(CNN) – Fernando Valenzuela, the legendary pitcher who rose to stardom incredibly well with… Dodgers The Los Angeles native who captivated baseball fans and created the cultural phenomenon known as “Fernandomania,” died Tuesday, according to his Dodgers family. Valenzuela was 63 years old.
Before the Dodgers’ 2024 season began, the team announced that Valenzuela would step down from his regular radio broadcasting duties for the rest of the season to “focus on his health.”
“He is one of the most influential Dodgers in history and belongs on the Mount Rushmore of franchise champions,” Stan Kasten, the club’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) Robert Manfred Jr. called Valenzuela “one of the most influential players of his generation.” He said that the famous marksman will be honored during the upcoming world championship.
Throughout his 17-year MLB career, Valenzuela was a six-time All-Star. He finished his career with 173 regular season wins and over 2,000 strikeouts.
Valenzuela played 11 seasons with the Dodgers and played for the California Angels, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres.
The youngest of 12 siblings, Valenzuela came from the small Mexican town of Echuaquila, in the state of Sonora, and would grow up to become one of the most iconic figures in Major League Baseball history.
Part of the reason he’s so beloved by fans is his unconventional physique. He had long, thick hair and was somewhat stocky, but his distinctive style, poised attitude, and dominant displays captivated the Latino community and the world alike.
With 24 hours’ notice, Valenzuela rose to international fame in 1981, when Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda named him the team’s opening day starter due to last-minute injuries to the club’s first baserunners.
It was a situation Dodgers executives could never have imagined after having had the luxury of turning to Cy Young Award winners like Don Newcombe, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax to open the season in years past.
By comparison, Valenzuela had only pitched 17 innings of relief in the major leagues, albeit scoreless innings. His resume hardly resembles that of a traditional Opening Day starter.
If that wasn’t enough pressure, it was Valenzuela who opened the game against the defending NL West champion, the Houston Astros, who had eliminated the Dodgers in a one-game tiebreaker in the playoffs the previous season.
All of that didn’t seem to matter to the 6-foot, 190-pound outfielder, who brilliantly retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced to finish the game with five strikeouts, according to statistics from Baseball calendar. The Dodgers would win the game 2-0 in front of a crowd of 50,511 at Dodger Stadium.
The previously unknown rookie pitcher became a phenomenon by following up his opening day performance with seven wins in his next seven starts in dominant fashion.
“El Toro” finished his rookie year with a 13-7 record and 2.48 ERA in a shortened season, which was capped by a complete game pitch in the Dodgers’ World Series win against the New York Yankees in 1981.
Valenzuela became the only player in MLB history to win the Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year Award in the same season.
The Mexican-born pitcher’s rise to stardom has gone far beyond the mound. It was a cultural phenomenon that gave the Latino community in the United States a role model.
Famed Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully described “Fernandum obsession” as a “religious experience,” and for many, that’s exactly what it was.
In ritualistic fashion, fans lined up en masse to see the burly boy from Sonora take the mound, arriving at Dodger Stadium wearing their Valenzuela gear. Mexican folk music was played at the stadium, and the Dodgers even hired more Spanish-speaking ushers to accommodate the influx of new Hispanic fans.
According to Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), the number of Mexican radio stations broadcasting Dodger games rose from three to 17. At the height of “Fernandomania,” the Spanish-language broadcasts more than doubled Scully’s audience, according to SABR.
Valenzuela continued his rookie year, making six straight All-Star games and winning both the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Awards.
His best season on the mound came in 1986, when the slugger finished with a career-high 21 wins, including 20 complete games.
In 1991, the Dodgers released Valenzuela during spring training. After leaving the Dodgers, Valenzuela had to go through other major league teams, struggling to regain his form, before retiring in 2017. After his playing career, Valenzuela began commentating games on radio for the Dodgers’ Spanish-language broadcasts in 2003 with his former translator Jaime Two neighbors.
The Dodgers will retire Valenzuela’s iconic No. 34 jersey in 2023, becoming the first player in franchise history to receive the honor without being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his wife, Linda, and four children.
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