Remembering Fernando Valenzuela: 1960-2024

Unless you’re 50 years of age or older, it’s hard to appreciate the phenomenon of Fernando Valenzuela. The left-handed starting pitcher from Mexico became an instant star in the spring of 1981 when, as a 20-year-old rookie, he became the ace for the Los Angeles Dodgers and sparked “Fernandomania” throughout the sport of baseball, especially with the Latino community.

Valenzuela died on Tuesday at age 63. He is survived by his wife, Linda, four children, and seven grandchildren. A cause of death has not yet been officially announced, although it has been reported to have been liver cancer. Valenzuela was a Spanish-language radio broadcaster for the Dodgers but stepped away from that job before the start of the 2024 playoffs to focus on his health.

It’s sadly ironic that Valenzuela passed away shortly before the first World Series matchup between the Dodgers and New York Yankees since 1981, the year that Fernando helped lead the Dodgers to the title as the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winner.

“On behalf of the Dodger organization, we profoundly mourn the passing of Fernando. He is one of the most influential Dodgers ever and belongs on the Mount Rushmore of franchise heroes. He galvanized the fan base with the Fernandomania season of 1981 and has remained close to our hearts ever since, not only as a player but also as a broadcaster. He has left us all too soon. Our deepest condolences go out to his wife Linda and his family.”

— Stan Kasten, Dodgers team president and chief executive (October 22, 2024)

Jim Rodriguez, a Los Angeles native and a friend of mine from my ESPN years, put it this way on X: “You have to understand the cultural significance of #FernandoValenzuela in LA. He was the first Latino superstar for the #Dodgers.  He was one of us. Shoot.. he couldn’t speak English (like our parents). He brought brown faces to the stadium. He was our joy. Our pride.”

“The 1981 season and Fernandomania bordered on a religious experience. Fernando being Mexican, coming from nowhere, it was as though Mexicans grabbed onto him with both hands to ride to the moon… There was a fervor about his being and the reaction of the crowd was like nothing I have ever seen before. I’ve seen great pitchers and cities who love players. But I have never seen anything like this, and I don’t think I will ever see it again.”

— Vin Scully, Los Angeles Times (March 29, 1991)

“To borrow a metaphor from Erik Sherman, author of the new biography Daybreak at Chavez Ravine, Valenzuela was baseball’s version of the Beatles, a composite of the Fab Four with a universal appeal. He landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated less than two months into his rookie season, an unprecedented event in the magazine’s history.”

— Jay Jaffe, FanGraphs (August 14, 2023)

In that magical rookie season, Valenzuela started the campaign with eight consecutive wins, all complete games, while posting a 0.50 ERA. He baffled hitters with his signature delivery, with eyes pointed to the sky during his windup and his screwball. Major League hitters are always able to adapt, so that dominance did not last all season, but he still finished the strike-shortened campaign with 13 wins and a 2.48 ERA.

Fernando was a six-time All-Star and pitched a no-hitter in 1990, even as his career was starting to wane.

Perhaps due to the overuse of his left shoulder, Valenzuela’s career started to fizzle in 1988, and he spent the last seven years of his career pitching for five different MLB teams. He also pitched in Mexico in 1992. Fernando retired after the 1997 campaign.

Also known as “El Toro” (The Bull), Valenzuela finished his career with 173 wins and a 3.54 ERA, totals that did not impress the voters for the Hall of Fame. After getting a 6.2% vote share in 2003 (in an election requiring 75% support), Fernando was booted off future ballots when he only earned 3.8% of the vote in 2004.

Did the voters, members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), get it wrong? Given his peak performance and impact on the game, given his FAME, should Valenzuela be immortalized on a plaque in Cooperstown? After a brief recap of Fernando’s career, I’ll tackle that topic.

