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A Tribute to Fernando Valenzuela 

A Tribute to Fernando Valenzuela
October 28, 2024

Baseball lost an icon on Tuesday when Fernando Valenzuela passed away at 63 years old. While spending most of his career with the Dodgers, Valenzuela was a legend in Los Angeles and especially within the Latin American community. He also is one of the greatest pitchers to have ever donned

Baseball lost an icon on Tuesday when Fernando Valenzuela passed away at 63 years old. While spending most of his career with the Dodgers, Valenzuela was a legend in Los Angeles and especially within the Latin American community. He also is one of the greatest pitchers to have ever donned a Red Wings uniform, but we will get to that in a moment.

Valenzuela became a household name in 1981 when he burst onto the scene with the Dodgers. The lefty with the beguiling screwball actually made his MLB debut in 1980 with ten late season relief appearances for the Dodgers in which he didn’t allow an earned run over 17.2 innings. Still, he was a surprise Opening Day starter as a 21-year-old rookie in 1981 due to an injury to Dodgers veteran Jerry Reuss. Fernando shutout the Astros that day and remarkably won his next seven starts as well to become the first pitcher since at least 1945 to win his first eight MLB starts. Not only did Valenzuela win those games, he also completed each and every one of them while tossing five shutouts. He was 8-0 with a 0.50 ERA before he lost a game!

*In that amazing stretch, Valenzuela shutout the Padres in his third big league start. Even though the game was obviously on the West Coast, it is safe to assume that game finished before the Red Wings game that night. April 18, 1981 was the start of “The Longest Game” for the Red Wings in Pawtucket.

Download the Red Wings Rewards app today, use code "Fernando34" for 25 extra points, and start winning exciting prizes! App Store | Google Play

Valenzuela won both the Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in 1981—the only pitcher ever to do that—before helping the Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series. In fact, the Yankees had taken the first two games of that Fall Classic before Valenzuela tossed 147 pitches in a complete game win for LA in Game Three at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers won the next three games as well to win the series.

*1981 was the most recent Fall Classic matchup for the Dodgers and Yankees before the upcoming 2024 World Series.

*The series ended with Bob Watson flying out to Dodgers centerfielder Ken Landreaux who---seven years later---would play for the Red Wings 1988 Governors Cup Championship team.*

The man Dodgers fans referred to as El Toro—The Bull—was selected to the All Star Game each of his first six seasons in the Major Leagues while finishing in the Top Five in Cy Young Voting four times. He won 21 games in 1986 when he completed a whopping twenty starts. (The active MLB leader in complete games—Justin Verlander—has 26 CGs in his CAREER.)

Now….how did Fernando Valenzuela end of pitching a game for the Red Wings? Valenzuela left the Dodgers when they didn’t pick up his club option after the 1990 season. He spent the final six seasons of his MLB career pitching for five different teams including the Orioles in 1993.

Baltimore signed the then 32-year-old that spring to be their fifth starter. He got roughed up by the Texas Rangers in his Orioles debut, and—with a long layoff expected before his second O’s start---Valenzuela agreed to be optioned to the Red Wings for a tune-up start. (Longtime Red Wings reliever Brad Pennington got called up to replace Valenzuela on the Orioles roster.) Unfortunately for Wings fans, that start came on the road April 17 in Richmond. R-Braves fans got a case of Fernandomania and more than 11,000 fans packed The Diamond to watch the Braves—led by a young Chipper Jones---defeat Valenzuela and the Red Wings 6-3. That start for Rochester was the eighth—and final---Triple-A start of Fernando’s career.

Download the Red Wings Rewards app today, use code "Fernando34" for 25 extra points, and start winning exciting prizes! App Store | Google Play

Valenzuela ended his Major League career after 1997 with a lifetime record of 173-153 with a 3.54 ERA…not counting a brilliant 5-1, 1.98 in nine MLB postseason appearances. Among pitchers who at one time pitched professionally for Rochester, his 173 MLB wins are the 10th most. (Mike Mussina’s 270 big league wins are the most among former Red Wings.) While his time in a Red Wings uniform didn’t provide much impact, you can certainly make the case that no pitcher who ever wore a Red Wings jersey had a bigger and longer lasting MLB impact than the great Fernando.

Download the Red Wings Rewards app today, use code "Fernando34" for 25 extra points, and start winning exciting prizes! App Store | Google Play