2026 Up to date Baseball Period Committee Candidate: Fernando Valenzuela

The next article is a part of my ongoing have a look at the candidates on the 2026 Up to date Baseball Period Committee poll. For an in depth introduction to this yr’s poll, use the software above. An introduction to JAWS could be discovered right here.

Although he received the Rookie of the Yr award, a Cy Younger, and a World Collection all in his first full season whereas starting a six-year streak of All-Star picks — the primary of these as the sport’s starter — Fernando Valenzuela wasn’t only a star pitcher. He was a global icon, the centerpiece of a cultural phenomenon, and a beloved international ambassador who introduced generations of Mexican American and Latino followers to baseball whereas serving to to heal the injuries brought on by the constructing of Dodger Stadium, the very ballpark through which he starred.

“Roberto Clemente is ‘The Nice One,’ however culturally, Fernando Valenzuela has been extra important when it comes to bringing a fan base that didn’t exist in baseball,” José de Jesus Ortiz, the primary Latino president of the BBWAA, informed writer Erik Sherman for Dawn at Chavez Ravine, a 2023 biography of Valenzuela. Sherman himself described the pitcher as “like a composite of the Beatles — solely in Dodger blue. His enchantment was common.”

After excelling in a aid function throughout a September 1980 cup of espresso with the Dodgers — as a 19-year-old within the warmth of a playoff race, no much less — Valenzuela took the world by storm the next spring. Pressed into service because the Opening Day starter, he threw a five-hit shutout, then reeled off 4 extra shutouts and 6 extra full video games inside his first eight begins, a span throughout which he posted a 0.50 ERA. Regardless of talking barely a phrase of English, the portly portsider (listed at 5-foot-11 and 180 kilos, however usually presumed to be a minimum of 20 kilos heavier) charmed the baseball world along with his bashful smile whereas bedeviling hitters with impeccable command of his screwball, delivered following a excessive leg kick and a skyward gaze on the peak of his windup.

Inside the first two months of that whirlwind season, Valenzuela graced the quilt of Sports activities Illustrated and was a visitor at a White Home luncheon. Followers flocked to his video games in Los Angeles and elsewhere as Fernandomania took maintain of baseball. The seven-week gamers’ strike interrupted a few of his momentum, however he nonetheless got here up massive in time to assist the Dodgers win their first World Collection championship since 1965. He turned in dominant performances in two elimination video games, then gutted out a legendary 147-pitch full recreation that turned the World Collection round.

Valenzuela spent components of 17 seasons within the majors, and whereas he had two different top-three finishes within the Cy Younger voting, joined the 20-win membership, threw a no-hitter, and helped his groups to 3 extra playoff berths, his efficiency by no means fairly lived as much as that rookie season. Dodgers supervisor Tommy Lasorda labored him so arduous that he threw extra innings from 1981–87, his age-20 to age-26 seasons, than all however one pitcher (Jack Morris, who had one-third of an inning extra). Predictably, arm troubles adopted, and he spent the again half of his profession as a journeyman innings-eater.

As a third-generation Dodgers fan who had watched the group lose the 1977 and ’78 World Collection to the Yankees on the daybreak of my baseball fandom, I shortly took to Valenzuela as my favourite participant. I clipped the field scores from his eight-start run out of the Salt Lake Tribune and taped them right into a pocket book. I shelled out for the 1981 Topps Traded set simply to accumulate a uncommon Valenzuela rookie card, and devoured each scrap of reports concerning him that I might get my arms on. I solely noticed him pitch in individual as soon as, throughout spring coaching at Vero Seaside in 1989, when he was rehabbing from an harm that value him an opportunity to pitch in a second World Collection. As an grownup, I purchased a customized Valenzuela no. 34 jersey, and bought to put on it on the Dodgers recreation the place the franchise belatedly retired his quantity — which hadn’t been worn by any Dodger since his 1991 departure — in 2023.

