Called my mother with the awful news Sunday morning. Had such a hard time getting out the words that she thought something terrible had happened to me.I know how much she loved Jose Fernandez. As a player. As a personality. As a symbol of strength and pride for our people. Marlins management has extinguished Moms love for baseball one move at a time over the last two decades. Fernandez was the only thing that brought her limping back to that ballpark to climb those stairs in her old age. The only thing. Such was the reach of his arm and his joy and his story. It could bring even a betrayed 72-year-old Cuban lady in for what felt like an embrace, grabbing her firmly by the heart.There was a lot of silence on the other end of the phone when I told Mom that Fernandez was dead at 24. But I could hear that she was crying. I didnt have the words to soothe her. So I started crying too.These kind of emotional connections in sports are so rare. We didnt know him. But we did. Fernandezs exile story was our story, from fleeing to freeing, so we mourned as a family and asked questions with no answers and appreciated life and love a little more than we did a few minutes earlier. My chest hurt, and my mother wept, and my groggy father awoke in a confused and grieving fog, asking What happened? This was how the early hours of Sunday felt for a lot of South Florida, so much of South Florida, too much of South Florida, morning turned to mourning.Fernandez made us care. Damn it, this emotional investment. Why? Damn it. Why? Fernandez took us with him for the emotional ride. And it was such a fun party. A carnival. Watching him work was a pleasure, his joy birthing our joy, contagious and expanding and shared -- hell, yes, multiplying joy -- so Sunday mourning felt like the horror of watching the parade route end in a wreck and a funeral. So sudden. So fast. Too fast. Why? Damn it. Why?An uncommon joy has been extinguished. Fernandez had found freedom on one boat, and now his life had ended on another. There will be uncomfortable questions about that in the coming days and an investigation, but nobody wants to hear about that during the grief of the eulogy. This feels so cruel, so wrong, so unfair. It is the worst kind of awful, young life extinguished with thudding finality before it can really be lived, but it is somehow made harder because it was this life.Im not talking about his promise or his pitching potential, even though he was on his way to a $200 million contract, and the loss of his baseball value is crippling to the franchise. Im talking about his personality, his energy, his soul. Fernandez had so much joy and enthusiasm and gratitude and passion pouring from him -- for being in this country, for getting to do what he loved, for squeezing every ounce of fun out of the day -- that it could move even the repressed and the sour. His smile and laugh routinely thawed stoic statues like Giancarlo Stanton. Jesus, even hitting coach Barry Bonds was always kissing him in the damn dugout.In the history of South Florida sports, only Dontrelle Willis has matched his contagious enthusiasm and charisma. And I say matched it because I know of no human way for his joy at work to be topped. He loved what he did, loved it so hard and so big, loved it so much that he forced you to love it too. Fernandez played the way the best Latin music feels. He acted like a little boy in a sports world soaked with adult problems and cynicism that can make us lose sight of the root verb at the center of what he did for a living. To play. You expected him to throw his glove into the sky at the end of successful innings. And you know what watching him work felt like to South Floridas Cubans? Freedom.All around that ballpark, in the bodegas and restaurants where people dont speak English, you will find a slice of his story. So much of Miamis economy and vibrancy and culture and flavor is built atop it. He tried to defect from Cuba four times, once saving his drowning mother during an attempted escape, the desperation on that rotting island such that he kept literally throwing his life to the wind to escape it. He was jailed after being caught but said the first few months of freedom in this country were harder on him than even the incarceration in that one. Such can be the difficulty of the transition for immigrants, exiles and dream-chasers.He didnt understand how the faucet sensors worked in Americas airport bathrooms. He knew so little English that he didnt even know where to put his name on a high school test. He so missed the grandmother who raised him, a grandmother who would later go to the roof of her apartment in Cuba to hear him pitch in the All-Star game on her tinny radio, that he would wander off into the woods to cry for hours at a time. But his golden arm reached across that ocean and got abuela here in an emotional reunion two years ago. He was just beginning to share and live the best parts of his realized American dream. He had his first baby on the way. He worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get to the top of this mountain, and he barely had time to enjoy the view.Thank you, Jose.For sharing your joyful time with us.For telling your story and our story with so much color and flair.For making us care in a way that can be hard to see today through our tears. Travis Konecny Jersey . Badenhop was 2-3 with a 3.47 ERA in 63 relief appearances for Milwaukee this season. He is 18-20 in his career with three saves and a 3. Claude Giroux Jersey . Colin Wilson had two goals and an assist, and Mike Fisher scored a goal and helped set up two others in the Predators 6-4 victory over the Red Wings on Monday night. http://www.hockeyflyersauthentic.com/james-van-riemsdyk-jersey/ . Dusautoir, the former World Player of the Year, sustained a torn bicep playing for Toulouse in the Heineken Cup on Saturday. The flanker, who has played 65 times for France, is expected to be out for up to four months. Bobby Clarke Jersey . -- Claudio Bieler hadnt scored since early September, and not from the run of play since mid-July. Travis Sanheim Jersey . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. NEW YORK -- If this is how Serena Williams serves when she cant practice properly because her right shoulder is sore, watch out when shes 100 percent healthy.A year after falling two wins short of a calendar-year Grand Slam by bowing out in the US Open semifinals, Williams showed zero signs of shoulder trouble on Tuesday night as she began her bid for a record-breaking 23rd major title.She hit 12 aces and reached 121 mph on her powerful serve during a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Ekaterina Makarova, a potentially tricky first-round opponent at Flushing Meadows.I was pleased with my serve, because I havent been hitting a lot of serves at all, the 34-year-old Williams said. In practice, none of them were going in, so I was definitely excited about that.Since equaling Steffi Grafs mark for most Grand Slam singles trophies in the Open era, which dates to 1968, by earning No. 22 at Wimbledon in July, the No. 1-ranked Williams had entered only one event -- the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where she was upset in the third round. She cited a sore shoulder in withdrawing from a hard-court tournament a week later.She looked perfectly fine against Makarova, a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist who is ranked 29th. Makarova beat Williams in straight sets at the 2012 Australian Open.I knew today I needed to be focused, because Ive played her, Williams said of Makarova. Shes gotten to the semifinals. She goes deep in majors. She knows how to play big matches on big courts. Shes not intimidated. I knew I had to really come out today. It was my only option, really.Well, consider that done.Wearing black sleeves on each arm -- she called the accessories definitely functional, because they keep my muscles warm -- Williams averaged 108 mph on first serves and won 17 of the first 20 points she served, 36 of 46 overall, never appearing to be the least bit bothered by anything.And she even figured that maybe the time she couldnt spend serving during training sessions paid off, in a way, because she was forced to address other aspects of her game, including footwork.I couldnt hit any balls. I wanted to stay fit, so ... I guess that kind of helped me out a little bit, she said.In 2015, Williams arrived at the US Open having won four consecutive major titles for a self-styled Serena Slam. But had she also won the championship in New York, she would have made it 4-for-4 within a single season, something no one had done since Graf in 1988.But that pursuit ended with a surprising semifinal loss to Roberta Vinci of Italy.Later, Williams acknowledged what was at stake had been a burden.Williams was asked Tuesday whether this edition of the US Open might be a more pleasant experience than a year ago, without the same sort of history on the line.I had a great experience last year.dddddddddddd I was going for something that no one has done in a really long time, she replied. Yeah, it didnt end out wonderful for me, or the way I wanted it to end, but it was all I could do. Thats all I could do. If I could make the semis this year, Id be excited about that.Meanwhile, her sister?Venus Williams needed three sets to win her 18th first-round match at the US Open.She defeated Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, despite 63 unforced errors, and improved to 18-0 in the Opens first round. Only Chris Evert (19-0) has a better record in the first round in the Open era, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.?She led 5-2 in the third set, but the 22-year-old Kozlova pushed her to the limit in the 2-hour, 42-minute match.It was great to be challenged and to be pushed, said the 36-year-old Venus Williams, a two-time US Open champion, because I had to get in those situations that you know youre going to face in the tournament.She next faces?Julia Goerges, who defeated Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-2.Also on the womens side,?Simona Halep gave herself less than nine for her quick work against Kirsten Flipkens.The Romanian was ahead 6-0, 5-0, with countrywoman Nadia Comaneci cheering her on. Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.Halep, the fifth seed, was unable to complete the double bagel, however, as she wound up winning 6-0, 6-2.Halep said she wasnt perfect, but she was pleased with her play against the Belgian. She got 69 percent of her first serves in and won 12 of 15 points at the net.Halep, who reached the semifinals of the US Open last year, will next face Lucie Safarova, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Daria Gavrilova.In other matches,?Ana Ivanovic?tumbled out of the US Open in the first round for the second straight year after a 7-6 (4), 6-1 loss to Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic.A former No. 1 player who has slipped to 31st in the rankings, Ivanovic was serving for the first set at 6-5 but struggled with her serve and faltered in the tiebreaker. The 2008 French Open champion finished with seven double faults and 41 unforced errors.At the US Open, Ivanovic has reached the fourth round or better five times, including a career-best quarterfinal run in 2012.Meanwhile, 2011 US Open champion?Samantha Stosur?advanced with a 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 win over Camila Giorgi, who had an ace to win the second-set tiebreaker.Stosur, however, streaked out to a 4-0 lead in the deciding set and next will face Zhang Shuai, who defeated Ellen Perez 6-1, 6-1.The Associated Press contributed to this report. ' ' '