RIP Tony Fernandez

[TheHurl]

My Spanish is not the best but 99.9% sure Tony passed away tonight

[Carlos Danger]

My Spanish is not the best but 99.9% sure Tony passed away tonight

 

Post the link and let me read it..

[Carlos Danger]

Just read it

 

https://elnuevodiario.com.do/fallece-tony-cabeza-fernandez-ex-pelotero-de-grandes-ligas/

 

Yes, he died RIP Tony and thanks for the memories when I was a kid and teen..

 

Descansa en paz

[Barkerfan23]

Just saw this RIP

[DigitalRock]

This sucks. RIP, loved watching him play.

[Grant77]

RIP Tony. It was truly a pleasure to watch you play with thr Blue Jays.

[Spanky99]

RIP Tony Fernandez, sad man. My condolences Ang.

[Pinkfloid]

Sad news. They'd better wear a commemorative patch for him this year.

[Spanky99]

Sad news. They'd better wear a commemorative patch for him this year.

 

They will.

[EMK19]

RIP Tony. Him and McGriff were two of my favourite players on the Jays when I started seriously following the Jays as a Kid. I’ve said this on another thread but IMO he had skills equal or greater than some of the HOF SS’s and always seemed so underrated as a player. Loved his brief rental comeback in ‘93 then two more times after that (and seemingly only getting better in hitting as he aged).

 

Will always be my favourite Blue Jays shortstop and never be forgotten.

[Maine Jays]

For the last half of '98 (once he moved from second base to third) and most of '99, all he did was deliver clutch hits. RIP, Tony. You will be missed.

[Inklink]

Rip

[Beans]

Que Descanse En Paz (May He Rest In Peace)

[Beans]

[Jimcanuck]

RIP Tony, thanks for the beautiful memories

[KennerKid]

A true magician with the glove and damn solid hitter. Heaven gets a new angel. RIP good ballplayer and man

[sdyment]

This one hurts. Fernandez diving to his left and his throws from behind third made me a baseball fan.

RIP Tony

[Ehjays]

Sad news. They'd better wear a commemorative patch for him this year.

 

Very sad news, As for a patch, Fernandez played 1450 of his 2158 MLB games in a Jays uniform, and is the franchise’s all-time leader in games played, hits (1583), singles (1160), triples (72), and bWAR (37.5) now factor in his gold glove defence at a premium position and no doubt will be honoured by the Jays. RIP Tony.

[Brownie19]

Made me tear up this morning watching the memorial videos on Sportsnet. Brought back so many great memories of my childhood. A class act and truly one of the best Blue Jays ever. He will be missed.

 

I was able to show old highlight videos of Tony to my 9 year old son today (who's a SS himself). He was amazed at how smooth he was and how he could throw it from any angle.

 

RIP Tony.

[Dick_Pole]

This sucks.

[vdartanian]

Sad day...watching Tony play was a huge part of my childhood and was definitely my favorite all-time Blue Jay player. Spent years unsuccessfully trying to master his underhand flip-throws from the hole, which drove our little league coaches insane.

 

RIP Cabeza!

Edited February 16, 2020 by vdartanian

[Carlos Danger]

Sad day...watching Tony play was a huge part of my childhood and was definitely my favorite all-time Blue jay player. Spent years unsuccessfully tying to master his underhand flip-throws from the hole, which drove our little league coaches insane.

 

RIP Cabeza!

 

Ha! Same here, tried to do that semi-under throw my whole youth until I got lots of crap from coaches when started little league. The under arm throw from the hole worked great with a tennis ball playing in the back yard or school yard when I was trying to emulate Tony..

[Tacoma]

I was an ardent Blue Jays fan back in the '80's until their '93 Championship and signed up here to post this message.

 

If I had to chose my favorite Jays player ever, it would be Tony. He approached the game quietly & methodically without fanfare with high work ethic and a star player both on offense and defense. He was one of the best Jays player ever, an excellent playoff performer and a key player on that 1993 Championship team.

