Jose Fernandez: Passion for Baseball, Passion for Life

In August 2016, José Fernández’s girlfriend, Maria Arias, presented him with a special cake at a family dinner to celebrate that they were going to have a baby. 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 Miami Marlins in the first round in 2011; making the 2013 and 2016 All-Star teams; winning the National League Rookie of th…