The Passing of Fernando Valenzuela

On October 22nd, 2024, Fernando Valenzuela, a great baseball player from Mexico, passed away at the age of 63 in Los Angeles, California. Valenzuela’s life was a real rags-to-riches story, from poverty to sports stardom.

Fernando Valenzuela was born in November of 1960 in Etchohuaquila, a small town in the state of Sonora, northwest Mexico. His parents were poor campesinos (peasants) and Fernando was the youngest of their 12 children.

Valenzuela became a pro baseball player in 1977, playing in various professional Mexican teams.

In 1978, Los Angeles Dodgers scout Mike Brito went to Mexico to scout another player and saw Valenzuela pitching. That was enough. The Dodgers bought out Valenzuela’s contract and brought him to the United States. Fernando was 18 when he signed with the Dodgers in 1979, and he played on several minor league Dodgers teams until September of 1980, when he moved up to the LA Dodgers, playing under the famous manager Tommy Lasorda.

In his 1981 rookie season as a starting pitcher, Fernando had a spectacular beginning, with an 8-0 record including 5 shutouts.

Fernando won the Rookie of the Year Award and the Cy Young award the same season, plus the Dodgers won the World Series.

The young Mexican player had a unique pitching style, and, as reported in Fernando’s Wikipedia article, “In addition to his skills on the mound, Valenzuela was also an unusually good batter for a pitcher.” Fernando had ten career home runs.

Fernando didn’t speak much English in the beginning of his Major Leauge career, but Tommy Lasorda spoke Spanish and talked to him in that language, and catcher Mike Scioscia learned Spanish in order to communicate with Valenzuela.

Fernando Valenzuela played for the Dodgers until 1991, when he was released in a less than optimal situation. Afterwards, he played in both Mexico and the U.S., but his years with the Dodgers are his most famous.

In 2003, Valenzuela began a new career as a Spanish-language radio commentator for the Dodgers and in 2015 switched to television to do the same thing.

Valenzuela was commentator for the Dodgers until shortly before his death, dying of liver cancer on October 22nd.

Here’s the Twitter X announcement from the official Major League Baseball account, dated October 22nd:
We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of former Dodgers great Fernando Valenzuela. “Fernandomania” swept through baseball in 1981 when the 20-year old rookie sensation began the season 8-0 with a 0.50 ERA. The lefthander capped off his incredible year by winning both the NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards while helping lead Los Angeles to a World Series title. Valenzuela pitched 17 Major League seasons, was a 6-time All-Star, and has the most wins (173) and strikeouts (2,074) of any Mexican-born pitcher. He spent the last 22 years as a Spanish language broadcaster for the Dodgers, who retired his No. 34 in 2023. He was 63.

Here’s a photo of Fernando Valenzuela with U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1981:

Fernando Valenzuela is survived by his wife Linda (they’d been married since 1981), two daughters, two sons, and seven grandchildren.