RIP Fernando Valenzuela

[Day2]

 

[Day2]

Fernandomania only lasted one season in St. Louis, but he looked great in victory blue:

 

[cuseattle]

As a batter, seeing that wind-up with his eyes rolling back into his head must have been unnerving.
Too young.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Another piece of my childhood chipped away. RIP

 

[jncuse]

Fernando's run as an elite pitcher only ran from 1981 (age 20) to 1986 (age 25), and he never reached his 1981 peak again. Yet he reached a peak level of aura in 1981, that very few, if any of his generation met and rightly goes down as a baseball legend.

I'll just pick a few Hall of Famers from that time and there are more - Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Tom Glavine (a little later). All deservedly hall of famers, but they never reached the level of impact or aura that Fernando had in 1981 or in his early years in baseball. Fernando wasn't a hall of famer, but despite that he is one baseball's biggest legends from the 80's.

 

[br801]

His first two full seasons were magical. The entire baseball world stopped to watch whenever he pitched. RIP, Fernando.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Fernando's run as an elite pitcher only ran from 1981 (age 20) to 1986 (age 25), and he never reached his 1981 peak again. Yet he reached a peak level of aura, that very few of his generation met and rightly goes down as a baseball legend.

I'll just pick a few Hall of Famers from that time and there are more - Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Tom Glavine (a little later). All deservedly hall of famers, but they never reached the level of impact or aura that Fernando had in 1981 or in his early years in baseball. Fernando wasn't a hall of famer, but he is one baseball's biggest legends from the 80's.

Kind of like a more sustainable Mark Fidrych.

 

[jncuse]

Kind of like a more sustainable Mark Fidrych.

Fidrych is still remembered but it was a lower impact in my opinion anyway- Fernando had more factors going for him in 81 that took it to another level-- the Market itself and the cultural impact, the 1981 World Series victor winner, the "screwball".

I'd say another comparable was Dwight Gooden in 1984/1985 who captured the baseball world's attention at the age of 19 and 20 - and those were his best years. But Fernandomania was still above that.

 

[MSOrange]

I was a bit young to remember Fernando's rookie year and how magical it was, but my dad was a big Dodgers fan from when he was growing up and I remember watching several Fernando games with him.

I was big into collecting baseball cards when I was growing up and my brother decided to send 4 or 5 to players through the mail to see if we could get any autographs back. Fernando returned his card signed. Now you never know if it's real when you get it through the mail or if some bat boy signed it. But I have compared it to his other authentic autographs on the internet and it looks legit to me and I will choose to believe it is.

 

[SmilinBob]

The 2 most copied pitching motions by wiffle ball pitchers everywhere have passed away...Tiant and Valenzuela.

 

[donniesyracuse]

The 2 most copied pitching motions by wiffle ball pitchers everywhere have passed away...Tiant and Valenzuela.

Honorable mentions to Jesse Orosco and Dan Quisenberry

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Honorable mentions to Jesse Orosco and Dan Quisenberry

I was more of a Tekulve man (sans glasses).