Remembering the player behind ‘Fernandomania’

Fernando Valenzuela, who died Tuesday, was more than just the first Mexican superstar in Major League Baseball; he helped soothe longstanding resentments in a displaced community

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Wednesday that Fernando Valenzuela passed away late Tuesday night at the age of 63. The legendary pitcher debuted late in the 1980 season as a 19-year-old, but it would not be until his first full season when the rookie would initiate "Fernandomania," fascinating not only Dodgers and baseball fans, but people throughout the United States and Latin America.

Valenzuela helped the Dodgers beat the Yankees to win the World Series in 1981, the last time the two teams met. At a time when the Dodgers struggled to soothe their relationship with Mexican-American fans, Valenzuela was not only the balm, but also initiated a wave of players from Mexico that continues today.

The Dodgers' relationship with the large Chicanx community in Los Angeles had long been fraught after the building of Dodger Stadium. Following passage of the Federal Housing Act in 1949, then-Mayor Norris Poulson chose Chavez Ravine, a shallow canyon in Los Angeles, as the location to build 10,000 housing units, promising the Mexican-American community living there that they would have their first choice of housing.

Yet after most of the neighborhood was razed, the project was delayed, and when the Dodgers decided to move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the area was chosen to build the new Dodger Stadium. The broken promises led to decades of resentment between the team and the Mexican-American community in the city, as the remaining residents were forced out of the neighborhood.

Selling out stadiums

Valenzuela was scouted by several teams, but when legendary Cuban-American scout Mike Brito went to evaluate him in Silao, Mexico, he convinced the Dodgers to buy out Valenzuela's contract in the summer of 1979, just beating out the Yankees. He worked his way up from the minor leagues, debuting with the Dodgers in September 1980 after learning what became his signature pitch, the screwball, which breaks the opposite direction of a curveball or slider.

He spent the final month of the season as a reliever, helping the team contend for the West Division before they lost to the Houston Astros in a one-game playoff.

The following season, the 20-year-old Valenzuela was tapped to be the Dodgers' opening-day starter after pitcher Jerry Reuss was injured the day before the game. This set off Fernandomania, as he went 8-0 with five shutouts and an earned run average of 0.50. The 1981 season was cut short due to a strike in June, but when the season resumed in August, Valenzuela helped the team win the World Series, becoming the first pitcher to win both the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the same season.

Valenzuela sold out stadiums both at home and away, becoming a phenomenon only a few years after first signing to the Mexican league from his small, rural hometown in Sonora. An international Horatio Alger story, Valenzuela's rise is one of the most unbelievable in modern sports history.

Valenzuela spoke very little English and struggled to communicate with many of his teammates; however, team manager Tommy Lasorda spent time in the Caribbean winter leagues and helped Valenzuela's transition to the major leagues, while Mike Scioscia learned enough Spanish to become the young pitcher's personal catcher. Valenzuela would go on to make six straight All-Star games before shoulder issues related to overuse and the strain of throwing the screwball derailed his career. He ultimately played 17 seasons and threw a no-hitter for the Dodgers in 1990, but his legacy goes far beyond his phenomenal rise.

The first Mexican superstar

Walter O'Malley had owned at least a minority stake in the Dodgers since 1944, accumulating a larger stake in the team and eventually becoming its president in 1950. He was part of the ownership group that signed Jackie Robinson and led the move to Los Angeles in 1958. O'Malley was tired of the Brooklyn Dodgers living in the Yankees' shadow-their Ebbets Field had less than half the capacity of Yankee Stadium (32,000 vs. 67,000) and the Dodgers lost six of the seven World Series matchups with the Yankees in the 1940s and 1950s. O'Malley saw a business opportunity in moving to the West Coast and building his own stadium in spite of the displacement of the Mexican-American community there.

Much like Robinson brought Black fans to the Dodgers, and baseball more generally, O'Malley sought a Mexican player to draw Latine fans who refused to watch the Dodgers not only because of resentment over the displacement, but also because the Dodgers were seen as a team for the white community in Los Angeles. Walter O'Malley died a month after the organization signed Valenzuela, so he never saw the impact of the first Mexican superstar in baseball.

Though famous, Valenzuela still faced many of the same issues other Mexican immigrants faced coming to America. The language barrier led to isolation early in his career, and after his historic rookie season, he was threatened with deportation as he held out for a new contract in 1982, since he was in the United States on a work visa. It was said that Ronald Reagan pushed for immigration reform partly due to meeting Valenzuela in 1981.

Despite the disappointment of being cut by the Dodgers during 1991 spring training, Valenzuela maintained his legendary status with the team, becoming their color commentator in 2003 and having his number, 34, retired in 2023.

His jersey is still one of the most popular, with Valenzuela jerseys seen throughout Dodgers stadium 34 years after he threw his last pitch for the team. In spite of his status as the greatest player from Mexico to play in the Major Leagues, he has not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, although many artifacts from Fernandomania sit in the museum in Cooperstown.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

Top image: Fernando Valenzuela pitches a two-hit, 4-0 victory over the Montreal Expos at Dodger Stadium May 21, 1986. (Photo: Marsha Traeger/Los Angeles Times)

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