Thus I’ve spent my complete skilled profession observing Valenzuela’s statistics, hoping to discover a option to make them add as much as a case worthy of Cooperstown. His late-career struggles left him with numbers that don’t actually scan as Corridor-caliber, because the overwhelming majority of BBWAA voters acknowledged when he hit the poll in 2003; he acquired simply 6.3% of the vote, after which 3.8% the next yr, not sufficient to stay eligible. He hadn’t turned up on an Period Committee poll since then, however his untimely dying final yr as a result of liver illness — simply shy of his sixty fourth birthday and the primary Dodgers-Yankees World Collection matchup since 1981 — might have led to his placement right here. On condition that the Period Committee course of has centered on gamers who acquired a minimum of modest help on the writers’ poll, I didn’t see this coming.

Whereas I can’t make a case pushed primarily by his statistics, I do assume that the mixture of Valenzuela’s taking part in profession, cultural affect, and 20 years as a Spanish-language broadcaster for the Dodgers — serving the very viewers he helped to construct and broaden — is worthy of recognition within the Corridor of Fame. Two avenues for doing so come to thoughts, which I’ll element beneath.

Fernando Valenzuela was born on November 1, 1960, the youngest of 12 kids of oldsters Avelino and María, farmers who lived in a home with dust and concrete flooring, no electrical energy and no working water, within the 150-person city of Etchohuaquila, Mexico. “The household could be very, very poor. The farm is about half the dimensions of the Dodger Stadium infield, about from shortstop to dwelling plate,” superscout Mike Brito (he of the omnipresent Panama hat and radar gun) informed Sports activities Illustrated’s Steve Wulf for a March 23, 1981 function on the rookie. Whereas rising up, Valenzuela and his six older brothers earned extra cash engaged on a close-by ranch within the afternoons.

As a teenager, Fernando performed soccer in addition to baseball. By age 13, he had joined his brothers in town group. The oldest, Rafael, marveled at his arm energy, telling Fernando, “You could have the arm to be a pitcher.”

In 1976, the 15-year-old Valenzuela signed his first skilled contract with the Mayos de Navojoa of the Mexican Pacific League, a winter league. Thus started a tour by way of varied ranges of Mexican baseball. The Cuban-born Brito, who had caught within the Washington Senators group within the mid-Nineteen Fifties, first noticed Valenzuela in 1978 whereas scouting a shortstop; pitching for the Guanajuato Tuzos of the Mexican Heart League, Valenzuela struck out 12. The following yr, Brito introduced Dodgers normal supervisor Al Campanis to see Valenzuela pitch for the Leones de Yucatán of the Mexican League, for whom he went 10-12 with a 2.49 ERA and 141 strikeouts. After protracted negotiations on July 6, 1979, the Dodgers paid Jaime Avella — whose Puebla group owned Valenzuela’s rights — $120,000, $20,000 of which went to the pitcher. Avella honored a dedication to provide the Dodgers first crack at Valenzuela regardless of the Yankees’ providing $150,000.

In late 1979, following a powerful three-start stateside debut with the Dodgers’ A-level Lodi affiliate, Valenzuela went to the Arizona Tutorial League, the place he realized to throw a screwball from Bobby Castillo, an infielder-turned-pitcher who dominated the Mexican League in 1976 and ’77 earlier than coming to Brito’s consideration and signing with the Dodgers. Castillo had picked up ideas each from main league reliever Enrique Romo and the best screwballer of all time, Corridor of Famer Carl Hubbell, who recommended his protege to throw quick and sluggish variations of the pitch.

Valenzuela proved a fast research, greater than holding his personal as a 19-year-old at Double-A San Antonio in 1980. The Dodgers known as him up after a stretch through which he’d gone 7-0 with a 0.87 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 62 innings, a Texas League dry run for the approaching streak. Whilst a digital unknown, he drew more and more loud ovations upon getting into video games, significantly as a result of he was simply the fourth native Mexican to play for the Dodgers since their transfer from Brooklyn (pitchers Vicente Romo and Jose Pena, and catcher Sergio Robles preceded him) — important given the franchise’s authentic sin of evicting almost 2,000 Mexican American households from the Chavez Ravine barrio. That course of started within the early Nineteen Fifties with town’s plan to construct public housing; when that fell aside, town used the land to lure proprietor Walter O’Malley, utilizing eminent area to clear the final of these households earlier than constructing Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962. In line with Jaime Jarrín, the Dodgers’ Ford Frick Award-winning Spanish-language broadcaster from 1959–2022, O’Malley sought “a Mexican Sandy Koufax” to enchantment to the the Mexican group in Southern California and produce them to the ballpark.

