Now the Dodgers may have an angel on their side…
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Well done MLB TV.
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Also, a buddy of mine worked on this a couple years ago and it’s a brilliant documentary about his impact:
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I absolutely have no doubt about his impact. But, because of the narrative surrounding Fernando-mania in Summer of '81, it took away a Cy Young from Tom Seaver, who is the one who really deserved it that year.
Let us not forget that the Blue Spawns of Satan(c) would have never made the series that year without the very stupid split season that the worst Commissioner of all time and eternity, one Bowie Kuhn, foisted on the leagues after the strike ended.
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Seaver def had a great season and many eyes got to see him in the Eastern Time zone. Maybe if his team made the playoffs he wouldn’t have lost it. I don’t think you can say they “took” or he “Deserved” with a straight face. Slighting Fernando is a weird argument for one of the best rookie seasons ever. Also, not sure why The Dodgers (a team that integrated baseball) are the spawn of Satan.
He won 3 Cy Youngs prior to that season and is a Hall of Famer so who cares.
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See my comment about the galactically stupid Bowie Kuhn decision. Seaver’s Cincinnati team would have made the playoffs.
I do! He was my favorite player as both a kid and for a very long time after. So, it matters that winning four takes him out of a larger group with three that includes Scherzer, Kershaw, Verlander, Martinez, Palmer, and Koufax. He then matches Maddux and Carlton, is one short of Big Unit, and three below Clemens. That is a much different stratospere to be in.
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Dishonest broker aka Fan. I mean, those awards are splitting hairs. I think any rationale person would admit it could go either way on who won the award. Seaver was by no means robbed.
My father even through raised in Alabama was a Red’s fan as a kid so I’ve had this convo way too many times. I just think Fernando had a better season but I do think if Seaver won I would label it as robbing Fernando just because he was on my team. I do think he was the better pitcher that season, to me.
And why wouldn’t you. The Dodgers have dominated the Padres more then any other MLB team has dominated another.
Hey, what can I say, that is how I feel. Seaver was better. That said, I don’t want to be tearing the man just after his passing, so here is some snippets from Joe Posnanski.
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I honestly believe that Fernando Valenzuela, inning for inning, brought more glee, more laughter, more euphoria, more bliss and more happy feelings than any player in baseball history. To watch him pitch was to smile. To watch him hit was to feel a little more alive. To see him unwind his body as only he did—always pausing for an instant to look up to the sky as if he were asking God: “Are you watching this?”—and then uncork that magnificent screwball that had a mind of its own and to watch hitters helpless against its power, all of it took all of us one step closer to heaven.
“Everybody loved him,” his lifelong chronicler, translator and friend, Jaime Jarrín says. “Everybody. But especially women… and especially ladies from 30 years and up. Mothers. Grandmothers. People used to pray for him. They used to go to Mass on the day he was pitching. Baseball had never seen anyone like this before.”
Never before. Never since. Fernando just showed up one September day in 1980, 19 years old; the Dodgers had no intention of calling him up so soon, but he left them no choice. Down in San Antonio, he pitched 35 consecutive scoreless innings. The Dodgers were baseball royalty in 1980, the team of Garvey and Dusty, Lopes and Sutton, Lasorda and the Penguin, and they had all heard about this Mexican phenomenon throwing scoreless innings down in Double-A.
And up comes this kid who, well, let the legendary columnist Jim Murray describe him.
“He doesn’t even look like a major league pitcher,” Murray wrote. “He is, how shall we say it—he is—well, he’s fat, is what he is.”
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In all, Fernando Valenzuela pitched until he was 36 years old, eventually leaving the Dodgers to pitch for the Angels and Orioles and Phillies and Padres and Cardinals. Sometimes he would find a bit of the old magic. Most of the time, he just battled to get one more out. All the while, he still unwound his body, like he was untying himself from a knot, and all the while, in the middle of that windup, he looked to the sky for a little help from above.
Fernando died on Monday. He was 63. He was too young. But any age would have been too young. He was the people’s pitcher, a long-haired, pudgy lefty from Etchohuaquila who became a star and brought baseball fans more Joy Above Replacement than anyone. He made us all believe that if we, too, could just find a screwball, maybe, just maybe, we could strike out the world.
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I don’t disparage you for pulling for your guy. Seaver did have a better overall career but that season was magical for Fernando.
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If that’s true:
- The historic Pads must have been truly horrific, outside the WS runs in '84 and '98. Because…
- It’s hard to imagine any team being as bad as the last X years of the Rockies. I think the Dodgers beat them 16 times in a row. How does that even happen in baseball?
- Loosely related to the previous point, I’m deeply, deeply suspicious of the Rockies owner supposedly helping SLC get a MLB team. What does he know that we don’t know??
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Fernandomania was the first time I ever saw LA, en toto, embrace the Dodgers. Yes, the season was sort of an asterisk, but for the first time the Latino community of the LA basin (and most of SoCal) showed out for “Los Doyers.” Even my Latino friends in Orem jumped on the Dodger bandwagon.
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It’s funny how what Fernando did for the Dodgers we are now seeing Shohei do for the Dodgers. The menus also are upgraded this season with Traditional Baseball fare, Great Mexican dishes and now Asian inspired dishes.
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I only care about beating the Giants.
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LOS ANGELES – After the Yankees intentionally walked Mookie Betts to face Freddie Freeman with two outs and up by a run in the 10th inning, Freeman made them pay, crushing a grand slam to carry the Dodgers to a 6-3 win in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
Watch it here.
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Wow! And Im a Yankees fan
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First walkoff grand slam in World Series history.
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They played a great game, have nothing to be ashamed of. Getting to a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 9th was really baseball artistry. I was prepared to be very disappointed.
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Wow!
Elan
Freddie did something that reminded me of Reggie Jackson with that homer. I saw Reggie rip the hearts out of my Angels with 9th Inning home runs like that more than I would like to say.
Reggie would flip the table, and Goose Gossage would slam the door shut.
Edit: it was nice to see an LA team flip that narrative, and in the World Series as well.