Amidst the frenzy of the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees first World Series clash in decades, the legacy of Fernando Valenzuela was undeniable.
The last time the two teams met in the World Series was 1981, the same year Valenzuela debuted and incited “Fernandomania” with his elusive screwball and peculiar throwing form. After capping off a historic rookie season with a 147-pitch complete game victory against the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series, Valenzuela became the first player in MLB history to win both Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher in MLB.
Valenzuela died on Oct. 22 at the age of 63, just one day before the 43rd anniversary of this game, which gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in a series they would go on to win 4-2. Three days after his death, the Dodgers debuted a jersey patch in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series remembering Valenzuela, whose number 34 jersey they had retired a year earlier.
When Freddie Freeman turned towards the jubilant Dodger Stadium crowd after smashing the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history later that night, the patch reading “Valenzuela 34” was visible for all to see. The same was the case eight days after Valenzuela’s death, when the Dodgers rushed the field at Yankee Stadium after improbably erasing a 5-run deficit and clinching the championship.
For Assistant Professor of Education Jaime L. Del Razo, this stretch of days was full of emotion and nostalgia for the formative years of his long-held Dodgers’ fandom.
Del Razo, the son of Mexican immigrants, was born and raised only a few miles away from Dodger Stadium in Boyle Heights. When Valenzuela debuted for the Dodgers in 1981, Del Razo was 10 years old. Still, he remembers “Fernandomania” well because it was the first time he identified with the athletes he watched on TV.
“It was the first time I remember seeing, in any sport, an athlete that looked like somebody who was in my family,” Del Razo told The Miscellany News. “At that time, you don’t see anything that sees us in history, that sees us anywhere. Certainly not as a baseball player.”
While American coaches, players and media needed a translator to understand Valenzuela, who only spoke Spanish when he started his MLB career, Del Razo remembers appreciating sharing the same first language as the Dodgers’ star pitcher.
For Del Razo, however, Valenzuela’s greatest impact was the one he saw the star pitcher have on his late father.
“My dad worked from like before the sun came out till after the sun went down,” Del Razo said. “But when Fernando was pitching, he would rush home to watch the game. For the first time, I saw my dad enjoying the game. And that was special.”
Outside of the Del Razo home, Fernandomania was similarly impactful in the highly Chicano Boyle Heights. Fernandomania, he said, did not only change his relationship with his father. It changed an entire community’s relationship with baseball and made lifelong Dodgers fans out of many. When Valenzuela was on the mound, Del Razo remembered, the whole neighborhood would watch.
“If Fernando was pitching and if there was a TV nearby, the game was on,” Del Razo said.
At Mary’s, a corner store named after its owner near Del Razo’s home, Valenzuela’s starts were broadcasted on a small TV behind the counter. Del Razo said he remembers the corner store workers only looking away from the game if a customer walked up to make a purchase. If he found himself at the store during a Valenzuela start, Del Razo would do his best to time the journey home in between innings so that he could get back without missing a single pitch.
After Valenzuela’s historic 1981 season, Del Razo got to see the legend in the making when the former served as the grand marshal in the annual East Los Angeles parade. Atop an ornate parade float, Del Razo said the humble Valenzuela looked almost uncomfortable or overwhelmed by the theatrics surrounding him.
The 20-year-old from a rural Mexican town with a population of less than 1,000 likely never dreamed of the mania his unique pitching prowess would inspire.
But by those he made into baseball and Dodgers fans, Valenzuela will forever be revered.
“I think anybody who loves baseball and especially pitching, has got to know the name Fernando Valenzuela,” Del Razo said.