Valenzuela arrived amid a good NL West race. The Dodgers had gone 20-5 from August 19 to September 14 however gained simply two video games on the division-leading Astros. Debuting on September 15 with two innings of aid in opposition to the Braves, Valenzuela struck out Jerry Royster however allowed two unearned runs stemming from errors by his infielders. 4 days later, he threw three shutout innings in opposition to the Reds, hanging out Johnny Bench and three others. Shortly gaining the belief of Lasorda, Valenzuela was thrust into high-leverage conditions — and he thrived. In 17 2/3 innings, he allowed simply eight hits and 5 walks whereas hanging out 16; he didn’t yield a single earned run. The Dodgers ended the 162-game schedule by beating the Astros in three straight video games to tie them atop the standings, at 92-70. Whereas Valenzuela would have been an impressed alternative to start out the tiebreaker recreation, he’d labored two innings the day earlier than, so Lasorda as a substitute tabbed Dave Goltz, who bought shellacked; the Dodgers trailed 7-1 by the point Valenzuela turned in two shutout innings.

The wait until subsequent yr included appreciable hype. The Dodgers featured Valenzuela on the again of their 1981 media information, Fleer issued a standalone rookie card, and SI’s Wulf penned the aforementioned profile, writing, “His ancestry is Mayan Indian, and he speaks simply sufficient English to order a beer. He’s a left-handed pitcher, and his physique is extra paying homage to former Dodger left-hander Tommy Lasorda than it’s of former Dodger left-hander Sandy Koufax. His future is extra Koufax, although, than Lasorda.”

Valenzuela received a rotation spot throughout spring coaching, then on Opening Day crammed in for Jerry Reuss, who suffered a calf pressure. Dealing with the Astros in entrance of fifty,511 followers at Dodger Stadium, he spun a five-hit shutout, hanging out 5 over the course of 106 pitches. He was off to the races, starting a streak for the ages.

Each Valenzuela’s San Diego and Houston begins had been on three days of relaxation, for some cause; within the latter, he drove within the recreation’s solely run. Inside 24 hours, the Dodgers offered out all the reserved seats for his subsequent begin at Dodger Stadium — an unprecedented incidence, as group vice chairman Fred Claire informed SI. The phrase “Fernandomania” made its debut in print atop a Scott Ostler column within the April 27 Los Angeles Occasions; inside, Jarrín, who doubled as Valenzuela’s interpreter, mentioned, “I’ve been doing Dodger video games for twenty-four years and I’ve by no means seen this sort of response to a ballplayer.” So many individuals questioned Valenzuela’s age that the Occasions printed a duplicate of his delivery certificates.

In entrance of 49,478 followers for simply his second dwelling begin, Valenzuela blanked the Giants whereas going 3-for-4 and once more driving within the recreation’s first run. The streak, which had helped the Dodgers to a scorching 14-3 begin, led SI’s Jim Kaplan to write down about “The Epidemic of Fernando Fever” for its Might 4 version:

Delivered with a high-kicking movement that brings to thoughts Juan Marichal, Valenzuela’s scroogie tails away from right-handed hitters. When righties crowd the plate to get a greater shot at it, Valenzuela jams them with an inside fastball he perfected beneath the tutelage of Pitching Coach Ron Perranoski. However like most excellent pitchers, Valenzuela depends as a lot on fastidiously nurtured abilities as uncooked potential. “He can hit both nook along with his fastball, throw the scroogie at two totally different speeds and are available in with a tremendous curve,” says Perranoski.

The elevated media consideration led the Dodgers to restrict Valenzuela’s availability on the street to 1 press convention on his first day on the town and one other after he pitched. It additionally led Sports activities Illustrated to place Valenzuela on the quilt of its Might 18 version, simply as he started his descent into the extra typical ups and downs of a 20-year-old pitcher. On June 9, Valenzuela was a visitor of President Ronald Reagan for a state luncheon honoring Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo. Two days later, Valenzuela made his last begin earlier than the start of the strike. The Dodgers had been 36-21 when the gamers walked out, half a recreation forward of the Reds within the NL West race. The settlement of the strike included an settlement that the division leaders could be topped first-half champions and would face the second-half division winners in a best-of-five collection, with the winners advancing to the best-of-five League Championship Collection. Thus, the Dodgers’ 27-26 second-half document and third-place end behind the Astros and Reds mattered little, even when Cincinnati completed with a greater general document (66-42 to their 63-47).

Play resumed with the All-Star Recreation on August 9. Valenzuela bought the beginning nod and labored a scoreless inning, surrendering singles to Rod Carew (who was quickly caught stealing) and Willie Randolph, then getting George Brett and Dave Winfield to floor out.

Due to a powerful late-season run, Valenzuela completed 13-7 with a 2.48 ERA (seventh within the NL). His 25 begins, 11 full video games, 192 1/3 innings, and 180 strikeouts — in about two-thirds of a season, bear in mind — all led the league. Dealing with the Astros in Houston for the Division Collection opener, he misplaced, however with the Dodgers dealing with elimination, he returned on three days of relaxation with a complete-game four-hitter in Recreation 4; Los Angeles received the collection in 5. In opposition to the Expos within the NLCS, the Dodgers received Recreation 1, however Valenzuela and firm misplaced Recreation 2. The collection prolonged to 5 video games, and snow delayed the rubber match for a day, permitting Valenzuela a uncommon fourth day of relaxation. He rose to the event, driving within the tying run within the fifth inning and holding the Expos to 3 hits and one run by way of eight. Rick Monday’s solo homer off Steve Rogers gave the Dodgers the lead within the ninth, and whereas Valenzuela might document solely two outs within the backside of the body, reliever Bob Welch wanted only one pitch to stitch up the pennant.

In a rematch with the Yankees that featured most of the similar stars on either side as in 1977 and ’78 — the longest-running infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Invoice Russell, and Ron Cey for the Dodgers, and Ron Guidry, Graig Nettles, and Reggie Jackson for the Yankees — the Dodgers fell behind two video games to none earlier than returning to L.A. Having thrown 223 regular- and postseason innings to that time, and dealing on three days of relaxation for the eighth time that season, Valenzuela wasn’t sharp in Recreation 3, however he gutted out the beginning of a lifetime, remaining calm and holding the Yankees at bay in entrance of a Dodger Stadium document 56,236 followers. Cey’s three-run first-inning homer off Dave Righetti, the Yankees’ personal rookie lefty, staked Valenzuela to a 3-0 lead, however the Yankees clawed again, and took a 4-3 lead by way of Rick Cerone’s two-run homer within the third, prompting a mound go to from Lasorda. From Jason Turbow’s guide on the 1981 Dodgers, They Bled Blue:

Valenzuela figured that he was completed for… Lasorda wished to see for himself simply what his pitcher had left. No element particularly fueled the supervisor’s choice, however one thing about Valenzuela’s demeanor satisfied him. As a substitute of yanking Fernando, Lasorda gave him a pep discuss. “When you don’t hand over one other run,” he mentioned in Spanish, in response to ESPN, “we’re going to win this ballgame.”

… Valenzuela stared at his supervisor and responded in English: “Are you certain?”

Valenzuela didn’t throw a clear inning till the seventh, by which level the Dodgers had taken the lead. Together with his pitch rely previous 130, he retired the aspect so as within the ninth, capped by a whiff of Lou Piniella on a fastball.

The victory turned the tide. After successful Video games 4 and 5 by one run apiece, the Dodgers blew out the Yankees within the Bronx in Recreation 6 to clinch the collection, permitting Valenzuela to relaxation his arm as a substitute of beginning Recreation 7. A few weeks later, he beat out Tim Raines for NL Rookie of the Yr honors, and edged Tom Seaver to turn into the primary rookie to win a Cy Younger.