Cooperstown Cred: Fernando Valenzuela

• Dodgers (1980-1990), Angels (1991), Orioles (1993), Phillies (1994), Padres (1995-97), Cardinals (1997)
• Career: 173-153 (.531), 3.54 ERA, 2,074 strikeouts
• Career: 37.4 Pitching WAR (Wins Above Replacement), 41.5 overall WAR
• Won the 1981 N.L. Cy Young & Rookie of the Year Awards (13-7, 2.48 ERA)
• Career: 113 complete games, 31 shutouts (led N.L. in complete games 3 times)
• 6-time All-Star, 2-time Silver Slugger Award winner, won 1986 N.L. Gold Glove
• 4 times in the top 5 of Cy Young voting
• Career postseason: 5-1, 1.98 ERA in nine career postseason appearances
• Member of the 1981 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers

(cover photo: Associated Press: Lennox McLendon)

Fernando Valenzuela: Before the Mania

Fernando Valenzuela was born on November 1, 1960, in Etchohuaquila, a small town in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. Fernando was the youngest of 12 children to Avelino and Maria, who were farmers who worked the land with the help of their children.

Valenzuela began his professional baseball career in the Mexican Pacific League in 1977 when he was only 16 years old. In the summer of 1979, Mike Brito, a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, discovered Valenzuela by accident (he was scouting one of Fernando’s teammates). The Dodgers bought out his contract in Mexico and assigned him to the California League (class A), posting a 1.13 ERA in 24 innings.

Dodgers relief pitcher Bobby Castillo taught Valenzuela his signature screwball during the 1979 Arizona Instructional League. Pitching for the San Antonio Dodgers in the Texas League in 1980, Valenzuela went 13-9 with a 3.10 ERA in 174 innings. The pudgy 5’11” lefty impressed enough that he was promoted to the big club in mid-September.

The Dodgers were in the middle of a pennant race, tied with the Houston Astros atop the National League West, when Fernando joined the club on September 15th. Manager Tommy Lasorda used the 19-year-old Valenzuela in 10 of the team’s final 20 games. Fernando spun 17.2 innings of scoreless ball while picking up a save and a pair of extra-inning wins. Ultimately, the Dodgers fell one game short of the Astros, losing to Houston 7-1 on the last day of the season at Dodgers Stadium.

Fernandomania: Valenzuela’s Magical Rookie Campaign (1981)

After his brilliant September callup, the 20-year-old Fernando Valenzuela was an easy choice to make the Dodgers opening day roster for 1981. However, actually being the starting pitcher on Opening Day was an accident. He was a last-minute replacement for an injured Jerry Reuss. Pitching in front of 50,511 fans at home against the Astros, Fernando tossed a five-hit shutout in his first MLB start.

In his second start, at Candlestick Park against the San Francisco Giants, Fernando threw another complete game, leading the Dodgers to a 7-1 victory; he gave up four hits with one walk and ten strikeouts. After seven more innings of scoreless ball, he finally gave up a run in the bottom of the 8th. Overall, between 1980 and ’81, Fernando started his career with 34.2 scoreless innings.

As previously noted, Valenzuela would go on to win his next six starts, all in complete games; five of those first eight wins were by shutout, giving him a 0.50 ERA as of May 14th. Here are Fernando’s pitching lines in those first eight starts.

• April 9 (vs Houston): 9 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO
• April 14 (at San Francisco): 9 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 SO
• April 18 (at San Diego): 9 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 SO
• April 22 (at Houston): 9 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 11 SO
• April 27 (vs San Francisco): 9 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 7 SO
• May 3 (at Montreal): 9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO
• May 8 (at New York): 9 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 5 BB, 11 SO
• May 14 (vs. Montreal): 9 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO

It was in that May 14th start that Fernando gave up his first two home runs (to Chris Speier and future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson).

The bloom came off the proverbial rose after those eight brilliant efforts. In his next six starts, Valenzuela went 1-4 with a 6.16 ERA.

After the 50-day player strike that robbed baseball fans of most of summer baseball, Valenzuela returned to the diamond in Cleveland as the second rookie to ever start an All-Star Game. He struck out two hitters (Dave Concepcion and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt), pitching only the first inning while not allowing any runs to the American League squad.

After his All-Star turn, Valenzuela went 4-3 in his final 11 starts for the Dodgers, posting a 2.51 ERA. Overall, Fernando went 13-7 with a 2.48 ERA in his official rookie campaign. He led the N.L. with 11 complete games, 8 shutouts, 192.1 innings, and 180 strikeouts.

