Fernandez fondly recalled by fellow Cubans

The barrage of text messages woke up Padres outfielder Jon Jay at his California home long before the sun rose. Across the country in Florida, the cellphone of former Marlins pitcher Livan Hernandez was fielding non-stop calls.

At first, Hernandez thought it must have been a cruel joke. Then, he turned on the television. On the other coast, Jay was stunned and confused, even after he began to soak in the news he read from the screen of his smartphone.

The tragic news of Jose Fernandez’s death spread quickly across the pitcher’s two beloved countries, whose relations have grown closer over the past year — the United States and Cuba. The reaction was the same: Disbelief. Sadness.

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Fernandez died early Sunday in a boating accident in Miami Beach. He was 24.

Fernandez grew up in Cuba, where many streets are made of dirt. He pitched rocks and carried a wooden stick “all the time,” to hit the stones, he told MLB.com in 2013. When he was 15, he boarded a boat and defected, because he “wanted to try things out and I wanted to prove to my family that I was going to pitch in the Major Leagues,” he said during that interview in Miami.

He left behind his family, — including his beloved grandmother, who eventually would join him in the U.S. Their reunification in the Marlins clubhouse touched the hearts of millions of fans, who embraced his life, and passion for the game.

“We are both [from] … Santa Clara [in Cuba], and this one really hurts,” said Hernandez, who defected from Cuba in 1995 and later won a World …

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