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Little late because of a wild night but it's the 10th anniversary of the death of Jose Fernandez. Been a Marlins fan since day one, I was at the very first game. Having a team in my hometown was such a moment. Moving overseas made it hard, but I fell in love with baseball.

The Marlins are always a team that's hard to love, but when Jose showed up while I was in college, it was a shot of adrenaline. He was fun, he loved playing, and he didn't care who didn't like who showed it. Ioved it, it felt new, it felt like a shift in baseball. He was lightning.

I remember the morning he died. I'd just survived a brutal incident a couple years ago, and while I know he made mistakes, it was the same mistakes I'd made, and now he paid for them in a way nobody deserved. For Miami, the local Cuban community, for the Marlins, I was heartbroken.

The day after, I was at a @bitbashchicago.com meeting, watching the game on my iPad. I cried during the intro, during the mound tribute, and then Dee came at bat. He took Jose's batting box and stance for the first pitch, and then, for his only one that season, sent it deep right. Home run. I broke.

I'm not a celebrity person, but what Jose brought to the game, just to transform it into a place where people can celebrate their accomplishments, that can defy this racist lousy old school way of thinking, he was so fun, man. I was a fan. I was his fan.

10 years on, the Marlins haven't given him any sort of memorial, no statue, no section, just a small unnamed plaque where the Miami and Cuban community congregated to tribute him after his death. But he meant a lot to me, and I want him to be remembered. Today's Jose Day. And he meant a lot to us.