Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — At last! After years of wishing, praying, and hoping, fans of Fernando Valenzuela finally got their wish on Saturday. The team announced at its annual Fan Fest that #34 will once and for all take its rightful place among retired numbers at Dodger Stadium.
“Fernandomania” weekend will take place August 11-13 when the Dodgers host the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. The festivities will kick off with the Ring of Honor ceremony on Friday Night, a collector’s edition bobblehead on Saturday night and a replica Valenzuela 1981 World Series ring on Sunday. There will be many other fun and exciting elements planned for the entire weekend which will be announced in the coming weeks.
This announcement, a long time coming, validates the lobbying on the part of many (including our own Bleed Los podcast team). And it is somewhat of a break with tradition for the team. Unlike some teams who retire numbers of players who merely contributed in a major way to their team’s success, the Dodgers always had a higher standard: they would only retire numbers of players that have found a home in Cooperstown. So, great Dodgers like Gil Hodges and Don Sutton had to wait until the Hall of Fame gave them their official imprimatur before seeing their jersey numbers taken out of circulation.
In fact, Valenzuela’s number has been de facto retired for a long time. The Dodgers have made a point of not giving it out to any player, no matter who was doing the asking. So the number has sat unused all these years. And now it is official.
Let’s be honest. Valenzuela’s numbers are good, but it isn’t numbers alone that are getting him this honor. Ron Cey, Orel Hershiser, Willie Davis, and Nap Rucker all have higher lifetime WAR with the Dodgers. And, Valenzuela’s WAR is just a tick over that of Steve Garvey, who had some great years here in the 1970s. No, Fernando is getting the honor mostly for being Fernando.
Let me explain. I don’t think there is a single player in major league history who more impacted a fan base than Fernando Valenzuela. Before 1981 and Fernandomania, LA’s Latino fans kept the Dodgers largely at arm’s length. Maybe it was the bad taste that was left from the forced evacuation of Chavez Ravine’s Latino residents. Or maybe it was the Dodgers’ roster construction, which didn’t really feature any great Latino ballplayers that fans could get behind (with the large exceptions of Dominicans Manny Mota and a very young Pedro Guerrero).
According to legendary broadcaster Jaime Jarrin, only eight to ten percent of the audience at Dodger Stadium was Latino before Valenzuela took the mound. Fernandomania changed the face of the stadium for decades to come. Together, Valenzuela and Jarrín transformed Latinos into Dodgers fans, and by 2015, 2.1 million of the 3.9 million fans attending Dodger games were Latino.
Even in cities with a large Latino population, there is nothing like the presence of Latino fans like there is in Dodger stadium. The reason you hear Mariachi music filling the air and Taco Tuesdays a weekly event is Fernando. Guests to the Bleed Los podcast from Danny Trejo to Gabriel Iglesias to Chris Estrada have talked lovingly of family memories of gathering around the television every time their hero took the mound. And even if you’re not a famous actor and/or comedian, if you grew up in East LA or Boyle Heights or thereabouts in the early 80s, you probably had the same stories to tell.
“Hell yeah! De puta madre!” read the text I received from my friend Veronica, a long-time Dodger fan who remembers being taken to Dodger Stadium by her Mexican immigrant dad when she was a young girl back in the day. “So deserving!“
I think probably Veronica speaks for a lot of Dodger fans today.
