ing, kept her plan to herself. But asked yet again about the style that has critics beyond just Hope Solo, she offered a rebuttal that sounded like someone unbowed.My responsibility is to tr

MIAMI -- Despite all his accomplishments, Jose Fernandez never pitched a complete game, and on Thursday he was carried out of church in a casket with too much unfinished business.The choir struck up God Bless America, and mourners began to cry yet again as they joined in, celebrating the place that welcomed the Cuban defector and now must say goodbye.The last formal farewell came at a private Catholic mass attended by about 300 friends and relatives who nearly filled the large sanctuary. Those in attendance included Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, busloads of current and former Miami Marlins players, former Marlins manager Jack McKeon and two Hall of Famers, Marlins executives Tony Perez and Andre Dawson.We werent supposed to be here today, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said.Its very difficult to understand this, said the Rev. Jose Alvarez, Catholic ministry liaison to the Marlins. Why so young -- someone with such bright promise?Fernandez, 24, and two friends died in a boat crash early Sunday near Miami Beach.The bilingual service lasted more than two hours, and much of the time was spent celebrating Fernandezs dynamic personality, rather than his considerable exploits as the Marlins precocious ace.The bulletin for the mass included three photos of Fernandez, and each captured his familiar grin.His magnetic smile could light up a ballpark, Loria said. He set the standard for making baseball fun.Pallbearers wore black Fernandez jerseys as they carried his casket, while Marlins manager Don Mattingly and third baseman Martin Prado read scripture. The team has grieved in public and offered moving tributes to Fernandez while finishing out the final six games of the season, which ends Sunday.During the passing of the peace, players lined up to hug and console Fernandezs mother and grandmother, seated in the front row. He also left behind a girlfriend pregnant with their child.He was a young man who was larger than life -- a good, kind-hearted, loving young man who loved life, who loved people, Alvarez said in his homily. He was a guy of enormous dimensions. Jose was too good for this league. Hes going to a higher league.Alvarez said Fernandez is already at work in heaven, noting the improbable homer hit by 170-pound Dee Gordon leading off the first inning of the Marlins emotional first game after the boat crash.A skinny little guy like that is not supposed to hit the ball that far, Alvarez said. Jose is busy, I guarantee you. Jose is still pitching. ... Jose, well never forget you. We ask that you never forget us.Fernandez and his mother defected from Cuba by boat on his fourth try when he was 15. He broke into the majors with Miami in 2013 and quickly became a local celebrity, thanks to his rare combination of charisma and talent, along with a backstory that resonated in South Floridas Cuban community.Fernandez was a 2013 NL Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star, but his proudest moment came when he bought his mother a house, said his agent, Scott Boras.He was crying, said Boras, crying himself. He said, `Can you believe it?! I bought my mother a home in the United States!Boras also recalled a conversation with Fernandez after he had reconstructive elbow surgery, which sidelined him for 14 months in 2014-15.His first words in the recovery room to me were, `You wait. Im going to be the best there is, Boras recalled.The hard-throwing right-hander went 38-17 in 76 starts over four major league seasons, but glittering statistics werent the reason Loria said Fernandez will never be replaced or forgotten.I prefer not to think of this tragedy as the end of his life, Loria said, but rather as the beginning of the legend.Air Max 270 Australia Womens .5 million, one-year contract on Friday. Hawkins, who turns 41 in December, will compete with Rex Brothers for the closers role at spring training. Air Max 200 Australia . -- Canadian Andrew Wiggins got the ball on the wing, made a nifty spin move and then let go with a soft floater from about 10 feet that swished through the net in Allen Fieldhouse. http://www.outletairmaxaustralia.com/air-max-90-buy-australia.html . -- Stanford squashed Oregons national championship hopes again, schooling the Ducks in power football. Air Max 270 Cheap Australia . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. Air Max 270 Australia Sale . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East.RIO DE JANEIRO -- Pia Sundhage knows exactly what the moment feels like when Sweden beats Germany in a major tournament. When those two foes play for Olympic gold inside the Maracana on Friday (4:30 p.m. ET), the latest challenge for the Swedish womens national team coach is that none of her players share the same knowledge.A tournament of obstacles overcome comes down to one that seems forever insurmountable.Host of the Womens World Cup in 1995, Sweden lost its opener and trailed Germany by two goals in the second half of its second game. But fueled in part by Sundhages tying goal in the 80th minute, the Swedes rallied to win. The tournament ultimately didnt end in glory for them, but it at least ended respectably in the knockout rounds.The encore has been a long time coming. Fridays final will be the 10th meeting in a major tournament (i.e. European Championship, Olympics and World Cup) between the northern European countries since the 95 World Cup.Germany is 9-0-0 in that span. And in almost 14 hours of soccer