Fernando Valenzuela..RiP

[tx 3 putt 76859]

He's looked really bad for a year or so. Something finally got him. RiP, a one of kind of legend. The Dodgers owe him for bringing back the Mexican fanbase to the team. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/41952316/dodgers-legendary-pitcher-fernando-valenzuela-dies-63

Edited October 23 by tx 3 putt

[tx 3 putt 76859]

 

[RexWilson 1344]

Who will be mourning his loss? The Mayans or the Aztecs, I get them confused 

[tx 3 putt 76859]

LA Times did a really great mini video series on him ....

https://www.latimes.com/sports/fernandomania

[UpperWestside 6159]

Aww man that’s pretty sad. His peak years came before I was old enough to even know what baseball was. His importance though to the Dodgers and their Mexican fanbase is pretty awesome. I hope for some peace for his family as they mourn his passing as well as all his friends and fans who will be remembering him right now.

[Dnaguy 11910]

2 hours ago, RexWilson said:

Who will be mourning his loss? The Mayans or the Aztecs, I get them confused 

 

[Underdog 28543]

Recently saw a pic of him and Koufax and Fernando looked bad. Drove over to Houston one night with a couple of friends who were Dodgers fans to watch him pitch.  RIP. 

[Hate 20106]

He was a sports and cultural phenomenon when he first came into the majors. Fernandomania was a huge thing for Dodger fans. I still remember watching him and then Dave Stewart throw no hitters on the same night. RIP to another sports icon from my youth. 

[Dbeasy 15039]

Saw him pitch in the mid 1980’s in the first and only game I’ve ever seen in Dodger stadium. It was pretty sensational.

[HenryJames 66031]

Saw him pitch for San Antonio in 1980. Great fucking memories.

[InkaUtexas 25852]

Got to meet  him and play catch in Vero Beach in 83. Next day he showed up to go fishing with the group. Saw a manatee and everyone was joking Fernando was a land manatee. Funny shit to a kid. Still funny.

Real cool dude, serious on the field, jokester off.

RIP Fernando.

 

[msbesq 385]

Eyes to the skies. One of the strangest but effective deliveries. RIP

[Helobious 9461]

My grandpa’s favorite player. He was before my time but I know he was a hero to a lot of us. DEP Fernando. 

[UTPhil2006 3801]

Dodgers in 4 now 

[Guadaloopy 10954]

Tip of the cap to a legend.  
 

 

[AbeFroman 2154]

RIP

[Mittens 8251]

Fernandomania is one of my first baseball memories.  Way too young to understand how ridiculous what he was doing and now it just seems crazy to think about.

Throws a shutout in his MLB debut as the Opening Day Starter.
Starts his rookie season 8-0 w/ 5 Shutouts and an 0.50 ERA.
Throws 11 Complete Games w/ 8 Shutouts while leading the NL w/ 180 Strikeouts and wins the Cy Young, as a rookie.
Youngest player to start G1 of a World Series, then throws a Complete Game Win in G3 on the way to winning a World Series.

The number of Complete Games, Innings Pitched and Strikeouts in his 1st 7 years is just insane:

For reference, the MLB leaders in those stats this year had 2, 208.2 and 228.

 

[Beau Vine 54203]

Man, this one hurts, because he (and probably Fidrych) was the biggest "legend" of my childhood.  He threw shutouts in 4 of his first 5 starts his rookie season (IIRC, he allowed 1 run in the other game), but I didn't see any of them because they weren't nationally televised, and this was before ESPN, so you really didn't even get highlights, except Saturdays on This Week in Baseball. 

In fact, the DMN would never even have west coast box scores the next morning, so my dad would listen to the news on the radio in the morning -- I remember lying on the couch eating breakfast before school one day and my dad coming in and just saying, "He threw another shutout last night."  I tried to learn how to throw a screwball that summer, and holy shit, that hurt my arm.  If you weren't alive back then, it's impossible to understand how big of a superstar he was.  Like, bigger than Ohtani now...

