In 2023, the Dodgers lastly retired the quantity 34, worn with distinction by Fernando Valenzuela. It had been 42 years because the season of Fernandomania, 26 years since Valenzuela final threw a pitch within the main leagues.
Higher late than by no means. The Dodgers typically don’t retire the numbers of gamers not chosen for the Corridor of Fame, however it’s by no means too late to do the correct factor.
On Sunday, a committee is ready to vote on whether or not Valenzuela ought to be admitted to the Corridor of Fame. To the committee members: We commend Valenzuela to you with that very same adage — it’s by no means too late to do the correct factor.
“He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame,” mentioned longtime Dodgers broadcaster Jaime Jarrín, himself a Corridor of Famer.
“The Hall of Fame is a special, special place, of course. But, what Fernando did for baseball, very few have done.”
Eight gamers are on the poll, given a second probability at Cooperstown after the Baseball Writers Assn. of America handed on all of them: Valenzuela, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy and Gary Sheffield.
The 16-person committee consists of seven Corridor of Famers, two house owners (the Angels’ Arte Moreno is one), 4 former common managers, two writers and one statistician. Every committee member can vote for as much as three gamers; 12 votes are required for election.
By the numbers alone, Valenzuela’s candidacy is borderline. Sandy Koufax or Clayton Kershaw, he was not.
Nonetheless, of the 90 pitchers within the Corridor, based on Baseball Reference, Valenzuela had a greater earned-run common (3.54) than 11 of them. One in all them, Jack Morris, had a 3.90 ERA. He was elected by a committee similar to the one that may contemplate Valenzuela.
Morris was a workhorse and five-time All-Star finest identified for one sport: a 10-inning shutout in Sport 7 of the 1991 World Sequence. However Valenzuela, a workhorse, Cy Younger Award winner and six-time All-Star, threw a 147-pitch full sport in Sport 3 of the 1981 World Sequence, with the Dodgers susceptible to shedding the primary three video games of the collection. The profession postseason ERA for Valenzuela: 1.98. For Morris: 3.80.
When you’re evaluating Valenzuela on the numbers alone, you’re lacking half the story, and the legacy of a participant that reworked a metropolis and a sport.
The Dodgers constructed their stadium on land that was beforehand house to 3 Latino neighborhoods. Town of Los Angeles had envisioned grand housing tasks there and kicked out the residents, lengthy earlier than the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn. The tasks by no means had been constructed, however many Latinos thought-about the destruction of the neighborhoods and elimination of the residents as one thing of the Dodgers’ unique sin and vowed by no means to set foot inside Dodger Stadium.
Till 1981, that’s, when a shy, modestly pudgy and just about nameless Mexican 20-year-old confirmed up, appeared to the heavens earlier than each pitch, and began his rookie season with eight consecutive victories, together with seven full video games and 5 shutouts.
That was the origin of Fernandomania.
Shohei Ohtani lures baseball followers from all over the place. Valenzuela lured people from all over the place.
“People who hadn’t really thought about baseball, or Dodger Stadium,” mentioned Peter O’Malley, who turned the Dodgers’ president in 1970 after which proprietor from 1979-1998. “Suddenly, they were coming. They were flying from all over to see him.
Fernando Valenzuela looks up before throwing a pitch.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Los Angeles Times)
“He captured the imagination of everyone. It was the most exciting time for me on my watch.”
In the event that they didn’t come to Dodger Stadium, they got here to see him some place else. President Reagan invited Valenzuela to a White Home occasion with the president of Mexico.
“He was able to create such interest in baseball — not only in the Dodgers, but baseball in general,” Jarrín mentioned. “In St. Louis. In Atlanta. In New York. In Chicago. They went wild when Fernando was throwing — 10,000 extra people at the ballpark when he was pitching.”
The Dodgers hurriedly arrange a radio community in Mexico, so Jarrín’s broadcasts of Valenzuela’s video games might be heard south of the border.
And discuss bringing the town collectively: In Los Angeles, half the tv units in use had been tuned to a Valenzuela begin on one Friday night time, 60% on one Sunday, The Instances reported.
The collection didn’t give attention to interviews with gamers, or with followers. Valenzuela’s impression on the neighborhood was advised largely via the phrases of a playwright, a filmmaker, a historian, an actor, a singer, a songwriter, and a mayor.
Stated O’Malley: “He has never gotten the credit he deserves for the impact he made on baseball — not just on the Dodger organization, but on Mexican baseball, international baseball, and the community.”
Valenzuela belongs within the Corridor of Fame as a result of his legacy outlasted his profession.
The Dodgers didn’t draw 3 million followers in any of their first 20 years in Los Angeles. They drew 3.6 million in Valenzuela’s first full season, 3.5 million in his second, and now 3 million is a disappointment somewhat than an aspiration.
Jarrín mentioned the Dodgers’ Latino fan base had grown from “8, 9, 10%” when he began calling their video games in 1959 to shut to 50% now.
And, when Valenzuela debuted, O’Malley mentioned worldwide baseball was “a nonexistent subject” in league conferences. Within the wake of a World Sequence that set document rankings in Canada and Japan, and in anticipation of the World Baseball Traditional three months away, Valenzuela’s election to the Corridor of Fame could be not solely worthy however completely becoming.
Fernando Valenzuela in 1982.
(George Rose / Los Angeles Instances)
The Corridor of Fame consists of gamers born in Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands and Venezuela.
Valenzuela could be the primary participant from Mexico. The Corridor of Fame’s motto: “Preserving history, honoring excellence, connecting generations.” Who higher matches?
“A whole nation is very aware of the Hall of Fame,” Jarrín mentioned. “I’m sure they would declare a holy day on the day Fernando gets in.”
And we all know what we’d say: In case you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky.
