Sunday was a sad day in the sports world, with the deaths of golf great Arnold Palmer and young baseball star Jose Fernandez.
Their careers were is stark contrast. One just beginning while the other, past its prime.
Fernandez, 24, was killed in a boating accident in Miami. Palmer died at age 87 after a storied career in golf that stretched more than five decades.
Braves icon Chipper Jones linked the pair in an editorial published by the Washington Post.
Of Palmer Chipper wrote:
Everybody's going to remember Arnie. Jack Nicklaus was the Tiger Woods-type talent of that generation, but Palmer was the fan favorite. He's like that favorite grandpa — you have the one grandpa who's very stern, and you have the other grandpa who shakes your hand and slips you a $20. That was Arnie. He was a Hall of Famer and an unbelievable golfer, but people are going to talk about the person more than the player.
Of Fernandez, Chipper wrote:
Jose was on his way to becoming that type of athlete. He was a huge talent; you would pay the price of admission just to see him pitch. But he meant more than that. Before I met him, I already had the utmost respect for what he went through to get to the United States. Everything I'd read — trying to defect from Cuba three times, saving his mother from drowning on their journey to Florida — was heartwarming, chilling, brave. When I finally got the chance to get to know him a little bit, I liked him immediately. His charisma and passion were overwhelming.
Credit: Alan Diaz
Credit: Alan Diaz
He closed his article, feeling a little nostalgic.
"They were bigger than their athleticism. To have people talk about who they were as people more than who they were as players — I hope that’s what happens when I pass. I hope that people talk that way about me."
