of Miami. Investigators later said that Fernandez had cocaine and alcohol in his system at the time of the crash.
Loria says those reports didn't change his perception of Fernandez.
"I know Jose to be a different kind of person," Loria told ESPN. "I know a kid who was fun-loving. I didn't know a kid who was involved with anything bad. The only thing bad he was involved with was trying to beat your ass right off the plate. That's the only thing I ever saw."
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Loria said that the sculpture of Fernandez will be big because was "larger than life."
"We're going to cast it in bronze and paint the glove the red-orange that Jose would like, and that will be the only color on it. I don't want to make it kitschy, but that was his favorite thing," Loria told ESPN. "Hopefully we'll see it in six months or so. It's a very long process to cast a sculpture that's 9 or 10 feet high, as opposed to 6 feet."
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