The Latino community and the baseball world are in mourning. All-time MLB icon Fernando Valenzuela has died after losing his valiant and courageous battle with long-time health issues. Valenzuela was a legend of the game and an enormously influential figure in Los Angeles’ Latino community due to his inspiring and motivational journey to the Mount Everest in baseball. Valenzuela’s death was confirmed on Tuesday by his former team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Valenzuela took baseball by storm in 1981, igniting “Fernandomania” with his flare, charisma and dominance on the mound and creating a link and unbreakable bond between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Mexican fans that has stayed strong and constant 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.”
Putting batters in knots with his filthy screwball, Valenzuela, who was 63 years old at the time of his death, announced his arrival with a bang in Major League Baseball at the age of 20 by winning his first eight games, five by shutout decisions in 1981.
He became the only player in MLB history to take home Rookie of the Year honors and the prestigious Cy Young Award as top pitcher in the same season, leading the National League in several key categories; 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 sparkling 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, which was his farewell 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.
Embed from Getty Images“If you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky!”
In Scully’s classic call, he recognized Valenzuela’s enduring impact on Latino fans.
Born November 1, 1960 in Etchohuaquila, Mexico, Valenzuela was seen by a Dodgers scout in 1977 while playing in the Mexican League.
After he left the Dodgers franchise following the 1990 season, “El Toro” went on to pitch for the California Angels, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres and Cardinals.
He finished his career with a 173-153 record and a 3.54 ERA.
Valenzuela maintained his relationship 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, it was a full circle moment as he returned to the Dodgers as a Spanish-language broadcaster, also often working in concert with 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.”
