Marlins' Jose Fernandez Remembered in 'Larger Than Life' Statue

MIAMI, FL — The Miami Marlins will honor pitching ace Jose Fernandez with a 9 or 10 f00t bronze statue in the next six months "because Jose was larger than life," the team's owner said in a published interview on Thursday.

Jeffrey Loria also told ESPN that the statue will be placed on the plaza or in front of Marlins stadium and that he personally worked on selecting a photo of Fernandez for William Behrends, who is crafting the piece. Behrends was commissioned to create statues of Willie McCovey and Willie May in San Francisco. (Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami Patch.)

"I went through hundreds and hundreds of photographs with the sculptor and gestures of Jose's face to try and make it perfect," Loria said in the interview. "No one else is going to get involved in a piece of sculpture other than me, right? I've spent 50 years in that world."

Loria, who is rumored to be attempting to sell the team, plans to have Fernandez' glove painted red-orange. That will be the only splash of color in the piece.

"I don't want to make it kitschy, but that was his favorite thing," Loria was quoted as saying. "Hopefully we'll see it in six months or so. It's a very long process to cast a sculpture that's 9 or 10 feet high, as opposed to 6 feet."

Florida investigators recently determined that Fernández was captaining the 32-foot Sea Vee when it crashed into a South Beach jetty at a high rate of speed on Sept. 25, 2016, killing himself and two others on board.

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Investigators said they found sufficient evidence to suspect Fernandez of boating- under-the-influence manslaughter and vessel homicide, both second-degree felonies. The investigation also suggested that Fernandez had violated a number of other state laws in piloting his boat, "Kaught Looking," which slammed into the Miami Government Cut jetty at 3:02 a.m. and flipped upside down.

While Loria didn't question those findings, he found them hard to believe and said he never personally saw his pitcher doing "foolish" things. "Then again, he's not going to say to me, 'Hey, by the way, I'm doing something I shouldn't be doing,'" Loria said in the interview.

Miami Marlins' Jose Fernandez looks out from the dugout during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Miami. The Marlins defeated the Giants 2-0. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)