Tragic Losses To Sports World

Sports can be a beautiful thing. The thrill of competition to see, on a given day, who has a better team. Athletes get paid, and in some cases paid quite well, to play a kids game. Sometimes, though we forget the fact that athletes are humans like us, just with a greater gift. The sports world loss two great humans on Sunday, in two different ways. Miami Marlins young pitching phenom Jose Fernandez died, at age 24, from a boating accident early in the day. Later on Sunday night, golf legend Arnold Palmer passed away at the age of 87.

Fernandez had his whole life ahead of him. He passed away in a boating accident just off the Florida coastline at about 3 AM Sunday, according to reports. Fernández and two other men were found dead after their boat was discovered at the entrance of Miami Harbor. According to CNN, Coast Guard personnel on patrol noticed the vessel upside down on the north end of a rocky jetty shortly after 3:15 a.m. Divers recovered two bodies under the boat, and a third victim was found on the rocks. The names of the two other victims, are being withheld until relatives are notified. Those other two men are friends of Fernandez.

There's more to him then just being a fantastic baseball player. Born in Cuba, Fernandez defected to the United States when he was a teenager. The story is truly awesome. In 2008, Fernández made his fourth attempt to flee Cuba, according to a 2013 Miami Herald story. He'd been jailed for a previous failed attempt and, this time, was attempting to reach America, via Mexico, with his mother and sister. Once on the open water, the newspaper reported, someone fell off of the boat, and Fernández, a good swimmer, asked no questions, he jumped in to save the person. It turned out to be his mother, Maritza. Talk about a scary moment. It shows the compassion the guy had, jumping in to save somebody's life, he didn't even know it was his mother who had fallen in. He cared about everybody around him, was always giving of himself off the field.

On the field, he was a different person. He had a 38-17 lifetime record, including going 16-8 this season. His career ERA 2.58 and he had 589 lifetime strikeouts. He played in two all star games and won the Rookie Of The Year in the National League in 2013. He had it all on the mound. He threw a four seamer in the high 90's, a slurve that could reach the mid 80's a changeup and a sinker that could hit about the same range. Fernandez was must watch baseball when he was on the hill, he really was a joy to watch pitch, if you were a Marlins fan or not.

Professional sports lost another legend on Sunday, as Arnold Palmer passed away. He was the King of Golf, transforming golf into something that was cool. Palmer managed to turn the sport of Golf from something that was just done at a country club, to something that could be done and played by anybody. Palmer was fantastic on the course, as he won more than 90 golf tournaments, including the Masters four times. He also won the U.S. Open in 1960, and the British Open in 1961 and 1962. Oh yeah and he became the first golfer ever to make $1 Million.

Before the age of social media, "Arnold's Army" gave him a loyal following. Win or lose, Palmer's fans followed him around wherever he went on tour. The guy had it all, he had the look and a style that no golfer before had ever shown. You know that a guy has made it big when he has a drink named after him, a mix of lemonade and iced tea that he used to take on the golf course with him in a thermos. It became one of the hottest selling drinks in america, and it still going strong today.

Palmer had it all and did it all. He was the greatest golfer to ever step foot on a tee and he knew it. The world of sports lost a true legend on Sunday.