TORONTO -- Fourteen years ago, Joe Girardi, then a 37-year-old Chicago Cubs catcher, was given the difficult task of announcing to the Wrigley Field crowd that the day's game had been cancelled due to the death of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile.
But even more difficult, Girardi said, was going out to play the scheduled game against the Cardinals the following day. That is what Girardi recalled Monday night as the Miami Marlins, reeling from the death of 24-year-old pitcher Jose Fernandez in a boating accident early Sunday morning, prepared to return to action against the New York Mets.