The heavy workload that Valenzuela bore in 1981 didn’t break him. Quite the opposite, “El Toro” continued to excel, although not at fairly the identical degree. He posted a 3.19 ERA (113 ERA+) over the following six seasons whereas averaging 35 begins and 266 innings, and making the NL All-Star group yearly by way of 1986. Together with his offense, his 33.6 WAR from 1981–87 ranked second amongst all pitchers behind solely Dave Stieb (35.8). His 1,788 innings trailed solely Morris (1,788 1/3), who was additionally the one pitcher with extra full video games in that span (102 to 96). Valenzuela’s 27 shutouts had been 9 greater than the second-ranked Welch, whereas his 1,448 strikeouts led the majors, 10 forward of Nolan Ryan.

Valenzuela went 19-13 with a 2.87 ERA (122 ERA+) in 1982, a yr the Dodgers had been eradicated from competition on the ultimate day of the season; he completed third within the Cy Younger voting that yr. Previous to the 1983 season, he turned the primary participant awarded $1 million in arbitration. Regardless of posting a 3.75 ERA (96 ERA+) that season, he helped the Dodgers win the NL West, then delivered an eight-inning one-run efficiency of their lone NLCS victory in opposition to the Phillies. He went 12-17 regardless of a 3.03 ERA (116 ERA+) and 240 strikeouts in 1984; that season’s spotlight might have been his hanging out future Corridor of Famers Winfield, Jackson, and Brett within the fourth inning of the All-Star Recreation.

Valenzuela rebounded in 1985, going 17-10 with 208 strikeouts and a 2.45 ERA (141 ERA+) for the division-winning Dodgers. He pitched nicely in two NLCS begins in opposition to the Cardinals, however after leaving a 2-2 tie within the eighth inning of Recreation 5, he might solely watch Ozzie Smith hit a walk-off dwelling run off nearer Tom Niedenfuer, the switch-hitting shortstop’s first ever homer whereas batting left-handed. In February 1986, simply forward of one other arbitration listening to, Valenzuela signed a three-year, $5.5 million contract, making him the highest-paid pitcher to that time, and the primary to prime $2 million in single-season wage (for 1988).

The 1986 season turned out to be Valenzuela’s final nice one. He went 21-11, reaching the 20-win plateau for the one time whereas throwing a league-high 20 full video games, hanging out a career-high 242 hitters, and posting a 3.14 ERA (110 ERA+). Once more he shined within the All-Star Recreation, this time starting a stint of three scoreless innings by hanging out Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken Jr., Jesse Barfield, Lou Whitaker, and Teddy Higuera. He was the runner-up to Mike Scott within the NL Cy Younger voting, and took dwelling his solely Gold Glove.

The innings started taking their toll in 1987, when Valenzuela allowed league-high totals of hits and walks whereas going 14-14 with a 3.98 ERA (101 ERA+); his first win, a powerful seven-inning effort in opposition to the Giants on April 12, was the one centesimal of his profession. Alas, it was principally downhill from there. Battling management points, he struggled to a 4.24 ERA in 142 1/3 innings in 1988, occurring the disabled listing in early August for the primary time of his profession as a result of a stretched anterior capsule, breaking a streak of 255 consecutive begins. Although he returned briefly in September, he was a bystander in the course of the Dodgers’ unlikely championship run, as Orel Hershiser led the best way with a record-setting scoreless innings streak and a postseason run for the ages.

Valenzuela spent two extra years with the Dodgers, one league common, the opposite substitute degree, however not and not using a profession spotlight. On June 29, 1990, he watched former teammate Dave Stewart full a no-hitter for the A’s in opposition to the Blue Jays. As Mike Scioscia recalled in 2017, simply earlier than going out to heat up for his begin in opposition to the Cardinals, “Fernando pokes his head in [to the bullpen]… and says, ‘Hey, you noticed one on TV, now you’re going to see one in individual.’ And he walks out of the bullpen, and throws a no-hitter.”

