Christian Yelich's Big Night

Here's a good look at the player who made baseball's biggest Wednesday headline. Christian Yelich went six-for-six, including hitting for the cycle, in the Brewers 13-12 10-inning victory over the Reds.

A tremendous achievement -- especially on a team battling to remain in the wild card chase.

But this story will take a different turn. While looking for a photo of Yelich to post, I went back to his Miami days, and the game played August 30th, 2016.

 -- exactly two years ago today:

The Marlins were playing the Mets at Citi Field, a good opportunity to capture the images of what appeared to be a young and talented team on the rise. There was Yelich, Dee Gordon, Marcell Ozuna and J.T. Realmuto. Giancarlo Stanton was out injured. All this talent backed by a pitching staff featuring the health-again Jose Fernandez. Perhaps because he had missed a year due to Tommy John surgery, I paid special attention to Fernandez in the dugout. He was a charismatic presence, the energized leader of this team whose future appeared brilliant. To the right, he's chatting with the team's then-hitting coach, Barry Bonds.

All that talent, all that potential, soon to be left unfulfilled. Less than four weeks later, Fernandez was dead -- killed in a middle of the night boating accident in Miami, apparently while under the influence.

So these photos from a late summer game became a journey to a moment frozen in time. And once it thawed, the outcome was different from anything we expected on this night two years ago.

With Fernandez gone, owner Jeffrey Loria put the Marlins up for sale. Derek Jeter's group took over and tore the team down, trading away all their rising stars except Realmuto.

Thus, Yelich was in Milwaukee, helping the Brewers to last night's dramatic and vital victory. And Miami baseball fans can only look at the headline and feel themselves cheated out of a very different history.