It was at the height of Fernandomania in 1981.
As you have likely heard, Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela passed away late Tuesday, far too young at 63.
If you’re too young to remember Fernandomania, I hope this anecdote gives you an idea of how big a thing it was.
He was called up by the Dodgers late in 1980; he had not yet turned 20 years old. He made 10 relief appearances, gave up no runs and struck out 16 in 17⅔ innings.
The Dodgers put him in their rotation to start the 1981 season, and that’s when Fernandomania began. Valenzuela threw five complete-game shutouts in his first seven starts, and allowed only one run in the other two for an ERA of 0.29 and 61 strikeouts and only 16 walks in 63 innings. (This in a lower-strikeout era.)
Five more starts followed that in which he wasn’t quite as good, but the Dodgers came to Wrigley Field in early June, and Fernando was to make his first start against the Cubs on Saturday, June 6, entering with an ERA of 1.90 and coming off a complete game with 11 strikeouts against the Braves.
Moreover, the Dodgers came into the game 34-18 and the Cubs, having a perfectly awful season, were 11-36 (!). NBC came to carry the game as its Saturday national TV Game of the Week, and back then local channels also carried those games, so WGN-TV was also on the scene.
So it was a dominant Dodgers club against one of the worst teams in Cubs franchise history. The Cubs had lost eight of nine coming into that Dodgers series, then won the first game against L.A. by a 4-3 score.
Valenzuela took the mound and the Dodgers took a 4-0 lead over the first two innings.
After that, though, it was all Cubs. The biggest blow was a three-run, pinch-hit homer by Mike Tyson (not the boxer!). Tyson hit just 27 home runs in a career of 3,200 plate appearances. Hector Cruz also homered for the Cubs.
Here’s Tyson’s homer from the WGN broadcast, the announcer is Milo Hamilton.
Tyson was not a power hitter. He hit only 27 home runs in a career of 1,017 games and 3,200 plate appearances. That was his last MLB home run.
Valenzuela wound up allowing seven runs that afternoon and threw only 3⅓ innings, the worst start of his young career. The Cubs won the game 11-5. In that strike-shortened season, the Cubs scored more runs than that only once, in the last 1981 home game vs. the Phillies, the second game of a doubleheader when the Phillies rested all their regulars, a 14-0 Cubs win.
Of course, Valenzuela recovered from that blowout to be named NL Rookie of the Year and won the Cy Young Award in 1981. The Dodgers won the World Series that year — the last time they faced the Yankees in the Fall Classic until this year’s matchup which begins Friday!,
Valenzuela threw very well for his first few seasons — he had 113 wins and 1,464 strikeouts by age 26 — but later injuries wrecked what could have been a Hall of Fame career. The Cubs hit him pretty well at Wrigley, where he posted a 4.48 career ERA in 13 games (12 starts). Curiously, the last home run he allowed was also to a Cub, Mark Grace, who homered off Fernando as a Cardinal on June 23, 1997.
Most recently, Fernando had served as the Dodgers’ Spanish language broadcaster for more than 20 years and became beloved in the Dodger fan community and really helped connect Mexican-Americans to baseball.
My condolences to his family, friends and many fans.