The strike-shortened 1981 campaign was unique in baseball history in that there were two division winners for both divisions in both leagues. As it turned out, the Dodgers clinched a playoff berth on June 11th by edging the Cincinnati Reds in the N.L. West by half a game in the first half of the season. The Houston Astros were the second-half winner, setting up a battle between Houston and Los Angeles in the first-ever N.L. Division Series (which would return in 1995 when the league went to three divisions with a wild card team).

The 1981 Postseason

Fernando Valenzuela took the mound for Game 1 of the NLDS (in Houston), matching up against future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. After eight innings, the score was tied at 1-1. With Fernando leading off the top of the 9th, Lasorda used a pinch-hitter. The Dodgers did not score, but the Astros did, in the bottom of the 9th, on a two-run home run by Alan Ashby (off 24-year-old rookie Dave Stewart).

The teams split Games 2 & 3, putting Valenzuela in an elimination scenario at Dodger Stadium for Game 4. Fernando responded with a complete-game four-hitter, giving up a lone run in the 9th inning to lead Los Angeles to a 2-1 win. The Dodgers won Game 5 the next day to advance to the NLCS.

The Dodgers matched up against the Montreal Expos in the NLCS. The teams split the first four games of the five-game series (Valenzuela was the Game 2 loser), setting up a winner-take-all contest at Olympic Stadium for Game 5. After giving up a first-inning run, Valenzuela kept the Expos off the board for the rest of the game. Rick Monday’s 9th-inning home run gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead, with Bob Welch getting the final out for Fernando after a pair of two-out walks in the bottom of the frame.

Having pitched Game 5 of the NLCS, Valenzuela wasn’t used until Game 3 of the World Series (against the New York Yankees). In a 149-pitch effort, he gutted out a complete game, giving up four runs, nine hits, and seven walks. The Dodgers won 5-4, thanks to Fernando finishing with six scoreless innings in innings 4-thru-9. The Dodgers ultimately won the Fall Classic in six games.

As previously noted, Valenzuela would go on to be named the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winner in the N.L. and also finished 5th in the MVP vote.

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Fernando Valenzuela with the Dodgers (1980-90)

Fernandomania continued in Los Angeles for another nine seasons. Although Valenzuela would never quite recapture the magic of April and May of 1981, Fernando had an excellent campaign in 1982, going 19-13 with a 2.87 ERA. Valenzuela had three chances to win 20 games but, sadly, went 0-1 with a 3.10 ERA in those starts, all Dodgers losses, contributing to a disappointing second-place finish to the Atlanta Braves in the N.L. West.

Still, Fernando was good enough in ’82 to place him in a third-place tie (with Bruce Sutter) for the Cy Young vote, behind Steve Carlton and Steve Rogers.

Prior to the 1983 season, Valenzuela became the first player to be awarded a $1 million salary in arbitration. However, by his lofty standards, Valenzuela had an off-year in ’83 (15-10, 3.75 ERA) but still helped the Dodgers prevail in the N.L. West. The Dodgers lost three games to one in the NLCS (to the Philadelphia Phillies), with Fernando the winner in the Dodgers’ lone victory, a 4-1 win in Game 2.

In 1984, Valenzuela went 12-17 with a 3.03 ERA. Pitching with tough luck, 10 of those 17 losses occurred in games in which he gave up three earned runs or fewer. It was a rare losing season for Los Angeles; the Dodgers went 79-83.

Valenzuela and the Dodgers rebounded in 1985. The now 24-year-old southpaw went 17-10 with a 2.45 ERA, thanks in part to giving up just two runs (both unearned) in his first 32 frames to start the season. The Dodgers easily won the N.L. West, setting up an NLCS showdown against the St. Louis Cardinals.

In Game 1, Valenzuela matched up against 21-game-winner John Tudor, who finished the regular season with a 19-1 record and a 1.32 ERA in his last 25 starts, giving up just one run in 28 innings in his final three efforts of the regular season. Valenzuela pitched 6.1 innings, giving up one run on seven hits. Tudor had an uncharacteristically poor effort; the Dodgers won 4-1.

