Remembering Fernando Valenzuela and the Summer of 1981 When "Fernandomania" Swept the Baseball World

Fernando Valenzuela, who was just 63 years old when he passed away yesterday, is one of the most memorable athletes from my childhood. He had a distinctive pitching motion in which, as Ed Guzman put it in his L.A. Times obituary for Valenzuela, he "would look skyward almost as if he sought guidance from a higher power."

In the pre-internet, pre-social media era, Valenzuela became about as big of a phenomenon as any athlete in the world, appearing on the covers not only of sports magazines but also of general interest magazines. "Fernandomania" was the buzzword describing Valenzuela's emergence as not just a sports star but a cultural touchstone. In 1981, Valenzuela became the first--and still the only--player to win the National League Rookie of the Year award and the National League Cy Young award in the same season. That was a magical summer during which he was an immediate sensation, giving up just four runs in his first eight starts with seven complete games, five shutouts, 68 strikeouts and a 0.50 ERA in 72 innings (Valenzuela pitched briefly during the 1980 season, but according to MLB rules he was classified as a rookie in 1981). Valenzuela finished that strike-shortened campaign with a 13-7 record while leading MLB in strikeouts (180) and shutouts (eight) and pacing the NL in games started (25), complete games (11), and innings pitched (192.1). He earned an All-Star selection and a Silver Slugger award.

In the 1981 playoffs, Valenzuela went 3-0, including a complete game victory in game three of the 1981 World Series after his L.A. Dodgers lost the first two games to the New York Yankees. The Dodgers won the next three games to capture their first World Series title since 1965.

Valenzuela's former teammate Dusty Baker told MLB.com in 2021, "He could do everything on a baseball field but run. He could hit, he could bunt, field his position. He knew how to play the game. He was a breath of fresh air as a youngster with a man's knowledge on how to play the game."

I grew up as a Cincinnati Reds fan, so I did not root for Fernando Valenzuela--who spent most of his career with the Dodgers, the Reds' chief division rival during my childhood--but I was captivated by him and I closely followed his career. The Reds won the National League West title in 1972-73, 1975-76, and 1979, while the Dodgers won the National League West title in 1974, 1977-78, and 1981--so in the first 11 years of my childhood, only two other teams won the NL West (San Francisco Giants in 1971, Houston Astros in 1980). The Reds reached the World Series four times (1970, 1972, 1975-76) during that time span, and won the World Series twice (1975-76), while the Dodgers reached the World Series four times (1974, 1977-78, 1981) and won the 1981 World Series.

After that special 1981 season, Valenzuela never quite reached that same status again, but he made the NL All-Star team each of the next five seasons while finishing second in Cy Young voting in 1986, third in 1982, and fifth in 1985. He earned another Silver Slugger award in 1983, and he led the NL with 21 wins in 1986 while also pacing MLB with 20 complete games that season. Valenzuela won a Gold Glove in 1986. Although his physique was not svelte, he was durable, amassing a streak of 255 consecutive starts before being sidelined in 1988 due to a shoulder injury. That injury forced him to miss the 1988 playoffs when the Dodgers captured another World Series title.

The Dodgers released Valenzuela after he went 13-13 in 1990, and he posted a 32-37 record with five other MLB teams before retiring after the 1997 season. For his career, Valenzuela finished with a record of 173-153, a 3.54 ERA, 2,930 innings pitched, and 2,074 strikeouts. He threw 113 complete games, including 31 shutouts.

Valenzuela was a fan favorite throughout the baseball world, but particularly so for Mexican fans and Mexican-American fans who idolized him in way similar to the way that Jewish fans admired Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax.

This has been a sad few months for baseball fans with the deaths of Fernando Valenzuela, Pete Rose, and Willie Mays, three distinctive stars who helped their teams win while playing with great flair.

The Disgraceful Secret of the Astros' and Red Sox' Success: Cheating

The Houston Astros have been widely portrayed as a model franchise in terms of utilizing analytics to build a successful team: the Astros tanked to accumulate draft picks, and then they used analytics to decide which players to draft, which veteran players to acquire, and how to maximize the talents of those players during games.