 

 

Edited October 23 by Beau Vine

[InkaUtexas 25852]

@Sbbruin is pouring one out and lighting a candle up in Chavez Ravine.

[Beau Vine 54203]

Quote

Valenzuela's teammates had gotten very tired of Fernando questions by the time he walked into the clubhouse Wednesday morning, but as Outfielder Jay Johnstone said, "He's fat, he's got pimples on his face, he can't speak English, he's ugly—and we're glad to have him back."

 

[Red Five 40820]

Seems strange that he was only 63. I watched his no-hitter in a New Mexico hotel room when I was a kid. RIP.

[jimmyjazz 45877]

Well, crap.  I got to see him pitch twice.  Larger than life.

[Mittens 8251]

27 minutes ago, Mittens said:

Throws a shutout in his MLB debut as the Opening Day Starter.

My bad - he did pitch a couple of innings in 1980.

8 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Seems strange that he was only 63. I watched his no-hitter in a New Mexico hotel room when I was a kid. RIP.

I did a doubletake on the age when I saw the news this morning as well.  Thought for sure it was off by a decade.

[tx 3 putt 76859]

5 hours ago, Hate said:

He was a sports and cultural phenomenon when he first came into the majors. Fernandomania was a huge thing for Dodger fans. I still remember watching him and then Dave Stewart throw no hitters on the same night. RIP to another sports icon from my youth. 

 

watched them both on espn 

[Celery Man 20929]

Who was it who had a Fernando Owlenzuela living in their tree?

[tx 3 putt 76859]

 

amazing 

[Beau Vine 54203]

41 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Who was it who had a Fernando Owlenzuela living in their tree?

@Brisketexan?

[Beau Vine 54203]

JoePos:

Quote

There was something in the air that night

The stars were bright

Fernando

They were shining there for you and me

For liberty

Fernando

—“Fernando,” by ABBA

There’s a baseball statistic I have been working on called JAR. It stands for “Joy Above Replacement.” For a time, I called it HAR (Happiness Above Replacement) and DAR (Delight Above Replacement), and even FAR.

The last stands for Fernando Above Replacement.

I honestly believe that Fernando Valenzuela, inning for inning, brought more glee, more laughter, more euphoria, more bliss and more happy feelings than any player in baseball history. To watch him pitch was to smile. The watch him hit was to feel a little more alive. To see him unwind his body as only he did—always pausing for an instant to look up to the sky as if he were asking God: “Are you watching this?”—and then uncork that magnificent screwball that had a mind of its own and to watch hitters helpless against its power, all of it took all of us one step closer to heaven.

“Everybody loved him,” his lifelong chronicler, translator and friend, Jaime Jarrín says. “Everybody. But especially women… and especially ladies from 30 years and up. Mothers. Grandmothers. People used to pray for him. They used to go to Mass on the day he was pitching. Baseball had never seen anyone like this before.”

Never before. Never since. Fernando just showed up one September day in 1980, 19 years old; the Dodgers had no intention of calling him up so soon, but he left them no choice. Down in San Antonio, he pitched 35 consecutive scoreless innings. The Dodgers were baseball royalty in 1980, the team of Garvey and Dusty, Lopes and Sutton, Lasorda and the Penguin, and they had all heard about this Mexican phenomenon throwing scoreless innings down in Double-A.

And up comes this kid who, well, let the legendary columnist Jim Murray describe him.

“He doesn’t even look like a major league pitcher,” Murray wrote. “He is, how shall we say it—he is—well, he’s fat, is what he is.”

Fat. Happy. His first time on the mound in Atlanta was nothing special. Ron Cey and Derrel Thomas booted ground balls behind him. He was called for a balk. He got scant mention in the Los Angeles Times as the lone bright spot in a 9-0 defeat. It is worth noting that on the day Fernando Valenzuela made his big-league debut, Mark Fidrych—another wonderful pitcher who is among baseball’s all-time leaders in Joy Above Replacement—was pulled from his scheduled start. His career was at the end.

“That the way it goes,” Rick says in “Casablanca.” “One in, One out.”