Valenzuela took the hill again in Game 5, with the series tied at two games. After giving up a two-run double to Tom Herr in the first inning, Fernando finished with seven scoreless innings despite yielding eight walks. The Redbirds famously won 3-2 on a solo home run by Ozzie Smith off Dodgers’ closer Tom Niedenfuer. For the first time, the LCS round of the playoffs went seven games instead of five, but the Dodgers lost Game 6 at home. Fernando finished 5th in the Cy Young vote in ’85.

1986, the Dodgers signed Valenzuela to the largest contract for a pitcher in baseball history (for 3 years and $5.5 million). 1986 was also El Toro’s last year as an All-Star. He went 21-11 with a 3.14 ERA while tossing a league-leading 20 complete games. It was good enough for a second-place Cy Young finish (behind Mike Scott). As a team, the Dodgers sagged to 73 wins.

Valenzuela went 14-14 (3.98 ERA) in 1987 and 5-8 (4.24 ERA) in 1988 in what was his first season spent with time on the disabled list after 255 games without missing a start, due to shoulder problems. Fernando spent most of the last two months on the shelf, finishing the ’88 campaign with just 142.1 innings pitched. He did not appear in the Dodgers’ march to an unlikely World Series title.

In 1989, Valenzuela went 10-13 with a 3.43 ERA, followed by a 13-13 record in 1990 (4.59 ERA), his final season in Dodger Blue. He had one great highlight in that final season in Chavez Ravine, tossing his first and only no-hitter on June 29th against the St. Louis Cardinals. It was actually the second no-hitter in MLB that day, with his former teammate Dave Stewart also tossing a no-no against the Toronto Blue Jays earlier that evening.

Unfortunately, Fernando struggled in the second half of the campaign and went 1-3 with an 8.40 ERA in September.

In late March 1991, after a 7.38 ERA in spring training games, Valenzuela was released by the Dodgers.

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Fernando Valenzuela’s Final Seven Campaigns (1991-97)

Fernando Valenzuela spent ten full seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. After his release, he bounced around to five different MLB squads and spent the 1992 campaign pitching in Mexico.

Valenzuela remained in Southern California for the start of his post-Dodgers career, signing on May 20th with the California Angels. Most of his time with the Angels, however, was spent in the minor leagues, where he made 12 starts. He made only two starts in Anaheim, posting a 12.15 ERA.

After pitching in Mexico in 1992 (156.1 innings), Fernando returned to the majors in 1993, pitching 178.2 innings for the Baltimore Orioles, going 8-10 with a 4.94 ERA. In 1994, a partial campaign (shortened by another players’ strike), Valenzuela appeared in eight games (seven starts) for the Philadelphia Phillies, going 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA.

When the strike ended in April 1995, Valenzuela was signed by the San Diego Padres. This was, in part, a baseball move, but more about the Mexican-born Fernando helping to draw fans to Jack Murphy Stadium. The 34-year-old Valenzuela was given a $200,000 salary, with up to $300,000 in attendance bonuses.

Valenzuela spent parts of three seasons with the Padres, going 23-19 with a 4.22 ERA. On August 16, 1996, Fernando was on the bump for the first regular-season game ever to be played in Mexico. In Monterrey, the Padres took on the Mets; Fernando tossed six innings, giving up three runs, helping the Padres to a 15-10 win.

That start in Mexico came in the middle of a nice run of excellence that reminded some of the Fernando of 1981; in eight starts from July 30th to September 8th, he went 7-0 with a 2.12 ERA.

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At the end of his tenure in San Diego (in 1997), he was a part of a six-player trade with the St. Louis Cardinals on June 13, 1997, with veteran lefty Danny Jackson as the signature name going to the Padres.

Fernando made five starts with the Cardinals, going 0-4 with a 5.56 ERA. He was released on July 15 and never pitched in Major League Baseball again.

Fernando Valenzuela’s Legacy

After years of anger about his 1991 release, Fernando Valenzuela returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003 as a Spanish-language radio commentator, joining the legendary Jaime Jarrin in the booth. In 2015, he became the Spanish color commentator for the Dodgers’ cable affiliate SportsNet LA. As previously noted, he stepped down from broadcasting in the final week of the 2024 regular season.