“You probably have a sombrero, throw it to the sky!” broadcaster Vin Scully exclaimed after Valenzuela sealed the sport by deflecting a Pedro Guerrero comebacker proper to completely positioned second baseman Juan Samuel, who started a game-ending double play.

The Dodgers made the painful choice to chop Valenzuela free close to the tip of a tough spring coaching in 1991. He signed a minor league cope with the Angels, however was rocked in two begins earlier than being sidelined by a uncommon situation that restricted the blood circulation close to his coronary heart. Remedy helped alleviate the issue, however he completed the season within the minors, with uninspiring outcomes. He went to spring coaching with the Tigers in 1992, however didn’t make the group. In June, his contract was offered to the Jalisco Charros of the Mexican League; after opening 0-5, he completed 10-9 with a 3.86 ERA. He returned to the majors with the Orioles in 1993, going 8-10 with a 4.94 ERA (91 ERA+), and after one other stint with Jalisco made eight appearances for the Phillies in ’94. His lone win within the strike-shortened season, an eight-inning, three-run begin in opposition to the Dodgers in Philadelphia on July 17, was the a hundred and fiftieth of his profession.

After the work stoppage led to April 1995, Valenzuela signed with the Padres. He wasn’t excellent that yr, however he loved a renaissance in 1996, going 13-8 with a 3.62 ERA (110 ERA+) — by far his greatest post-Dodgers season — and helped beat out his outdated group for the NL West title. On August 16, 1996, he had the honour of beginning for the Padres in opposition to the Mets in a recreation performed in Monterrey, Mexico, the primary common season main league recreation performed outdoors the U.S. and Canada. He threw six shutout innings because the Padres constructed a 15-0 lead, however allowed the primary three batters to achieve within the seventh, and so they all ended up scoring in what was a 15-10 mess.

On August 28, 1996, Valenzuela notched his 2,000th profession strikeout by fanning the Mets’ Edgardo Alfonzo.

Valenzuela couldn’t muster the identical magic in 1997. After going 2-8 with a 4.75 ERA for the Padres, he was traded to the Cardinals as a part of a six-player deal on June 13. He went 0-4 in 5 begins earlier than being launched on July 15. At 36 years outdated, his main league profession was completed.

Not fairly prepared to hold up his spikes, Valenzuela spent winters pitching within the Mexican Pacific League, doing nicely sufficient that in January 1999, the Dodgers invited him to spring coaching to audition for a aid function. The Padres expressed curiosity as nicely, however he declined to pursue both alternative; concerning the Dodgers, he was nonetheless embittered about his 1991 launch, over which he filed a grievance on the grounds it was financially motivated. (It was unsuccessful.) He continued to supply innings for the Aguilas de Mexicali membership as late because the 2007-08 season, when he was 46; for the 2006–07 season, he was joined by son Fernando Valenzuela Jr., born in 1982, a former Tenth-round select of UNLV who spent 4 years within the affiliated minors with the Padres and White Sox, climbing as excessive as Double-A, after which continued his profession in Mexico.

Valenzuela stored his distance from the Dodgers till June 2003, when he rejoined the group to do shade commentary for Spanish-language radio broadcasts alongside Jarrín and Pepe Yñiguez. “We’ve been making an attempt to get him again to the group for thus lengthy,” mentioned vice chairman for communications Derrick Corridor. He credited group chairman/CEO Bob Daly, “who on his first day right here mentioned, ‘Get Fernando. Get Fernando.’” Valenzuela spent 22 seasons within the sales space, transferring to the Dodgers’ Spanish-language tv broadcasts on SportsNet LA in 2015.

Past broadcasting, Valenzuela additionally served his dwelling nation because the pitching coach for Workforce Mexico in the course of the 2006, ’09, ’13, and ’17 World Baseball Classics. Mexico didn’t get additional than the second spherical in any of these tournaments, nevertheless it wasn’t arduous to see the satisfaction Valenzuela took in representing the nationwide group. In 2014, he was elected to the Mexican Skilled Baseball Corridor of Fame, and in 2019, the Mexican League retired his jersey no. 34 on a league-wide foundation.

