Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Fernando Valenzuela took baseball by storm in 1981, igniting “Fernandomania” with his charisma and pitching prowess and forging a link between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Mexican fans that endures to this day. “He was our champion, nuestro campeon,” Los Angeles native and US senator Alex Padilla said in 2023, when the Dodgers officially retired Valenzuela’s No.34 as Los Angeles celebrated “Fernando Valenzuela Day.”
Confounding batters with his screwball, Valenzuela, who has died aged 63, announced his arrival in Major League Baseball at the age of 20 by winning his first eight games — five by shutout — in 1981. He became the only player in MLB history to win Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award as top pitcher in the same season, leading the National League in strikeouts, shutouts, complete games, innings pitched, and starts as the Dodgers captured the World Series. He led the National League in wins in 1986 and had a 21-11 win-loss record with a 3.14 earned-run-average (ERA).
Valenzuela was also on the Dodgers team that won the World Series in 1988 and he would go on to become a six-time National League All-Star, pitching a no-hitter in 1990 — his final season with the Dodgers. “Fernando Valenzuela has pitched a no-hitter at 10:17 in the evening on June the 29th, 1990,” legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully said after the 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals was complete. “If you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky!” Scully’s call recognized Valenzuela’s enduring impact on Latino fans.
Born November 1, 1960, in Etchohuaquila, Mexico, Valenzuela was spotted by a Dodgers scout in 1977 while playing in the Mexican League. After he departed the Dodgers following the 1990 season, “El Toro” went on to pitch for the California Angels, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, and St. Louis Cardinals. He finished his career with a 173-153 record and a 3.54 ERA.
Valenzuela maintained his ties with Mexican baseball, serving on the coaching staff of Team Mexico in multiple World Baseball Classics and purchasing the Mexican League team Tigres de Quintana Roo in 2017. In 2003, he returned to the Dodgers as a Spanish-language broadcaster, often working alongside the club’s longtime Spanish-language announcer Jaime Jarrin — who had once served as Valenzuela’s translator. “I truly believe that there is no other player in major league history who created more new fans than Fernando Valenzuela,” Jarrin told Dodger Magazine in 2006. “Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Joe DiMaggio, even Babe Ruth did not. Fernando turned so many people from Mexico, Central America, South America into fans.”
© 2024 AFP
