Before Fernandomania swept across southern California in the summer of 1981, Fernando Valenzuela, the young left-handed pitcher from the state of Sonora in northern Mexico, had already established himself as a stellar pitcher in his home country.
Valenzuela made his professional debut while still a high school student for the Mayos de Navojoa of the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico in the winter of 1977-78 and spent the following summer with the Tuzos de Guanajuato in the Mexican Central League, which was a Class A league that played from 1960 through 1978 when it merged into the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol.
Because of the merger, Valenzuela found himself pitching in the LMB the next summer, which meant he was pitching in Triple-A as a 17-year-old with the Leones de Yucatan.
Los Angeles Dodgers scout Mike Brito first saw Valenzuela, originally sent there to look at an infielder, found a 17-year-old left with a kooky motion and effective screwball when the pitcher fell behind in the count to the infielder. But Valenzuela fired three straight strikes to retire the infielder, and Brito was sold on the pitcher.
“At that point, I stood behind home plate to follow Fernando, and I forgot all about the shortstop,” he told MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez for a story about Valenzuela’s induction into the Caribbean Series Hall of Fame in 2016.
Brito got the Dodgers to purchase the young pitcher’s contract, and he was on his way, making stops at Class-A Lodi and Double-A San Antonio before making it to Los Angeles as a 20-year-old in 1980.
Valenzuela pitched the next 12 seasons in Major League Baseball before returning to Mexico in 1992 with the Guadalajara-based Charros de Jalisco of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, who purchased his contract from the Detroit Tigers.
But he wasn’t yet done north of the border. Valenzuela pitched five more seasons in MLB with the Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, and St. Louis Cardinals, leaving the big leagues in 1997 for the final time.
And while he left MLB, his career wasn’t over. “El Toro” continued to pitch in the LAMP until 2006, making three appearances and pitching six innings for the Aguilas de Mexicali in his final professional season when he was 46 years old.
“I just like it,” Valenzuela told MLB.com in 2016. “I like to play.”
In retirement, Valenzuela teamed with Jaime Jarrin and others on Spanish-language broadcasts of Dodgers baseball, only leaving the booth earlier this month when his health would no longer allow him to continue. He also served as pitching coach for Mexico at four World Baseball Classics and owned the Tigres de Quintana Roo of the LMB.
But his impact on baseball in Los Angeles, with a sizable Mexican-American population, and in Mexico, is enormous.
“It was a revolution,” Brito told MLB.com of Valenzuela’s career. “When Fernando pitched, Mexico stopped. Everyone wanted to leave work early to watch him pitch on TV.”
“Mexico is a baseball country, especially in the north,” Valenzuela told MLB.com when he was inducted into the Caribbean Series Hall of Fame during the 2016 event in Hermosillo, Sonora, not far from where he was born.
“We’re in Sonora now, which is where I grew up, and I think the baseball is No. 1 here. I tried to do my best all the time. If whatever I did in my career helped somebody or helped baseball, I feel so happy about that. I hope all the youngsters keep going out and playing this game. That’s what I tried to teach all the young kids, to play this game.”
Photo Credit: Starting pitcher Fernando Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Dodgers sits in the dugout at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
