RIP Tony Fernandez

[Dr. Dinger]

Now *this* is passing away.

[TheHurl]

Now *this* is passing away.

 

"fallecer" actually

[Spanky99]

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).

 

I missed this post, well said. I agree about Tony and Stieb, another idea would be building statues of all time great players around the stadium and scrap the level of excellence wall.

[Bobthe4th]

Now *this* is passing away.

 

[Spanky99]

Gillick on Tim and Sid...

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/pat-gillick-looks-back-time-tony-fernandez/

[wilko]

Now *this* is passing away.

 

Pretty sure he died.

[Dr. Dinger]

Pretty sure he died.

 

He definitely died but manner of death meets my criteria for passing away. Prolonged illness.

[G-Snarls]

This is sad

 

Great guy

 

And one of my all time favorites

[AdamGreenwood]

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.

 

Sounds like you would have been as pissed as I was over that trade.

I only forgave the Jays for that after they brought Tony back to win their 2nd WS with them.

[EMK19]

Sounds like you would have been as pissed as I was over that trade.

I only forgave the Jays for that after they brought Tony back to win their 2nd WS with them.

 

Oh god, I was a heartbroken little kid when I heard the news of the trade, since McGriff was my favourite player(#19 in my username is actually from his number w/the Jays) and Tony was my second favourite at the time. Since I was a kid back then with my exposure to NL being extremely limited besides from baseball cards, I had no idea who this Alomar dude was and I had not been overly impressed with Carter when he was with the Indians in ‘89. Trading away a young home run champion w/ great patience at the plate and a 4-time GG all-star for guys with lesser stats and accomplishments (on paper) just didn’t make much sense to me at the time, especially since we were already competing for the division every year with that core (of course falling short but by no fault of those two).

 

I was quicker to warm to Alomar as he elevated his game to elite status (and once Tony came back in ‘93 it felt like a full win), but I never fully warmed to Joe besides his ‘91 division winning hit and the ‘93 HR, and also never had quite the same affinity for Fred’s replacement, John Olerud.