Fernando Valenzuela, RIP

I am extremely unexcited by a Yankees-Dodgers World Series, but beating the Yankees is all that matters and I know that one of the all time great baseball personalities and icons, if not players, would agree.

Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela died Tuesday at age 63. He is survived by his wife, Linda, four children, seven grandchildren and extended family.

Valenzuela’s impact endured for so long and so powerfully that the Dodgers retired his jersey number in 2023 despite a long-standing rule that the team only did so for those who were in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It was a fitting bookend to a public baseball life that had an unprecedented beginning, a surprising and stirring stretch in 1981 that became forever known as “Fernandomania.”

And though the left-hander never quite reached those heights in his playing career again, Valenzuela remained a beloved and enigmatic hero who was never far from fans’ hearts, as evidenced by the preponderance of No. 34 Dodgers jerseys in the stands and ovations he would receive at home games when he was shown on the scoreboard while working games at Dodger Stadium as part of the team’s Spanish-language broadcast team.

Do it for Fernando!