…

Except for his rookie season, Valenzuela solely led his league in main classes just a few occasions: in wins (21) in 1986, and in full video games (20 in 1986, 12 in ’87). Much less impressively, as a result of his excessive innings counts, he additionally had years the place he led in hits, walks, earned runs, and wild pitches. He did have a major leaderboard presence, ending amongst his league’s prime 5 in strikeouts seven occasions, within the prime 10 in ERA 4 occasions, and within the prime 10 in pitching WAR 5 occasions, together with second in 1981 (4.8) and third in ’86 (5.3). Nonetheless, his last totals of 173 wins and a pair of,074 strikeouts aren’t Corridor caliber, neither is his 104 ERA+; for all of the innings piled on his plate in his early years, he didn’t even attain 3,000 for his profession.

Even along with his leaderboard appearances and an additional 4.1 WAR added by way of his offense (he was a .200/.205/.262 hitter with 10 profession homers, and a 7-for-19 line as a pinch-hitter), Valenzuela’s 41.4 profession WAR ranks simply 172nd amongst beginning pitchers, and his 36.6 S-JAWS 173rd; each are forward of solely 4 of the 65 Corridor of Fame starters (Catfish Hunter, Lefty Gomez, Jesse Haines, and Rube Marquard). His adjusted peak rating of 31.7 WAR is tied for 158th, forward of simply seven Corridor of Famers (Mickey Welch, Eppa Rixey, Pud Galvin, Marquard, Haines, Hunter, and Morris). His stellar physique of postseason work (5-1 with a 1.98 ERA in 63 2/3 innings) isn’t sufficient to make up for his statistical shortfall in different areas.

Whereas the numbers aren’t there, I do see precedent for honoring Valenzuela based mostly upon the mixture of his taking part in profession, his cultural affect, and his post-career roles inside baseball. In 2022, the Early Baseball Period Committee elected Buck O’Neil, whose 10-year profession taking part in primarily for the Kansas Metropolis Monarchs of the Negro American League was only one aspect of a life in baseball that spanned from 1937 to his dying in 2006, and that has continued to resonate. O’Neil additionally managed the Monarchs because the Negro Leagues had been in decline, then served as a pioneering scout who related Ernie Banks to the Cubs and Elston Howard to the Yankees, signed Lou Brock, and scouted Lee Smith. He was the primary Black coach for an AL or NL group, and at last, he was an envoy for the Negro Leagues, taking part in an outsized function in elevating consciousness of Black baseball and in recognizing its greats. He spent 21 years on the Veterans Committee, providing eyewitness testimony on his cohorts, served as topic and narrator in Ken Burns’ nine-part documentary collection Baseball, co-founded the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas Metropolis, and crusaded for Negro Leagues gamers deserving election to the Corridor, although he himself got here up quick in the 2006 Particular Committee on the Negro Leagues election that added 17 deceased honorees to the Corridor. It took a reconfiguration of the Period Committee system to make him and his cohorts eligible for election once more, and the selection to honor him was an outside-the-box one given the hybrid nature of his profession. The Corridor classifies him not as a participant however as a pioneer/govt.

The 2022 Early Baseball Committee might have elected one other candidate alongside those self same traces, particularly Lefty O’Doul, who equally had an affect that prolonged nicely past his taking part in profession and left a mark on a whole nation. O’Doul starred within the majors as an outfielder within the late Twenties and early ’30s after arm troubles curtailed his pitching profession; he received two NL batting titles (1929 and ’32), however his larger affect on the sport was as a pioneer of Japanese baseball. He organized excursions of Japan by American stars, taught the basics of the sport to Japanese gamers each earlier than and after World Battle II, and helped to discovered the Japanese Baseball League, a forerunner of in the present day’s Nippon Skilled Baseball. Constructing on analysis into the Veterans Committee by Graham Womack, O’Doul has been thought of for election by committees a minimum of 13 occasions, however in 2022 he as soon as once more fell quick (5 votes out of 16).