 

Of all the players on that Championship team, I was most happiest for Tony because of his long tenure as a Jays All Star, then getting traded, then coming back and being an instrumental player to earn that ring. A humble person, great role model, a Champion. Respect. RIP.

[CrackerJack]

Tony is my all time favourite Jay. RIP.

[Terminator]

This is horrible news. Only 57. He was an all-time Jays great. Maybe even deserving of being on the franchise’s Mt Rushmore.

 

He was a little bit before my time but one of my favorite memories of him was in 1999 when he hit .372 at the ASB. A little bit before that he was flirting with .400 and this was 2.5 months into the season in his age 37 season. He was a stud. Better player than quite a few HoF, including fellow SS Omar Vizquel who will get into the HoF.

[Spanky99]

I was an ardent Blue Jays fan back in the '80's until their '93 Championship and signed up here to post this message.

 

If I had to chose my favorite Jays player ever, it would be Tony. He approached the game quietly & methodically without fanfare with high work ethic and a star player both on offense and defense. He was one of the best Jays player ever, an excellent playoff performer and a key player on that 1993 Championship team.

 

Of all the players on that Championship team, I was most happiest for Tony because of his long tenure as a Jays All Star, then getting traded, then coming back and being an instrumental player to earn that ring. A humble person, great role model, a Champion. Respect. RIP.

 

My thoughts basically, well said Tacoma.

[Spanky99]

This is horrible news. Only 57. He was an all-time Jays great. Maybe even deserving of being on the franchise’s Mt Rushmore.

 

He was a little bit before my time but one of my favorite memories of him was in 1999 when he hit .372 at the ASB. A little bit before that he was flirting with .400 and this was 2.5 months into the season in his age 37 season. He was a stud. Better player than quite a few HoF, including fellow SS Omar Vizquel who will get into the HoF.

 

32nd overall... it's sad he fell off the vote. His wRC+ was only 105 but that was with ++ defense. A stud of his era, and career.

[onwego]

Sad day...watching Tony play was a huge part of my childhood and was definitely my favorite all-time Blue Jay player. Spent years unsuccessfully trying to master his underhand flip-throws from the hole, which drove our little league coaches insane.

 

RIP Cabeza!

 

 

RIP for one of the franchise greats, had forgotten he played until 2001, made three returns to the Jays in his career

 

Only regret was he was a super nice guy and Madlock took him out hard and broke his arm on a DP ball, the major factor in the cratering end to the 1987 season.

[EMK19]

I’ve been thinking, should we be a little more relaxed in terms of retiring player’s numbers?

 

Jays seem to have what is pretty much an unofficial requirement of HOF induction for the team to retire a player’s number, and while I don’t exactly want us to retiring number every few years (and eventually run out of popular numbers like the Yankees), I think we have a few true franchise greats that had longevity with the team/had many marquee moments/put up great numbers such as Fernandez, Stieb, Delgado, and Bautista that should be given serious consideration for it despite them falling short of HOF. While the Level of Excellence is nice I feel that it doesn’t get the deserved recognition from non-Blue Jays fans as much as a retired number would (I wonder how many non-Jays fans remember that LOE even exists...).

 

I know a big part of the decision in us retiring Alomar’s number was that he was the first one to go in wearing a Jays cap, but stats and achievement wise with the Jays I do believe that Tony was almost/just as good as Robbie in a lot of the areas (GGs, playoff performances, offensive numbers), and spent much more time with our team to boot. Tony may not have been as complete of a ballplayer or charismatic as Robbie was but as far as honouring his time in a Jays uniform goes, I say he is just as deserving if not more in some ways.

 

It would also be nice too in that we get to honour a franchise great of our early years. We have Robbie as a symbol of our early 90’s teams and Roy for our post new Millennium years so Stieb/Fernandez would be a good candidate for the 80’s (though Tony overlaps a bit into the 90’s as well).

[wilko]

Poory guy's been suffering from health issues for a while. He was a treat to watch.