Valenzuela is an easy call as the greatest player in Major League Baseball to hail from the country of Mexico. He was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in August 2003. He remained connected to baseball in Mexico by serving as a coach for the country’s team in the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2017.

Valenzuela became a U.S. citizen in 2015. Following his naturalization, President Obama appointed him as a special ambassador for citizenship and naturalization.

Fernando was honored twice in recent years by the Dodgers. In 2022, he was tabbed to throw out the first pitch in the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. Then, on August 11, 2023, the Dodgers retired Valenzuela’s jersey number 34, celebrating the event with a Fernandomania weekend. Valenzuela is one of just two Dodgers to have his uniform number retired despite not being in the Hall of Fame (the other is Jim Gilliam).

For a terrific write-up of Fernandomania weekend, please enjoy this tribute from FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe.

Should Fernando Valenzuela be in the Hall of Fame?

I’ll be honest. I’ve never contemplated whether Fernando Valenzuela should have a plaque in the National Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Unfortunately, it often takes a player’s death to focus the mind on the question.

I haven’t thought about it because the easy answer to the question is “no,” Valenzuela is not a Hall of Famer. Despite his brilliance in the early 1980s, he finished his career with only 173 wins and a 3.54 ERA, with less than 3,000 innings pitched (2,930). Those numbers might look good for 21st-century hurlers but not for those who toed the rubber in the 20th century.

Excluding the Negro Leagues players (for whom the statistical record is incomplete), there are only four starting pitchers in the Hall of Fame with less than 175 career victories. Those four are Sandy Koufax (165 wins), John Ward (164), Addie Joss (160), and Dizzy Dean (150).

Koufax’s presence in the Hall of Fame is obvious: he won three Cy Young Awards, an MVP Award, and two World Series MVPs. Ward, a 19th-century player, was a full-time shortstop or second baseman for the last ten years of his career. Joss, who pitched for the Cleveland Naps (now the Guardians) from 1902-10, had a 160-97 record (.623 WL%) and a 1.89 ERA, passed away from tubercular meningitis at the start of the 1911 campaign. Dean won 20 games four times (including 30 in 1934) and had a career 3.02 ERA during a prolific offensive era.

On the Bill James “Similarity Scores” list (found on Baseball Reference), the five most similar pitchers to Fernando are Ken Holtzman, Camilo Pascual, Mark Langston, Frank Viola, and Dave Stieb, none of whom have ever gotten remotely close to the Hall of Fame, although there are some (myself included) who think Steib has a strong case (as arguably the best pitcher in baseball from 1980-91).

Just for yucks, let’s look at how Valenzuela stacks up against the other top starting pitchers in baseball for his peak years (1981-87).

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He does pretty well here, but we’re only talking about seven seasons, and he’s not exactly dominant on this list. If you do similar lists for Koufax, Dean, and Joss, they show far greater dominance. The real problem is that in the final ten years of his career (from 1988-97), Valenzuela was just 60-71 with a 4.29 ERA. That’s fine when you’re closing in on 250 or 300 wins, but not when you finish with 173.

The other workhorse who is at the top of the categories here is Jack Morris, who was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Eras Committee in 2018 on the strength of 254 career victories and almost single-handedly delivering a World Championship to the Minnesota Twins in 1991. Morris had many detractors for his Cooperstown candidacy because of his low career WAR (43.5), but Fernando’s is lower (41.5), and El Toro didn’t have Morris’s longevity.

Here’s another issue: there are several pitchers in the post-World War II era who have similar or superior credentials but aren’t in the Hall of Fame. Here’s a list, just among Fernando’s contemporaries (pitchers who debuted between 1976 and 1985):

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You don’t have to believe in advanced metrics (Wins Above Replacement) or ERA+ (adjusted ERA to ballparks and the league) to see that Fernando falls short against most of his contemporaries, and this list only includes a small sample of his fellow 1980s pitchers. If you widen the list to include pitchers who debuted between 1974 and 1987, you get eight more pitchers with a superior WAR: Kevin Brown, David Cone, Chuck Finley, David Wells, Jamie Moyer, Ron Guidry, Al Leiter, and John Candelaria. Most of those names also had a superior ERA and more wins. There’s also Roger Clemens, who is not in the Hall of Fame either, but he’s a different story!

