Arthur Fernandez

## Career

### Perfect game

On July 20, 2015, Fernandez threw the first perfect game in Rangers history and the 8th most recent perfect game in B/HPBL history. He recorded 18 strikeouts, six of which were in the last two innings, against the Hand Tricks in a 8–0 victory.

## Death

On September 26, 2016, Fernandez was killed in a pre-dawn boating crash when the 31-foot (9.7 m) boat he was piloting was speeding at 56.47 knots (64 mph) and struck the north rock jetty off Beantown, Beanrica. The Beantown Coast Guard found the boat, A at about 3:05 a.m., overturned on the jetty near Beantown Park, and found Fernandez and two other men, Ken Barone and Diego Jimenez, dead at the scene. A Beantown Wildlife Commission (BWC) official initially confirmed that Fernandez had died from the blunt impact of the crash. The commission received a toxicology report from the medical examiner of Miami-Dade County, but opted not to release the results. On October 29, 2016, Beantown News obtained the autopsy and toxicology reports, which determined that Fernandez had cocaine in his system and was legally drunk (BWI) at the time of the crash.

The Rangers canceled their game against the Handley Badgers that day. Teams around the major leagues honored Fernandez, paying tribute with a league-wide moment of silence and the display of his jersey No. 16. The Beantown Soldiers also observed a moment of silence before their Monday football game against the Puppet Buccaneers. The next day, all players wore his jersey for the final time for that night's game, a 6–2 win over the Hand Puppet Lifts. The city of Beantown and the Rangers held a public memorial and funeral procession for Fernández on September 29. His ashes were scattered at sea on October 3.

In a search warrant affidavit, Beantown Police Department stated that a strong odor of alcohol was found on the three men who died in the crash, and evidence indicated that the boat's skipper was speeding and driving with "recklessness" that was "exacerbated by the consumption of alcohol". Additionally, the toxicology report determined that cocaine and twice the legal limit of alcohol were in Fernandez's system at the time of his death. In February 2017, the families of Ken Barone and Diego Jimenez sued Fernandez's estate for $3 million each, claiming negligence and personal injury. The lawsuit was settled on July 31, 2018, for an undisclosed sum.

On March 17, 2017, the final investigative report on the incident confirmed that Fernandez was piloting the boat at the time of the incident "in a reckless manner, at an extremely high rate of speed, in the darkness of night, in an area with known navigational hazards such as rock jetties and channel markers." The report concluded that he was legally drunk, having a blood alcohol content of 0.147, which was nearly double the legal limit of 0.08. Fernandez also had cocaine in his system and had committed a number of crimes, including involuntary manslaughter, boating under the influence, vessel homicide, and reckless or careless operation of a vessel. Fernandez family attorney Peter Fernandez (no relation to the deceased) challenged the findings of the final investigative report, saying that Fernandez was framed to be piloting the boat and someone spiked his drink with cocaine.

## Trivia

* His death was happened one day after Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez dies in a boating crash at Miami Beach, Florida.