Dusty Baker on the death of Fernando Valenzuela: “He came to us like an angel”

Dusty Baker remembered the games. Not the ones that Fernando Valenzuela would bend to his will, like his typical screwball, but the moments in between. The precocious left-hander's skills went beyond the iconic windup he taught himself on hills in a small Mexican town called Etchohuaquila. Valenzuela was so good at hitting that he sat on the bench at Dodger Stadium even on nights he wasn't pitching. He was able to expand his position so well that he would win a Gold Glove.

But Baker marveled at another feat of athleticism: Valenzuela tossed a hacky sack into the air and his eyes floated skyward, just like when he throws it.

“That was the first time I’d really seen someone that good at it,” Baker recalled by phone Tuesday night.

Baker was 31 when Valenzuela, just 19 years old, made his Dodgers debut in 1980. As a running joke, the pitcher tapped Baker on the shoulder to make him look the wrong way, then giggled with childlike vigor when it worked.

“Fernando was a kid,” Baker said. “He behaved like a child. He was fun. He behaved like a child everywhere except on the hill.”

Valenzuela died Tuesday, the Dodgers announced. He was 63 years old. The man who sparked “FernandoMania” in 1981 is dead. Until this summer, he had captivated a city and a market that have never been the same since.

Dusty Baker and Fernando Valenzuela were friends from the start and formed a long-lasting bond. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)

Valenzuela wasn't the first Mexican superstar and won't be the last, but there will only be one Fernando. It took a summer for an entire town to get to know the mild-mannered left-hander by his first name when he was 20, a sentiment that has resonated ever since.

“Everywhere we went — it wasn’t just the Dodgers — the stadium was packed,” Baker said. “And he filled the stadium, especially with Latin American people from all over the world. He made everyone, especially Latin Americans, proud.”

Valenzuela's fame sparked a cultural shift in Los Angeles, revitalizing a Mexican-American community damaged by the franchise's move to the area and the displacement of Chavez Ravine families to build the now-fabled baseball stadium.

Valenzuela made his debut in 1980 without much fanfare and played ten goalless games. His first start of 1981 came on Opening Day, but only after Jerry Reuss injured his calf. Valenzuela had already abandoned his bullpen session on the eve of Opening Day when Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda informed him that he would be taking over baseball.

The left-hander responded with a five-hit shutout in a 2-0 victory over the Houston Astros.

“Fernando – he was the man as a child,” Baker said.

“It’s good that we won that game,” Valenzuela recalled with a laugh last year.

He won each of his first eight starts – all complete games.

Valenzuela was alienated from the club and retired because he was still upset over the Dodgers' decision to release him in 1991, shortly before his $2.55 million contract would have been guaranteed. He returned to the organization in 2003 as a Spanish-language broadcaster, and the Dodgers retired his No. 34 in August 2023 (the franchise waived its long-standing policy not to do so for non-Hall of Fame players).

But if Valenzuela's relationship with the Dodgers was complicated, his relationship with the city and its people is not. His jersey remains one of the most popular in a stadium where people regularly chant his name. The pitching mound at Dodger Stadium always felt like the highest place in the world when the 5-foot-10 left-hander stood on top.

He was exactly what Los Angeles and the Dodgers needed.

“He came to us like an angel when we needed him most,” Baker said.

Baker was Valenzuela's teammate from 1980 to 1983 and a bond developed between them. He took care of him. Baker took Valenzuela to dinner, just as Felipe Alou and Hank Aaron did for him as a young Atlanta Brave. When Baker returned to Dodger Stadium this August as part of a bobblehead night and spoke with Valenzuela, who had now shown signs of his illness and lost weight, Baker made time for his former teammate.

The left-handed hitter who threw like a man was still a boy, according to Baker. He recalled a period during Valenzuela's peak: Andre Dawson had hit a solo home run against Valenzuela at Dodger Stadium in May 1981, a game-winning shot during a complete-game victory when Pedro Guerrero hit a walk-off home run a half-inning later. When Valenzuela faced Dawson's Montreal Expos in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series in October, he held Dawson 0-for-4 and struck out him – while simultaneously explaining to Baker the exact sequence he had thrown to Dawson earlier in the season.

“Fernando was smart. I mean, this cat was like a man, threw like a man, but he was just a little boy,” Baker said.

Valenzuela threw eight shutouts in 25 starts and unquestionably won the Rookie of the Year award, which served as a companion to a Cy Young Award.

The Dodgers, always on the doorstep, returned to the 1981 World Series against the New York Yankees and won. Since then, there hasn't been a fall classic meeting between the two legendary franchises – until now. Valenzuela died just three days before the start of Game 1 at Dodger Stadium.

(Top photo from 1985: Rick Stewart / Getty Images)