Fernando Valenzuela and the Fame Meter

What Fernando Valenzuela has in greater abundance than all of the other 17 starting pitchers referenced (with the exception of Dwight Gooden) is that he was off the charts of the “fame” meter. Baseball historian John Thorn once said to me, “It’s the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of WAR.” Both Valenzuela and Gooden were among the biggest stars in the game in their early years. They both achieved greatness at a very young age (19 for Gooden, 20 for Valenzuela).

Both men’s careers fizzled in their late 20s and early 30s, both in part due to the strain they put on their young arms with too many innings too early. In Gooden’s case, of course, substance abuse played a role. For that reason, if you had to pick one of those two pitchers for Cooperstown, Valenzuela would be the call, even though, at his very best, Gooden was better and has superior career statistics.

One thing that Valenzuela also has in the “fame” or “cultural icon” meter is what he meant to the Latino community in Los Angeles as a Spanish-speaking-only pitcher from our neighbors to the south. As previously noted, Fernando is the greatest pitcher (or player) to ever hail from Mexico. Does that put him in a special category as a player who had an excellent career, won awards, and helped his team win the World Series but also had significance beyond what he accomplished on the diamond?

Personally, I don’t think so. To make that case, you have to ascribe special significance to Mexico in particular. Xander Bogaerts is by far the best player to ever hail from Aruba, but if he’s going to make the Hall of Fame, it will be because he has a career as a player worthy of the honor.

What Do Others Think about Fernando’s Cooperstown Case?

Others, however, do think that Fernando Valenzuela’s Mexican roots merit a special case. Here are some thoughts that have been shared by others:

“(Valenzuela) showed Major League Baseball that Latinos could be superstars instead of just fiery-tempered underachievers. How he inspired Latinos to root for a franchise whose original sin was building a ballpark on the site of barrios that the city had demolished in the name of progress. 

Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda played him until his once-powerful left arm hung like a torn rubber band — yet another overworked, underappreciated Mexican in Los Angeles. The team thanked El Toro for his sacrifice by releasing him before the start of the 1991 season. 

In a sport now reduced to algorithms and pitching clocks, Valenzuela represents more than a team or a career. He was the magic of baseball at its best.

Baseball, more than any other sport, sees players emerge every generation or so who fundamentally change not just the game, but the imagination. They personify intangibles that sabermetrics can never quantify and that fans yearn to encounter: Hope. Passion. Joy. Brilliance.

Babe Ruth was one such player. Jackie Robinson, of course. Ichiro Suzuki. Shohei Ohtani.

So was Fernando Valenzuela.

I never met him, and I never needed to. They always say to never meet your heroes, after all. Besides, El Toro will forever live in my mind, his eyes looking up to the heavens as he mowed down opponents like a bull in the streets of Pamplona.

May Fernando Valenzuela join baseball’s other immortals in Cooperstown.”

— Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times(October 23, 2024)

 

This is from Jaime Jarrin, who was the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award (for broadcasting excellence) for the Hall of Fame. He broadcast Dodgers games in Spanish from 1959 to 2022.

“I sincerely believe that Fernando should have been voted into the Hall of Fame for one simple reason… In the creed of the Hall of Fame it asks what have you done for baseball. And I believe that there is no player who has done more for the good of baseball than Fernando Valenzuela.

Fernando created an incredible Latino fan base that helped tremendously, not only the Dodgers, but baseball in general. Let’s remember that in the ’80s, baseball was in the doldrums. We had no idols, there was the threat of a strike that broke out in 1981 and that’s when Fernando emerged and saved baseball. Fernando has done so much, there is no other player, no other figure in Major League Baseball that has created as many new baseball fans as Fernando.

When I started with the Dodgers, the Latinos were 8% or 10% of the people who came to the stadium. Today, Latinos are 42% to 46% of people who come to the stadium to watch games, and we owe that to Fernando Valenzuela.

So for those reasons I think Fernando should be in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.”

— Jaime Jarrin, as told to Ed Guzman in the LA Times, (October 24, 2024)

 

This next “case for” was written at the beginning of  Fernandomania weekend, when Valenzuela’s jersey was retired.