His next time out, the Times offered a little more information; they reported that he spoke no English and needed to get all of his instructions from 41-year-old Dominican Manny Mota. They made a wonderful pair, Valenzuela and Mota, separated by 22 years, a lifetime of baseball.

A few days later, manager Tommy Lasorda called for Fernando with runners on first and second and just one out. He got out of the jam. Manny Mota cracked the game-winning pinch-hit for the Dodgers in the 12th.

More details began to emerge. Fernando liked drinking beer. He had learned the screwball from a teammate, right-handed relief pitcher Bobby Castillo, less than a year earlier. He was one of 12 children. The Dodgers had paid $120,000 to Puebla, a Mexican League team, to get him… and Fernando got $20,000 of that.

“I gave the money to my family,” Fernando said.

In all, Fernando Valenzuela pitched 17 2/3 innings in relief that first September, and he did not give up an earned run. There was talk of the Dodgers pushing him to lose a few pounds and get in better shape for the next season.

“Don’t you dare!” Tommy Lasorda boomed.

The next year, after a flurry of injuries to their starters—a longstanding Dodgers tradition—they had Valenzuela start on Opening Day. He was the first pitcher since Lefty Grove to start his first game on Opening Day. He threw 106 glorious pitches against the Astros. He allowed five hits. He allowed no runs. He smiled throughout.

“Did They Tell Him Batting Practice was Over?” The Los Angeles Times headline wondered.

“How did you sleep last night?” reporters breathlessly asked Valenzuela looking for the nerves that had to be there.

“Como un niño,” he said. “Como un ángel.”

Like a kid. Like an angel.

No nerves. No doubts. Nobody could believe he was so young. “They’re going to try to tell me that guy’s 20,” the Angels manager, Jim Fregosi said. “He was 20 when I started playing,”

 Fernandomania was on. In his next start, against the Giants, he gave up the first run of his big-league career—a run-scoring single from Enos Cabell—but it was the only run he gave up. Four days later, the Dodgers went to San Diego, Fernando pitched a shutout and added two hits. The 20,000 or so in attendance gave him a standing ovation when it was over.

“I hope he comes back down to earth,” the Astros’ Don Sutton said. “Or they find a higher league for him,”

The Dodgers came home, and about 50,000 fans showed up to watch him pitch. Jaime Jarrín, who had been calling Dodgers games in Spanish since 1959, thought the crowd looked fundamentally different from any he’d ever seen at a big-league game. This was a crowd filled with women, a crowd filled with Latino fans, so many of them Mexican.

“People from Mexico,” he said, “people from other Latin American countries like Ecuador, where I’m from, we didn’t have many baseball idols.… He opened up the sport for us. People who had spent all their lives thinking only about fútbol, Fernando gave them a reason to care about the greatest game, to care about baseball.”

Fernando, of course, pitched a seven-hit shutout for them. And as a bonus, he cracked three hits, raising his season average to .438. A teenage girl raced on the field to kiss him. Jerry Martin, after swinging at least a foot over a pitch, asked the umpire to check the baseball. The former welterweight champion of the world, Carlos Palomino, came to ask Fernando about his training techniques.

“How’s he holding up?” reporters asked Jarrín.

“Wonderfully,” Jaime said. “He’s only now beginning to realize that everyone is asking him the same questions.”

After allowing a run in Montreal, Valenzuela threw his fifth shutout in seven games when the team went to New York. The Mets left 10 runners on base in the game—postgame, they sounded downright jubilant after almost scoring—and they actually loaded the bases with one out in the first inning.

That’s when Fernando persuaded Dave Kingman to hit into the inning-ending double play.

“When he wants to throw a double-play ball, he does,” Lasorda said in wonder after the game. “When he wants to strike out someone, he strikes that someone out. You don’t figure him out.”

Ah, alas, sooner or later, everyone gets figured out, at least a little bit. You can’t do the same magic trick again and again without people eventually getting wise. In that 1981 season—one chopped up by the players’ strike—Valenzuela became the only pitcher in baseball history to win the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season (Paul Skenes might pull off the double this year) and he pitched the Dodgers to their first World Series title in 15 years.

