147 Mexican baseball players have had the opportunity to play in the Major Leagues and the best of them is undoubtedly the legendary Fernando Valenzuela.
Valenzuela, who passed away last year, became a sensation upon arriving in Los Angeles in 1981 and remains the only pitcher in MLB history to win Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in the same season (1981).“El Toro” appears on the Contemporary Baseball Era Hall of Fame ballot, which will be voted on Sunday during the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida. The Contemporary Era candidates are players who played from 1980 onwards.
On the ballot he is joined by legends such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Carlos Delgado.
‘Fernandomania’ is here
You can’t talk about the history of the Dodgers or MLB in the 1980s without remembering ‘Fernandomania‘, an euphoric phenomenon that was experienced in Los Angeles for six months in 1981, when the Mexican burst onto the scene and conquered thousands of fans around the world.At just 19 years of age, Valenzuela completed an impressive season: eight wins, seven complete games and five shutouts, striking out 68 and allowing four runs in 72 innings for an impressive 0.50 ERA.
“What Fernandomania did for the Dodgers was to create generation after generation of Mexican-American fans,” MLB official historian John Thorn said in 2021. “The Mexican-American community has always been large in Los Angeles, but it was not identified with the Dodgers when they came from Brooklyn. It is not an exaggeration to say that, for the Mexican-American communities, Valenzuela was a hero on a par with Hank Greenberg for the Jewish community.”
The Mexican-American community has always been large in Los Angeles, but it was not identified with the Dodgers when they came from Brooklyn. It is no exaggeration to say that, for Mexican-American communities, Valenzuela was a hero on a par with Hank Greenberg for the Jewish community.
In terms of the media and its impact on the sport, Valenzuela deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Now, we’ll see if his numbers throughout his career back him up.
Does Fernando Valenzuela deserve to be in the Hall of Fame?
In order to make an analysis of whether Valenzuela deserves to enter the Hall of Fame, his statistics were compared with those of other pitchers who stood out in the 1980s: Jack Morris and Catfish Hunter. The numbers speak for themselves and everything points to Valenzuela deserving to be immortalized.
Jack Morris (Hall of Fame)
18 seasons, 3,824 IP, 3.90 ERA, 105 ERA+, 3.94 FIP, 43.5 bWAR (2.7 bWAR per 162 games), 32.5 WAR-7 (sum of WAR over seven best seasons), five-time All-Star, World Series MVP (1991).
Fernando Valenzuela
17 seasons, 2,930 IP, 3.54 ERA, 104 ERA+, 3.61 FIP, 41.4 bWAR (3.2 bWAR per 162 games), 33.5 WAR-7, six-time All-Star, Cy Young/NL Rookie of the Year (1981).
Catfish Hunter (Hall of Fame)
15 seasons, 3,449.1 IP, 3.26 ERA, 104 ERA+, 3.66 FIP, 40.9 bWAR (2.8 bWAR per 162), 34.9 WAR-7, eight-time All-Star, American League Cy Young (1974).
The final decision on whether the Mexican enters the Hall of Fame is made by a committee of 16 voters. This time the group of 16 voters is composed of some Hall of Fame members (Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount), executives (Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan) and journalists and historians who are members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark).
Voters can only vote for a maximum of three players and to be inducted they need at least 75% of the votes in favor.
All players who enter the ballot can be on it for 15 years, as long as they receive at least 5% of the votes. This is Valenzuela’s first year on the Contemporary Era ballot.
Missed opportunity
Valenzuela retired in 1997 and first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2003, five years after his retirement (this is a fixed rule). However, he did not do well.
In 2003, he received just 6.2% of the vote and got enough to stay on for the next year. In 2004, he received 3.8% of the vote and was automatically eliminated.
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