Santa Clara also mourns death of native ballplayer José Fernández

Sorrow over the death of Miami Marlins star pitcher, José Fernández, stretched across the Florida Straits to his native city of Santa Clara in central Cuba where friends and family followed the achievements of an athlete whose humble beginnings grew to inconceivable fame.

Nelson “Nety” Díaz Nápoles, a neighbor from Fernández’s former Macuca neighborhood and the uncle of St. Louis Cardinals ballplayer Aledmys Díaz, recalled the pitcher’s early start on the baseball field in Cuba.

In a video interview in Spanish, he told Cubanet those who knew Fernández were devastated.

Read more at InCubaToday.

This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Santa Clara also mourns death of native ballplayer José Fernández."