‘El Toro’ Valenzuela died

There were worrying signs due to Fernando’s sudden departure The Bull Valenzuela of Spanish radio broadcasts with the Dodgers. After days of speculation, the organization itself published a brief statement confirming a goodbye to the best Mexican pitcher in baseball history.

The Los Angeles Dodgers mourn the passing of legendary pitcher Fernando Valenzuelawas the historic message that shook international sport.

Valenzuela is stepping away from the Dodgers’ radio broadcast booth for the rest of the season to focus on his health.the Angelina franchise had written days ago.

He and his family truly appreciate the love and support of the fans. He will do everything possible to return for the 2025 season. His family has asked for privacy during this timehe added.

However, the deteriorated appearance of The Bull and the rumors that he was very delicate warned of this outcome.

Valenzuela, who died at the age of 63, took the big leap when he signed in 1979 with the Los Angeles Dodgers to debut in 1980 and there he began to forge a legendary career that lasted a decade in that jacket. He was a Cy Young Award winner and Rookie of the Year winner simultaneously. He won two World Series, in 1981 and 1988; He was selected six times for the All-Star Game. In the National League he led in the number of strikeouts with 180, 11 complete games, eight shutouts and 192 innings in which he worked on the mound.

Unforgettable

Fernando Valenzuela will be unforgettable for several other reasons. Not only because of the sporting feats that remain intact and even a multitude of fans can relive in their imagination that masterful game of the Dodgers against the Cardinals in 1990, when The Bull he pitched a no-hitter. Nine innings in which the Mexican pitcher used his arm to the fullest, striking out seven and leaving one of the most memorable outings in the king of sports. Its impact is also incomparable, as it triggered a phenomenon that became known as the Fernandomania and whose effects had an influence on the identity of many Mexicans in the United States.

The furor that Valenzuela caused during his playing days broke barriers that were unthinkable for a Mexican in Major League Baseball 40 years ago. To understand the magnitude of what it represents The Bull Valenzuela in the Los Angeles Dodgers and for Mexican baseball, we have to go back four decades. Put your senses in the beginning of the 80s, in its social environment and its forms of consumption. To stop only at the valuable statistics of a sport that records everything in figures, would be to forget the unprecedented impact that this baseball player born in Etchohuaquila, a ranch in Navojoa, in Sonora, had.

Fernando Valenzuela in one of his last appearances, when he was invited to the 2022 MLB All-Star Game, at Dodger Stadium. Photo Afp

Valenzuela did not even have the appearance of an athlete like those who dominate the Major Leagues today. The Bull He was a dark, robust and long-haired young man who could well have been the cousin of an average Mexican.

The Mexican-American writer Michael Jaime-Becerra published for Los Angeles Times that the impact it had on the migrant community, or on their descendants in that country, was decisive in the construction of a positive identity.

The university professor also says that as a child he felt a warm familiarity when seeing a baseball player who looked more like his uncle than the players he used to follow on the field at that time.

As a pitcher, he had the best statistics from 1981 to 1986, a period in which he was an inevitable member of the National League All-Star Game and twice (1981 and 1988) won the World Series. But the hiring of Valenzuela by the Dodgers was strategic not only in strict baseball terms, where as can be seen it was notable, but also because in the city of Los Angeles it served as a powerful emblem that challenged the growing Mexican migration.

And the Fernandomania in the United States and Mexico in 1981, just a year after his debut in the Major Leagues. A hitherto unrepeatable phenomenon where a baseball player becomes a shining star. Image marketing The Bull It had no limits. It appeared in a commercial from the Corn Flakes era. Was there a ritual more associated with American culture than eating cornflakes for breakfast in that era? And there was Valenzuela to say good morning to a Mexican family in the United States. Jaime-Becerra himself evokes Fernando dressed in a suede jacket with fringes on the sleeves and leading the Christmas parade, where else? Well, on the east side of Los Angeles, the historic sector of Mexican migration in that time. city.

In Mexico, he was a star who appeared in an interview on the most watched news program in those years, as well as as a character of the comedian Charly Valentino, who imitated the Bull of Echo Huaquila. I tried to replicate his peculiar way of speaking, somewhat sparse and monosyllabic. And since in this country nothing seems to take on a truly epic dimension if it does not have a musical story, there were beautiful melodies and sones that sang the exploits of the Sonoran on the mounds of the Major Leagues.

Tiberio y sus Gatos Negros recorded a tasty cumbia that surely entertained countless street dances or served on the sacred floors of one of the popular eighties dance halls.

Fernando, Fernando / the people shout / Fernando, Fernando / with emotion, a beautiful chorus sings. Pride for us because we are Mexican / To follow the example that we need from these people / to Fernando Valenzuela I sing my cumbia / and may God take care of him so that he becomes the bestconcludes the orchestra.

Tom Niedenfuer splashes champagne after the Dodgers won the National League title over the Expos, Oct. 20, 1981, in Montreal. Photo Afp

Of course there were also corridos, the most effective popular chronicle. A son from Zacatecas Rafael Buendía also honors the history of the Sonoran serpentinero. The fast violins accompany a very pleasant double bass that invites you to tap your feet.

My song goes through Sonora and the privileged Yaqui is Fernando Valenzuela, the most famous pitcher / in the baseball leagues the Dodgers march in front / when Valenzuela scores he does not leave a game pending, he says a verse and finishes: The race with emotion shouts live countryman / has already won the heart of the Mexican-American.

The six times All-Star He managed to win at least 10 games and make at least 25 starts in nine seasons with the Dodgers. He went 21-11 with a 3.14 ERA in 1986, with 20 complete games to finish second to Mike Scott in the Cy Young vote.

Debt settled

Valenzuela’s last appearance in the majors was with St. Louis in July 1997. He finished his career with a 173-153 record and a 3.54 ERA in 453 games, including 424 starts.

Despite being a reference with the Dodgers, Valenzuela’s number 34 was not officially retired until August 2023. Something that was incredible due to the weight his figure has on the team. It was a debt that was settled by the unquestionable weight of The Bull for the Los Angeles organization.

In November 2020, Valenzuela chatted with The Day and he was asked if it seemed unfair that his number was not retired from the Dodgers. He hid his true feeling and only responded that it was due to a tradition in the team. In that ninth, only the numbers of the players who are part of the Hall of Fame had been canceled. The Sonoran does not enjoy that privilege for reasons of cold statistics, that is to say – he said The Bull– that apparently the figures he had did not seem sufficient to incorporate him.

Nobody has used it after me on the teamresponded to this newspaper at that time. For Dodgers there was a very rigid policy and it was necessary to enter the Hall of Fame for that tribute to be made. It has been many years since I was eligible and yet they have not voted for me. That is not important, not as important as being remembered by people, because there I do have a prize that few of us enjoy.he added satisfied in that interview.

And when the possibility of the number he wore in a decade with the Dodgers being retired seemed ruled out, the organization decided to retire the mythical 34.

In February of this year, the Los Angeles team recognized that Valenzuela’s contribution was capital to deserve the distinction and finally received recognition as the most important Mexican player in the Major Leagues.

‘El Toro de Etchohuaquila’ during his participation in the All-Star Game in August 1981. Ap Photo