Dodgers icon Fernando Valenzuela died on October 22, 2024. Look back at the Mexican star pitcher's transformative impact on the Dodgers and Major League Baseball.
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00:00Everyone who remembers that season
00:02or knew who Fernando Valenzuela was
00:04during his daughter's years,
00:05they're always going to remember him.
00:06I'm talking about as iconic as Kobe,
00:08as iconic as Magic.
00:10Fernando is in that pantheon.
00:15When Mr. Walter Mali came to Los Angeles,
00:18he used to tell us,
00:19Jaime, when are you going to find
00:22and give us a Mexican Sunday gopher?
00:27And I used to tell Mr. Mali,
00:28it's impossible to find another gopher.
00:30A minor leaguer most of last year,
00:33he's now hailed as the second coming
00:35of Sandy Kovacs at age 20.
00:38Like Jackie Robinson,
00:40Fernando broke a glass ceiling.
00:42He was an immigrant like many of
00:45the members of our families.
00:46He's not just a symbol to the Latino community,
00:50but he's a great pitcher.
00:52Fernando Valenzuela is going to be remembered
00:59as one of the most consequential athletes
01:01in Southern California sports history.
01:03He helped change the way Dodger Stadium looks.
01:06He helped change the way baseball looks.
01:08Fernando Valenzuela was the most popular Dodger ever.
01:11He wasn't on paper their greatest pitcher,
01:14but he was in person their greatest ambassador,
01:16their greatest connection, their greatest link.
01:18He brought the Mexican American community
01:21back to Chavez Ravine.
01:22All of a sudden along comes Fernando
01:24right out of the blue, just changed everything.
01:27When Fernando hit, it was just like, oh my God.
01:30Here he is, man, here's a Mexicano.
01:32You know, everybody loves a hero.
01:34Everybody wants to have a hero.
01:36Willie Mays, Hank Aaron.
01:38I mean, everybody wants to be the fan of somebody.
01:40And especially if he's of your racial background,
01:44my God, you know, vamonos, viva la raza.
01:48It was just an abundance of pride
01:50and a sense of feeling like he was part of your family.
01:53When Fernando was pitching was a sellout.
01:57It became, you had to go to the game.
01:59And literally when the police would stop you,
02:02if Fernando was playing, they wouldn't say,
02:05what are you doing?
02:06They go, why aren't you at the park?
02:07You know, because you were doing something wrong
02:10if you weren't at the baseball park.
02:12This is a man who not only was
02:14a World Series champion twice,
02:16not only the Cy Young Award winner,
02:17not just a rookie of the year,
02:19but for that magical season of 1981,
02:22he was one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time.
02:25That magical stretch where he was just mowing them down.
02:29And the fact that he was a pudgy Mexican immigrant,
02:32and that also adds to his mystique.
02:34You know, he wasn't a skinny guy.
02:36He wasn't a strong guy.
02:37There's something I think about always about sports
02:40that has a character who is subversive, right?
02:43He's going to flip the whole script on what you've known
02:47or what you believe this sport to be.
02:50And this one seems more extreme because he's not tall.
02:54He's not blonde.
02:56He's not, you know, he's not Steve Garvey, right?
02:58He was chubby.
02:59And, you know, in Spanish we say gordito.
03:02He was a chubby guy and the people could relate to him.
03:05I mean, he wasn't cut up, you know,
03:07and weightlifter athlete's body.
03:11He was a gordito, just like everybody else in East LA.
03:15He was a symbol of what LA could be
03:17at a time in the early 80s,
03:18when LA wasn't sure what it could be.
03:22Fernando Valenzuela was born in 1960
03:24in the small town of Echahuaquila, Sonora, Mexico.
03:28He was the youngest of 12 children
03:29and inherited a love of baseball
03:31from his father, Avellino, a farmer.
03:33Mike Brito had talked about it a lot,
03:36that someday, someday we're going to have
03:39a great player from Mexico.
03:40His enthusiasm made an impression on all of us
03:44in the organization that we must do everything possible
03:47to sign Fernando.
03:49I cannot overemphasize how much of a mythical figure
03:52he became, especially for Mexican-Americans.
03:54I mean, me growing up, all of our uncles
03:57wanted us male cousins to be like Fernando,
04:00do the whole pitch, do that, do all of that.
04:03Of course, none of us were going to do it
04:04because no one could do it.
04:05I know that ladies, especially mothers
04:08and grandmothers started praying and praying the rosary
04:13because Fernando was pitching that day.
04:16So he became God, really, in Southern California.
04:20It was unbelievable.
04:21When Fernando was with us,
04:24he's never gotten the credit that he deserves
04:27for the impact he made on baseball,
04:29not just on the Dodger organization,
04:31but on Mexican baseball, international baseball,
04:35the community.
04:36I'm talking about a fundamental shift
04:38in how people view the Dodgers,
04:40in how Southern Californians viewed themselves,
04:43as especially Latinos.
04:45We were no longer going to be bench players,
04:49players that are like token players.
04:51We were going to be the stars.
04:53We were going to be the face of Southern California.
04:56And Fernando really was that first Latino
04:59to be able to assume that role.
05:00And that's all because of his pitching with the Dodgers.
05:03You can't overestimate the impact he had.
05:05The Dodgers would not be the Dodgers today
05:08without Fernando Valenzuela.
05:10They would not be the diverse community,
05:13connected city.
05:15It wouldn't be our team,
05:17unless it was first Fernando's team.
05:19Here's this guy from Mexico.
05:21Historically, the United States
05:22has not looked kindly upon immigrants,
05:24especially in Southern California,
05:26and everyone loved him.
05:27Everyone was wanting a piece of Fernando,
05:30wanting to know more about him.
05:32Everyone, for once, wanted to cheer a Mexican.
05:34I believe that Fernando will always be a hero
05:38to the Mexican-American community.
05:40People love him.
05:41It's an LA story.
05:42I honestly believe that it's part of
05:44the history of Los Angeles.
05:46That's the impact that he had,
05:48not just on the Latino community,
05:52but on Los Angeles.
05:54When he came in, he was like the guy.
05:58He was LA.
05:59He was the Dodgers.
06:01He'll be sorely missed.
06:02Gracias, Fernando, por todo lo que usted hizo para nosotros.
06:06Que viva el Toro para siempre.
06:07Viva Dodgers.