“Unreal!” Is like the American magazine Sports Illustrated described in its edition of May 18, 1981 to Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea, a young Mexican baseball player who would eventually be known as “The bull”Valenzuela and would mark one of the traditional teams in the Big Top, the Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as the entire Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States with a movement called “Fernandomania.”
During the year 1981, Mexico went through several events. President José López Portillo is announced as the winner of the Prince of Asturias Award, the country is nominated to host the World Cup to be held in 1986, Octavio Paz is awarded the Cervantes Prize for Literature, the British band Queen offers its first concert in Aztec territory at the Nuevo León University Stadium and the Pumas de la National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) were proclaimed champions of Mexican soccer.
However, that same year he is most remembered for the emergence of one of the greatest sports legends in Mexico, Fernando “El Toro” Valenzuela, who at the same time was the banner of a Mexican and Latino identity movement that in 2021 meets 40 years and still in force.
The start of Fernandomania.
On this day in 1981, Fernando Valenzuela tossed a complete-game shutout in his first MLB start. #TBT pic.twitter.com/S3y6wmncOV
– Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 9, 2020
An antithesis of the athlete sold by the media, white and athletic, as he points out Edmond de Estrella, columnist for ContraRéplica newspaper and contributor to the Rincón Beisbolero internet space.
It had been almost 10 years since the last Latino representative in the MLB, Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente and Fernando came to dominate the position and compete against the great pitchers of that time as Steve Carlton y Nolan Ryan.
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“Fernando, a chubby little boy, even with his little belly still on his cheek, used to throw games equal to or better than those they could throw.
“That was undoubtedly signifying the issue of an identification of the Latino in general; When the Mexican and the Mexican-American saw him, they identified with him and that made them return to Dodger Stadium and smooth out the rough spots with the Los Angeles team, “he added.
Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea was born on November 1, 1960 in the community of Etchohuaquila, Municipality of Navojoa, Sonora, the youngest of 12 siblings; After passing through the local team of the Piratas de Etchohuaquila, his professional career began with the Mayos of Navojoa in 1977, a career in Mexican baseball that was on the rise.
“This kid is a good major league prospect. 19 years old, he is a very strong left-handed pitcher with a lot of poise. He has a good fastball and a lively, fast curve with good rotation. Nice change, he also has good control for a left-handed pitcher his age, he has a good strong body, long arms, long fingers that help his pitching. This kid is definitely a good major league prospect. This is his second year in professional baseball, ”was the report made by the Dodgers scout, Mike Brito, in 1979.
As an “Immortal” of the Mexican Baseball Hall of FameHighlights include his three seasons in the Mexican Baseball League (LMB) and being named Rookie of the Year in 1979 with the Lions of Yucatán. He had 30 wins for 24 losses, with a 3.00 ERA.
For $ 120,000, Fernando Valenzuela was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, at which point he would also learn and master the screwball that would distinguish him as a left-handed pitcher.
“In ’79 was when I went to the Arizona Training League, that’s when Bobby Castillo he was there and helped me prepare the ball for the little twist and screw ball.
“What they tell me is going to be easy for you because it is natural for left-handers for the ball to go further away from right-handed hitters. So you give it a bit of rotation, I think it will be more effective “, narrated Fernando Valenzuela for the space program” Fernandomanía “carried out by Los Angeles Times.
The young man from Etchohuaquila debuted on September 15, 1980 as a reliever against the Atlanta Braves; he had two innings, accepting a hit and striking out.
But the best came the following year, Fernando’s watershed in the history of the so-called “King of sports”. On April 9, the Dodgers played the opening game of the 1981 season and the Los Angeles coach, Tommy Lasorda, had on his list as a starter Jerry Reuss, but a calf injury knocked him out.
Then Lasorda turned to his third pitcher, a 20-year-old, since the second on the list Burt Hoot it was not available either.
Fernando Valenzuela describes that one day before the opening game the coach gave him the surprising news, which at first he took as a joke on the part of Lasorda, but when confirming that it was a reality, he simply prepared himself.
“Tommy asked me if I could pitch. At first I didn’t know what to think because Tommy loves jokes. ‘Aren’t you kidding? Are you serious?’ And I told him I would pitch, ”Valenzuela recalls.
The Dodger Stadium That day, April 9, it hosted just over 50 thousand spectators and at that very moment when Los Angeles fans found out that the starting pitcher would be Mexican rookie Fernando Valenzuela. What at first seemed a mystery, in the end he was in astonishment at the tremendous display of the Etchohuaquila southpaw who shut out the Houston Astros 2-0.
Although in Mexico, the news of that first Valenzuela game would have gone a bit unnoticed among Mexican fans, as Edmond recalls, because the Major Leagues were not very followed, it was not compared to what would come later.
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According to the special “Impact of Fernandomania, at 40MLB’s next three outings were on the road – in San Francisco, San Diego and Houston. Won three games pitching completes, including shutouts against the Padres and Astros. In his second home outing, April 27 against the Giants, he threw another shutout; his fourth in five starts. By that time, the Mexican was 5-0 with a 0.20 ERA and everyone began to wonder when Valenzuela’s next start would be.
“I can’t believe it’s the most amazing, wonderful, and rewarding thing that I think we’ve seen in baseball in many years. It’s puzzling because after all the years watching this game, I know how difficult it is, I know how difficult it was even for the best who played it and somehow this young man from Mexico with a leprechaun smile on his face acts like he’s throwing batting practice in Mexico and becomes his fifth shutout.
“He is now 7-0, 9-0 in his career and is the talk of the baseball world in English and Spanish and in whatever other language is at hand Fernando Valenzuela and you can bet he will be in the post- game, ”was how the Dodgers’ game against Los Angeles was narrated in the United States. New York Mets in 1981.
By that time, the young Mexican was already in high demand by the media and was on the cover of many specialized magazines, a situation that Sport Illustrates described in their article dedicated to the rookie Major League Baseball sensation.
“It was a more suitable press conference for a foreign dignitary than an athlete, but then a foreign dignitary is more or less what Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers has become. Only a prince or other potentate could have seen the media circus with such equanimity. About 100 news people gathered at the Diamond Club at Shea Stadium last Thursday, with television cameramen vying for the position. “
The nickname “El Toro” came after the Los Angeles newspaper Herald Examiner led its readers to choose the nickname of the young Mexican.
The highlight was the third game of the World Series between the Dodgers against the historic New York Yankees, where the Los Angeles team arrived with two defeats in tow and the starter was none other than Fernando “El Toro” Valenzuela, a duel that he won 5-4, exploding with all the launch of screw or “corkscrew”.
“People clapping, cheering, chanting the Bull, come on Fernando, they yell at him. That Fernando arrives in the center of the diamond and goes with the launch, the ball travels. Tommy Lasorda goes there to hug Fernando Valenzuela, win his first World Series victory and beat the Yankees five runs times four. This is a madhouse ”, narration by Jorge“ Sonny ”Alarcón.
A season that concluded for Valenzuela with the World Series title with the Dodgers, the premio Cy Young and the Rookie of the Year award.
For 10 years, the young man from Etchohuaquila left his best story in Los Angeles, a city that adopted him as a benchmark for the sport of the Big Top. While in Mexico he remained as one of the three great legends of Mexican sports with the footballer Hugo Sanchez and the boxer Julio Cesar Chavez.
“People who really gave us many afternoons of joy in a decade where that was needed. One of the three was Hugo on Sundays, Fernando every four days he pitched and Julio every four days he went out to the ring represented joy because you also knew that the best in the world was in his position.
“It was not just any Mexican, Hugo arrived, Fernando goes, Julio goes and we are the champions, this day we are champions, period, and those three made it. Today the media would have to live around them, ”said Edmond de Estrella.
OH
