Remembering 2024’s Losses: Fernando Valenzuela

Tweet

OUCH, it’s cold! I had to run up to the VA to pick up some medicine that I forgot to refill. I’m having lunch before I go back home and pack to go someplace warm. (Of course, it has to warm up “someplace warm” first…) Tomorrow the “top” ten starts, so today this closes the alphabetical list. Here’s the last of the alphabetical entries. Fernando Valenzuela Ah, Fernandomania. Every time he pitched it was headline news. In fact, you might almost credit/blame Fernandomania for the nonstop “one-person-defines-a-sport” insanity of the past 40 years. It’s not that Valenzuela wasn’t a great pitcher — he was — but living up to that hype is hard. Ask Mark “The Bird” Fidrych. Or any of the #1 NFL picks who wash out after two years. Fernando Valenzuela holds a record: he is, as of the start of the 2025 season, the only player to ever win Rookie of the Year AND the Cy Young Award for best pitcher in the league. That was in 1981, the year his team (the Dodgers) won the World Series. AND it was a strike-shortened season, which makes you wonder how much more he could have done. (Of course, Cincinnati had the overall best record of any NL team in 1981, but because of the “split season” caused by the strike, they didn’t make the playoffs. Yes, sour grapes from a Reds fan. ) After his baseball career was over, Valenzuela went to the broadcast booth, where he was the Spanish-language broadcaster for the Dodgers. Sadly, he didn’t get to broadcast the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series victory, as he died from liver cancer three days before the World Series began. It was a magical time for baseball during Fernandomania. I’m glad at least the Dodgers won the Series in his memory. Fernando Valenzuela Born Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea, November 1, 1960, Etchohuaquila, Sonora, Mexico Died October 22, 2024, Los Angeles, California (liver cancer) (age 63) HALL OF FAME: Mexican Professional Baseball Dodgers video tribute: