Fernando Valenzuela

Rare card · No. 41736

Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea (Latin American Spanish pronunciation: [feɾˈnando βalenˈswela]; November 1, 1960 – October 22, 2024), nicknamed "El Toro", was a Mexican professional baseball pitcher. Valenzuela played 17 Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons, from 1980 to 1997 (except for a one-year sabbatical in Mexico in 1992). He played for six MLB teams, most prominently with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who signed him in 1979 and gave him his MLB debut in 1980. Valenzuela batted and threw left-handed, with an unorthodox windup. He was one of a small number of pitchers who regularly threw a screwball in the modern era. Valenzuela enjoyed his breakout year in 1981, when "Fernandomania" rapidly catapulted him from relative obscurity to stardom. He won his first eight starts, five of them shutouts, and finished with a win–loss record of 13–7 and had a 2.48 earned run average (ERA) in a season that was shortened by a player's strike. He became the first, and as of 2024, only player to win both the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Tony Barnard, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0