The case for Valenzuela rests upon his standing as a trailblazer and ambassador on prime of his years of stardom — a modern-day pioneer, not only a participant. “A powerful argument could be made that he launched baseball to extra folks all over the world than any ballplayer who has ever lived,” wrote Sherman in Dawn. “Within the years since [his arrival], no person has remodeled baseball’s panorama greater than Valenzuela, whose presence was as sport-altering as Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson had been of their day.”

Whereas I’m not fairly satisfied Valenzuela belongs on the degree of Ruth and Robinson, his affect upon Los Angeles and all through Latin America was large. His arrival and subsequent success helped to unite L.A., a racially divided metropolis not solely scarred by the Battle of Chavez Ravine, but additionally by the following many years of mistreatment and prejudice in opposition to Mexican People. Circa 1959, when the Dodgers performed on the Los Angeles Coliseum as Dodger Stadium was being constructed, solely eight % of the crowds had been Latino, in response to Jarrín. By 2019, that determine was up round 46 %, the legacy of the inroads made by Valenzuela’s run with the group.

“He impressed so many youngsters all through Latin America which may have had doubts about themselves,” José Mota, one in every of Valenzuela’s broadcasting colleagues (and the son of former pinch-hitting specialist Manny Mota) informed Sherman. “What folks seen was this humble child that didn’t appear to be a baseball specimen, so that they believed if he might succeed, they might too. In Mexico, if they’ve sufficient expertise, they’ll be given an opportunity now due to Fernando. The identical holds true not simply in my nation, the Dominican Republic… but additionally elsewhere, like Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. Fernando was not Mexican for us — he was only a Latino man. He had a plethora of nations that recognized with him and thought of him as one in every of [their own].”

“Fernando’s baseball fingerprints are in every single place in the present day,” mentioned Richard Santillan, a founding member of the Latino Baseball Historical past Mission at California State College, San Bernardino in 2021. “From Mexican music being performed on the PA system to Mexican meals being offered at stadiums, the accent marks on the again of jerseys with Spanish-speaking surnames, nearly each Main League Baseball group broadcasting video games in Spanish and the dramatic shift in demographics of the fan base not solely right here in L.A., however all through baseball.”

Asking an Period Committee to weigh one candidate’s cultural affect in opposition to the statistical deserves of different candidates could also be a tall order, significantly given the extent to which historians and media members have been squeezed by the Corridor’s personal alternative of panelists. The 2023 Up to date committee included simply three media members/historians, and whereas final yr’s Traditional Baseball committee included 5, two had been consultants on Black baseball to assist account for the candidacies of a pair of Negro Leagues stars, supervisor Vic Harris and pitcher John Donaldson, although neither was elected.

The opposite means by which the Corridor might honor Valenzuela could be by way of the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, which was established in 2008 and which is “offered by the Corridor of Fame’s Board of Administrators no more than as soon as each three years to honor a person whose extraordinary efforts enhanced baseball’s optimistic affect on society, broadened the sport’s enchantment, and whose character, integrity and dignity are akin to the qualities exhibited by O’Neil.” The award virtually sounds as if it had been created for Valenzuela, who checks these bins like few different figures in baseball historical past. It will not be a bronze plaque, however it’s a high-level recognition for lengthy and meritorious service to the sport in ways in which aren’t essentially simple to quantify or pigeonhole.

Whereas I feel that award may be the extra possible consequence for Valenzuela — if not in 2026, then someday down the street — as long as he’s on the Period Committee poll, I feel it’s value pushing the envelope. Corridor voters sorely want the flexibleness to acknowledge figures whose careers don’t neatly match into one field, and whether or not or not Valenzuela will get in on this poll, I feel it’s essential to press for the elections of candidates reminiscent of O’Doul and seven-time Gold Glove winner Curt Flood, who sacrificed his profession to problem the Reserve Clause. With a few of this poll’s reheated candidacies, the Corridor appears determined to search out healthful alternate options to PED-linked gamers with massive numbers. In Valenzuela, they’ve one, and he’s a real hero to a large chunk of baseball’s fan base.