If you were around in 1981 and were a close follower of Major League Baseball, or even just a casual follower, you most certainly remember the astonishing debut season of Los Angeles Dodgers rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, and the wave of "Fernando-mania" that swept across the sports world that summer. A few months ago, I heard LA sportswriter Bill Plaschke on Around the Horn asking people to keep Valenzuela, who for many years served as a commentator on the Dodger's Spanish language broadcasts and telecasts, in their thoughts as he was suffering some "health issues", so the news of his death this week at the way-too-young age of 63 didn't come as total shock, but it still shakes you up anyway.
Valenzuela became a starting pitcher at the beginning of the 1981 season only because Jerry Ruess was injured. In his first game, he pitched a complete game shoutout, and he just took off from there. In his first eight starts that year, he was 8-0, pitched five shutouts, gave up four earned runs (0.50 ERA), and here's the best part, HE COMPLETED ALL EIGHT GAMES. Unfathomable in the Major League game as it has come to be in 2024.
These numbers stand out in stark relief as today's Dodgers prepare to start the World Series against the New York Yankees tomorrow night. If you have been following the Playoffs, you know that "bullpen games" have become the thing during this biggest stage that MLB gives us. The Dodgers did two of them in the NLCS, and they will not doubt continue to do so in the coming World Series. The Dodgers will be starting guys who haven't pitched 72 innings all season, something that Valenzuela did in his first eight starts as a rookie.
He played with six teams over 17 seasons, eleven of them with the Dodgers, and compiled a 173-153 W-L record with a career ERA of 3.54. In six post season starts, he was 5-1 with 1.98 ERA. In his lone World Series appearance in 1981, he turned in a complete game victory over the Yankees. I can remember reading once, and I can't remember who the sportswriter was, who, when writing about a Playoff series game, wrote something like "The lump that kept growing on Valenzuela's buttock throughout the game was the Montreal Expos, whom Fernando was shoving into his hip pocket all night." What a great line.
Valenzuela's career numbers, good, but not Hall of Fame great, don't even begin to summarize the effect that he had on baseball during that strike-marred season of 1981, and his cultural impact among the Latino community of Southern California.
RIP Fernando Valenzuela.
Nice commentary.
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