Fernando Valenzuela, the iconic southpaw pitcher who swooped the National League Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year as the Los Angeles Dodgers won the 1981 world championship, has died at the age of 63.
The Dodgers confirmed his death on Tuesday night. No cause of death was given.
His legacy and impact across generations of baseball fans led to the team breaking from its tradition of only retiring jersey numbers for players in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Although his number had never been worn by another player since his retirement and had been unofficially kept out of circulation, the Dodgers officially retired his No. 34 jersey during a during a pregame ceremony at Dodger Stadium in August 2023.
Born on Nov. 1, 1960, in Etchohuaquila, a small village in the state of Sonora, Mexico, Valenzuela was the youngest of 12 children. He and his siblings would help his mother and father work the family farm, and Valenzuela would play baseball with his brothers. In 1981, he told Sports Illustrated through an interpreter, “God put the talent in my arm, not in my feet.”
In the beginnings of his career, he was signed at a young age to the Mayos de Navojoa in 1977, and later Guanajuato Tuzos of the Mexican Central League. When it was absorbed into the expanded Mexican League, he began pitching for the Yucatan Leones of the Mexican League in 1979 at 18 years old.
His talent drew the attention of Dodgers scout Mike Brito while playing for Guanajuato, who vouched for him and urged the Dodgers to sign the left-hander. The team finally bought out his contract from the Leones for $120,000 on July 6, 1979, for $120,000.
Valenzuela made his debut with the Dodgers in 1980, and remained largely under fans’ radars until 1981, when everything changed. That season he won his first eight starts — five by shutout — and a 0.50 ERA in 72 innings. He became a key player on the journey to the Dodgers’ first World Series title since 1965, and solidified his legendary status by becoming the first and only player in MLB history to take National League Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season.
For the next five years, he was consistently recognized as on of the best pitchers in the league. His last season with the Dodgers would be in 1990. While he would go on to sign with the Detroit Tigers in the spring of 1992, he never played for the team. His contract was purchased by Jalisco of the Mexican League that summer, and he returned to the big leagues to sign with the Angels, Orioles, Phillies, Padres and Cardinals.
He played into his forties before retiring and reuniting with the Dodgers in 2003 as part of the club’s Spanish-language radio team, working alongside Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime Jarrín.
Throughout Valenzuela’s storied career, he became a hero among Mexicans and Mexican Americans, his legacy crossing into music and the arts, inspiring Latino musicians to write songs in his honor and murals across Los Angeles. While his rise in the Eighties fueled “Fernandomania,” the star player has been immortalized and continues to enthrall fans of the game.