Fernando Valenzuela made me a believer in ’81
By Adrian Burgos
Everything seemed in place for a World Series title. As a Yankees fan growing up, I was spoiled by the Bronx Bombers going to the World Series three straight years, 1976 through 1978.
The Yankees took the first two games of the 1981 World Series versus the Dodgers. Game 3 took the action to Los Angeles.
The Dodgers jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first. The Yankees came right back, scoring two runs in the second and third innings to take a 4-3 lead.
They seemingly had Fernando Valenzuela, the much hyped Dodgers rookie lefthander, on the ropes.
“El Toro” showed why he had that nickname. Valenzuela did not give in. He kept fighting back.
Valenzuela’s performance in Game 3 crushed me. I witnessed the reason for the hype around the portly rookie, and that all of it was well-deserved.
I never quite was the overconfident Yankee fan again.
Fernandomania
I was an East Coast kid, born in New York and raised in Florida. I hadn’t quite gotten Fernandomania. This kid didn’t know what the craze was all about.
This was before interleague play existed. The World Series was the only time American League teams faced off against National League teams in meaningful games.
The late 1970s meant World Series and championships for Yankees fans. It was a revival of sorts. While the Yankees lost the ’76 Series to Cincinnati, they won the ’77 and ’78 Series versus the Dodgers.
Why would 1981 be any different? That was the obnoxiousness of youthful fandom shining through. Looking back at his first eight starts it is startling what Valenzuela accomplished.
He won all eight.
He pitched seven complete games, five of them shutouts.
Valenzuela surrendered a total of four earned runs in 72 innings.
That’s what sparked Fernandomania. No other pitcher had had a better start to his career.
Stranger Things
The 1981 season was unlike any other I had followed as a young fan. A strike interrupted the action. No games were played from June 12 to Aug. 8. That took away my daily routine of checking newspapers for results for a significant part of the summer.
When the strike ended, the season commenced with a new playoff format.
It was all so strange.
Two rounds of league playoffs were not the norm then. Neither was having first and second-half winners.
The Yankees beat Milwaukee to advance to the AL championship series versus the Oakland A’s who had dispatched the Kansas City Royals.
Confidence soared when the Yankees swept the A’s for the AL crown.
This set up another World Series match-up with the Dodgers.
This was going to be just like old times.
El Toro Doesn’t Back Down
When your team comes roaring right back after falling behind 3-0 in the first inning, you can’t help but feel that perhaps this was their night.
But watching the game I began to witness the reason for Fernandomania.
It became apparent why seemingly every Mexican baseball fan had flocked to see El Toro pitch throughout the 1981 season, waving their flags and so proud.
Valenzuela was masterful on the mound, even when he didn’t have his best stuff. He was unflappable.
The Yankees had him on the ropes in the third inning when they claimed a 4-3 lead but left two runners on.
Some surely wondered if Lasorda did the right thing in sending his rookie lefty back out. But the Dodgers manager knew what he was doing.
Valenzuela kept battling, pitching out of trouble in the fourth and fifth innings as the Yankees stranded runners in both frames.
In the bottom of the fifth the Dodgers retook the lead, scoring the go-ahead run on a double play, of all things.
With a lead Valenzuela breezed through the sixth and seventh.
New York had one last chance to knock the Dodgers’ rookie out. And like a Mexican champion boxer, he refused to go down.
Crazy Eight
The Yankees mounted a final threat in the eighth inning. Aurelio Rodríguez and Larry Milbourne started the eighth with back-to-back singles. That two of the Yankees weakest hitters started the potential rally revived my confidence.
The Yankees sent in Bobby Murcer to pinch-hit. A veteran would face the rookie.
The rookie won.
A Murcer bunt attempt went awry. Dodgers’ third baseman Ron Cey caught the bunt and then doubled off Milbourne at first.
Scheduled to bat second in the bottom of the eighth, many speculated Lasorda would send in a pinch-hitter for Valenzuela.
Nope. Lasorda stuck with Valenzuela. He wanted him on the mound in the ninth.
Making Me a Believer
Valenzuela made quick work of the Yankees in the ninth, retiring the number two, three, and clean-up hitters in order.
His Game 3 performance was unforgettable. The man threw 147 pitches. He surrendered six hits and had walked seven. But most impressive, New York could only muster one hit in 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Valenzuela’s World Series performance was the start of a Yankees downturn as the Dodgers would prevail in winning the 1981 World Series. There would be 18 years between the Yankees winning a World Series (1978-1996), their longest stretch ever.
The work Valenzuela had done versus the Yankees made me a believer. Fernandomania was not hype. Valenzuela had earned all the accolades in winning the 1981 Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and a Silver Slugger.
Featured Image: Wally McNamee / Getty Images Sport