“There should be (and sometimes are) two paths into the Hall of Fame. You can have the numbers, or you can have some kind of a profound impact on the game. The latter is where Valenzuela has the best argument.

At his peak between 1981 and 1986, he was legitimately one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Plus, his impact went far beyond just what he actually did on the mound. His starts were must-see attractions at Dodger stadium, and as the Los Angeles times pointed on Thursday, he dramatically increased the fan base in baseball’s second biggest market and had a profound impact on Major League Baseball in Mexico. There is massive value in that sort of effect for the sport.

The “Fame” part of the title is sometimes just as important as any set of on-field numbers. For the better part of the 1980s, there was nobody in baseball more famous or impactful than Valenzuela.

— Adam Getz, Spectrum News (August 11, 2023)

 

Finally, there’s this, from the aforementioned Jay Jaffe, who advocates a different path for Fernando for Cooperstown.

“The case for Valenzuela rests upon his status as a trailblazer and ambassador on top of his 1980–86 burst… His impact upon Los Angeles and throughout Latin America was huge. His arrival and subsequent success helped to unite L.A., a racially divided city not only scarred by the Battle of Chavez Ravine — the decade-long effort to repossess the land and evict nearly 2,000 Mexican-American families for the building of Dodger Stadium — but also by the ensuing decades of mistreatment and prejudice against Mexican-Americans.

Buck O’Neil offers a more successful example of a hybrid candidacy… sort of. He was posthumously elected on that 2022 ballot for his own amalgam of credentials as a player and manager in the Negro Leagues, as a pioneering scout and coach for the integrated AL and NL, and as an ambassador for the bygone Negro Leagues. O’Neil played an outsized role in raising awareness of Black baseball and in recognizing its greats as a Veterans Committee member and through other avenues, including his narration in Ken Burns’ nine-part documentary series Baseball and his co-founding of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.

The subject of O’Neil does illuminate one avenue to Cooperstown in the form of the Lifetime Achievement Award created in his name in 2008. According to the Hall’s website, the award “is presented by the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors not more than once every three years to honor an individual whose extraordinary efforts enhanced baseball’s positive impact on society, broadened the game’s appeal, and whose character, integrity and dignity are comparable to the qualities exhibited by O’Neil.

The Buck O’Neil Award practically sounds as though it were created for Valenzuela, an honor that is well within his reach. It may not be a bronze plaque, but it is high-level recognition for long and meritorious service to the game in ways that aren’t necessarily easy to quantify or pigeonhole. Perhaps the Hall will recognize Valenzuela by this means at some point down the road.”

— Jay Jaffe, FanGraphs(August 14, 2023)

Final Thoughts

Personally, I’m with Jaffe on this. While I don’t think Fernando Valenzuela should have a plaque as a player in the Hall of Fame, he should be prominently honored in Cooperstown. The Buck O’Neil Award is perfect.

I visited the Hall of Fame in the winter of 2016 when I was contemplating the creation of Cooperstown Cred. While O’Neil had yet to be inducted into the main Hall, he was prominently featured with a life-sized statue right near the entrance. I met O’Neil when I was the coordinating producer for Up Close in the late 1990s. He was one of my favorite guests, a fantastic storyteller about a part of baseball history that I could only read about.

I never met Valenzuela, but even as a teenager growing up in New York City rooting for the Mets, I couldn’t help but marvel at what he was doing on the mound and got wrapped up in Fernandomania.

Tonight, the Los Angeles Dodgers will host the New York Yankees for the start of the World Series, 33 years after Fernando helped lead the Dodgers over the Yankees for the franchise’s first World Championship since 1965. On a team with so many established stars (Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey, Dusty Baker, and Pedro Guerrero), none shined brighter or were more valuable than their 20-year-old ace from Mexico.

The Dodgers will honor Valenzuela with a jersey patch that will be featured during the World Series and also during the 2025 season.

Although I’m a native New Yorker, I’m a Mets fan, not a Yankees fan. And I’ll be rooting for the Dodgers this weekend in Fernando’s memory, and I expect that many non-partisan fans will be doing the same.

Thanks for reading. Please follow Cooperstown Cred on X @cooperstowncred.

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