across nine games, Sweden scored just three goals.Stina Blackstenius, Swedens goal scorer in its quarterfinal against the United States in Brasilia, was not yet born when Sweden last beat Germany in a major event.No wonder, then, that when asked to favor the media with a song during a news conference Thursday in Rio, Sundhage turned to Bob Dylan as inspiration.Times, they are a changin, she sang.A program with a proud history, Sweden is an unlikely finalist in these Olympics.Forget for a moment the teams results here in Brazil. Sweden wasnt even supposed to be in the Rio Games. There is no Olympic qualifying tournament in UEFA, the European governing body. The Olympics are awarded to the teams that perform the best in the previous years World Cup. And no one, the Swedes included, would have described their performance in Canada as the best of anything. Three draws in group play allowed them to slip through to the knockout phase as a third-place team a year ago, but they were quickly dispatched once there.Englands third-place World Cup finish should have sent it to Brazil alongside France and Germany. Instead, with England unable to play, Sweden gained a reprieve in a four-team, round-robin playoff that also included the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.Sweden forward Sofia Jakobsson said this week that it was in those games played in March -- 1-0 wins in its first two games and the 1-1 draw that was all it needed in the final game against the host Dutch -- that this particular group of players honed the park-the-bus defending used to such great effect against the United States and Brazil in recent days.That was the mountain Sweden had to climb before it lost to Brazil 5-1 in its second game in this tournament. And then came the penalty kick shootouts against both the United States and Brazil to reach Fridays final.And who stands in Swedens way? The Germans. Of course.Germany sent Sweden home from the 2015 World Cup in unforgiving fashion, a 4-1 win in the first round of an expanded knockout round.Germany also denied Sweden its other opportunities to win a title: a 2-1 result in the 2003 World Cup final in Carson, California, and a 1-0 result in the 2001 Euro final. The Germans beat the Swedes for an Olympic bronze in Athens in 2004. They beat them in various group stages.It wasnt said about this rivalry, or even about the correct gender in thiss instance, but never has the oft-repeated Gary Lineker quip been more accurate.ddddddddddddFootball is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end, the Germans always win.Yet these Germans might be bemused to find themselves in the role of Goliath, given the path they followed to Rio. Although fully capable of the piercingly skeptical stoicism one might ascribe a German technician in such settings, coach Silvia Neid was as relaxed and jovial as her old foe and friend from Sweden. (Neid was on the field when Sundhage scored that goal in 1995.) She sounded like a coach appreciative of a trip that wasnt a given for her final game in charge.This German team has been far from the nearly flawless operation that won World Cups in 2003 and 2007. Eliminated by the United States in a World Cup semifinal a year ago, it lost again to the Americans in a quasi-competitive game this spring. More significantly, it lost to Canada in the group stage in Brasilia after scrambling just to earn a draw against Australia days earlier Sao Paulo. The loss was its first in the Olympic group stage since the first tournament in 1996.Gone are familiar faces like goalkeeper Nadine Angerer and, still in her prime, Celia Sasic. An ankle injury in the Olympic opener against Zimbabwe ended Simone Laudehrs tournament. The injuries that kept Nadine Kessler out of the World Cup eventually ended her career at 28 years old. Now 30, Lena Goesslings role is diminished.Much to her credit, if also out of necessity, Neid is using her final run as coach in part to prepare the way for successor Steffi Jones. In its semifinal win against the same Canadian side that earlier defeated it, Germany started seven players 25 years old or younger. There is experience on the bench, but Germany is in the midst of its own youth movement.I dont think we have a psychological advantage at all, Neid said via a translator. As a matter of fact, on the contrary, because Sweden has played here before, they know atmosphere, they know the stadium, if anything, they would have an advantage.So will any German vulnerability tempt Sweden out of the bunker it deployed with such success, and curiously to so much criticism, against the United States and Brazil?Even Sundhage, prone by her own admission to say anything, kept her plan to herself. But asked yet again about the style that has critics beyond just Hope Solo, she offered a rebuttal that sounded like someone unbowed.My responsibility is to try to find a way to win, Sundhage said. That is all that matters, especially [Friday]. That discussion whether the womens game is going one direction or another, thats very interesting, but its not my task to make sure we have that discussion.Gold will be decided not by the past but the present, whether these Germans are ready to break down these Swedes. Still, with so much of the history of a rivalry present on the pitch, it is difficult to ignore. Germany will remain Swedens biggest challenge. Until it isnt.Germany is a very good team, and more so they have a great history and have some big wins behind them, Sundhage said. Then again, theyve been winning against us a couple of times -- too many times, in my opinion.I think its about time to change that, and were going to try. ' ' '