But the mania did die down. Like fires, manias eventually run out of oxygen. Valenzuela was an All-Star in each of the next five seasons, he won 21 games in 1986 and finished second in the Cy Young voting to Mike Scott, but he was no longer front-page news every time he pitched. Hitters learned to lay off the screwball. He had to keep finding new ways to get people out. He was, I suppose, just a little bit more earthbound.

Still, there is this, a trivia question: Can you name the National League pitcher who, over the last 100 years, had the most shutouts by age 25:

(A) Tom Seaver

(B) Don Drysdale

(C) Dizzy Dean

(D) Juan Marichal

(E) Fernando Valenzuela

The answer, of course, is (E), which stands for Excitement and Elation and Excellence and “EEEEEEEE!” which was the sound fans made when they watched him pitch.

In all, Fernando Valenzuela pitched until he was 36 years old, eventually leaving the Dodgers to pitch for the Angels and Orioles and Phillies and Padres and Cardinals. Sometimes he would find a bit of the old magic. Most of the time, he just battled to get one more out. All the while, he still unwound his body, like he was untying himself from a knot, and all the while, in the middle of that windup, he looked to the sky for a little help from above.

Fernando died on Monday. He was 63. He was too young. But any age would have been too young. He was the people’s pitcher, a long-haired, pudgy lefty from Etchohuaquila who became a star and brought baseball fans more Joy Above Replacement than anyone. He made us all believe that if we, too, could just find a screwball, maybe, just maybe, we could strike out the world.

 

[sidis 9819]

[tx 3 putt 76859]

5 hours ago, HenryJames said:

Saw him pitch for San Antonio in 1980. Great fucking memories.

 

back then south sa and the area around the ballpark was pretty much a mexican burb. he often said he loved SA and hated leaving even though he was being promoted 

hated seeing the dodgers leave SA. 10 RoY played in SA for the dodgers.

SA loved those teams 

 

Edited October 23 by tx 3 putt

[Pato del Muerto 52484]

12 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

eventually leaving the Dodgers to pitch for the Angels and Orioles and Phillies and Padres and Cardinals

I don’t have a single memory of any of this shit.  

[Beau Vine 54203]

I've heard the story referenced for many years, but I finally read this book a couple of years ago:

Basically, when he was moving the Dodgers to LA, Walter O'Malley was looking for a place to build a grand stadium and found the perfect spot, except it was a neighborhood -- of almost entirely Mexican immigrants.  So he did what millionaires do when they want something they can't buy -- he cozied up to the mayor of LA, who strong-armed the city council and other city offices to condemn the land and boot the people living there off their land so that O'Malley could have it.   This of course made the Mexican citizens of LA hate the Dodgers.  

And they continued to hate the Dodgers for nearly 30 years...until Fernando showed up.

Edited October 23 by Beau Vine

[Beau Vine 54203]

5 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

back then south sa and the area around the ballpark was pretty much a mexican burb.

"Back then?"

[Beau Vine 54203]

5 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I don’t have a single memory of any of this shit.  

I saw him pitch in a spring training game for Philly(?) in Vero Beach in about 93/94.   My wife had never seen him, so she was all excited.  

He was throwing a low-80s fastball and got completely shelled -- IIRC, 9 runs in 3 IP.  I can still see one of the homers landing in the top of one of the palm trees behind LF.  Told my wife that I was glad she got to see him, because he was completely done.  And then he won 13 games for the Padres a couple of seasons later...

[Hate 20106]

1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

back then south sa and the area around the ballpark was pretty much a mexican burb. he often said he loved SA and hated leaving even though he was being promoted 

hated seeing the dodgers leave SA. 10 RoY played in SA for the dodgers.

SA loved those teams 

 

Growing up in SA there was always a connection to the Dodgers. Watching the games at VJ Keefe Field was just part of being from San Antonio.  We were really spoiled getting to see so many stars roll through before they actually became stars. 

[Brisketexan 105037]

1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

@Brisketexan?

Yep.  He didn't show up this last year, though.  Omen?

Also, F the Dodgers, always and forever.

That said....couldn't help but love Fernando.  Dude was fantastic, and a great sport and character.

[Guadaloopy 10954]

3 hours ago, Mittens said:

Fernandomania is one of my first baseball memories.  Way too young to understand how ridiculous what he was doing and now it just seems crazy to think about.

Throws a shutout in his MLB debut as the Opening Day Starter.
Starts his rookie season 8-0 w/ 5 Shutouts and an 0.50 ERA.
Throws 11 Complete Games w/ 8 Shutouts while leading the NL w/ 180 Strikeouts and wins the Cy Young, as a rookie.
Youngest player to start G1 of a World Series, then throws a Complete Game Win in G3 on the way to winning a World Series.

The number of Complete Games, Innings Pitched and Strikeouts in his 1st 7 years is just insane:

For reference, the MLB leaders in those stats this year had 2, 208.2 and 228.

 

I'm directly behind Vin Scully in the beginning of this video.  I know this because George Springer's 11th inning HR went over the wall just below me beneath that Security Benefit sign. 

['stache 21788]

I was too young during his prime but knew a lot about him growing up because my dad was a huge fan. He was a big deal to the Mexican and Mexican-American communty accross the country. I distinctly recall it growing up but it wasn't until I saw the 30 for 30 on him that I really understood his impact. He's also one of the last few screwball artists. RIP Legend.

Edited October 23 by 'stache

[Beau Vine 54203]

4 minutes ago, 'stache said:

He's also one of the last few screwball artists.

Brent Honeywell actually throws a screwball.  If the Dodgers are throwing a bullpen game in the WS, they should slap a #34 jersey on him and give him the start. 

[Covri 6244]

I had a Rawlings Fernando Valenzuela baseball glove when I played little league, didn't know who he was when I bought the glove, found out afterwards and was cool with it. Great glove.

[Celery Man 20929]

2 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

@Brisketexan?

 

44 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep.  He didn't show up this last year, though.  Omen?

Also, F the Dodgers, always and forever.

That said....couldn't help but love Fernando.  Dude was fantastic, and a great sport and character.

That’s what I thought but was afraid I was simply thinking of Donkey Hote.

[Braff Zacklin 13551]

He's truly breathing through his eyelids like the lava lizards of the Galapagos now.

RIP, 'Nando.

[tx 3 putt 76859]

 

[InkaUtexas 25852]

15 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

He's truly breathing through his eyelids like the lava lizards of the Galapagos now.

RIP, 'Nando.

get that white karen shit out of here and go count your holistic crystals.

Fernando is with the Aztec gods planning a way to beat the Spanish one of these days. You know, the Valhalla with Tacos.

[Hate 20106]

2 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

get that white karen shit out of here and go count your holistic crystals.

Fernando is with the Aztec gods planning a way to beat the Spanish one of these days. You know, the Valhalla with Tacos.

Do you even “Bull Durham”, bro?

[InkaUtexas 25852]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

Do you even “Bull Durham”, bro?

Yes. I may have seen it.

[Sbbruin 21825]

Recently saw a pic of him and Koufax and Fernando looked bad. Drove over to Houston one night with a couple of friends who were Dodgers fans to watch him pitch.  RIP. 

I saw that too and he was unrecognizable. Saw many a Fernandomania game and he was and will always be a Dodger legend. As Vinny said, if you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky.

[.45s 28]

On 10/23/2024 at 7:07 AM, HenryJames said:

Saw him pitch for San Antonio in 1980. Great fucking memories.

That is about when I saw him pitch there.  One year I lived in the same apartment complex with the San Antonio Dodgers.  The management required them to all live in the same place.  The only one I really talked to was the catcher at the time (don't remember his name) and I don't think he ever made it past AA.  That was a fun team to watch back then.

[hookemATL 11700]

Fucking hurts.

my pops grew up in SA and watched the Dodgers when they were still in Brooklyn. That’s what eventually led the entire family to become Dodgers fans, despite just being normal honkys from Texas with no real cali connections.

RIP to a legend. 

[Sbbruin 21825]