All of that sounds great in theory--but the reality is that the secret edge that pushed the Astros over the top and enabled them to win the 2017 World Series was old fashioned cheating: the Astros stole the opposing team's signs during games and then made noise in their dugout to alert their hitters about which pitch to expect.

If Bud Selig were still the Major League Baseball Commissioner, the Astros would have probably received a slap on the wrist while Selig broke his arm patting himself on the back, which was baseball's version of crime and punisment as Selig presided over the "Steroids Era." Fortunately, Rob Manfred at least has some sense of how serious this offense is: Commissioner Manfred assessed a $5 million fine against the Astros, stripped the franchise of its first and second round picks in both 2020 and 2021, and suspended General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Manager A.J. Hinch for the 2020 season (the Astros subsequently fired both men, neither of whom will be permitted to work for any other MLB team next season). Many baseball insiders have publicly expressed surprise at these supposedly draconian punishments but Manfred--although he showed more sense than Selig, an admittedly low hurdle to clear--did not go far enough. The Astros still go down in history as the 2017 World Series champions, and not one player who participated in the cheating has received any punishment.

It is becoming increasingly hard to understand why Pete Rose is burdened with a lifetime ban, while cheating players such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Alex Rodriguez are embraced by Major League Baseball, and cheating teams like Houston and Boston (see below) retain their coveted (but forever tarnished) World Series crowns.

MLB has a lot to learn from other sports. In track and field, cheaters like Ben Johnson, Marion Jones and others are stripped of their Olympic and World Championship medals. In cycling, Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles were voided.

If MLB and its leadership had any courage or any sense, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez and every other "Steroids Era" cheater would be removed from the record book and banned from Hall of Fame consideration--and the Astros would be stripped of the 2017 World Series title, with every player who was involved in the cheating being disciplined by MLB. Manfred's excuses for not punishing the players--too many players were involved, many of the players play for other teams now, and he did not feel like he could determine the relative guilt of each player--are weak, and provide an open invitation to players to cheat in the future, with the knowledge that if they are caught then they will keep their World Series rings while their manager and GM take the fall.

The investigation into the Astros' wrongdoing revealed that Alex Cora--who played a major role in Houston's cheating as a bench coach--similarly participated in cheating perpetrated by the Boston Red Sox as he served as that team's manager during their 2018 World Series championship season. Cora should be banned for life, and the Red Sox should be stripped of their title--but it is possible that Cora will get off with no more than a one year suspension, and it is likely that the Red Sox will pay a price that does not include losing their championship.

Of course, Boston is another franchise that has been lauded for profitably utilizing analytics.

Analytics have proven their value in many fields, from science to retail to law; law is my profession, and as a Customer Success Manager for Lex Machina--the pioneer and leader in the legal analytics field--I am well aware of the tremendous value provided by analytics that are accurate, complete and relevant. However, this MLB cheating scandal renews the question of just how valuable or reliable baseball analytics are; if the analytics provide a decisive edge, then why would two teams that are deeply immersed in analytics risk getting caught stealing signs?

I have often written about the strengths and limitations of "advanced basketball statistics" and the application of real basketball analytics, but the widely held assumption for quite some time is that analytics work better in baseball than in basketball because baseball is a station to station game of discrete actions, not a free-flowing game of interconnected simultaneous actions.

The Houston and Boston cheating scandals do not "prove" that baseball analytics have no value, but these scandals do legitimately raise the question of how much of an advantage Houston and Boston gained through analytics compared to how much of an advantage they gained by breaking the rules.

Why do I criticize the Astros and Red Sox after previously expressing the opinion that the so-called "Spygate" and "Deflategate" situations involving the New England Patriots were overblown by the media? Simple. The Astros and Red Sox unambiguously and deliberately cheated, and their cheating led directly to the championships that they won. In contrast, the Patriots committed a technical rules violation in "Spygate" that may not have even conferred a significant competitive advantage, and it is not even clear that they did anything wrong in "Deflategate." While baseball pitch signals are concealed, the signals that the Patriots filmed during "Spygate" can be viewed by anyone watching an NFL game on TV; the systematic gathering and collection of those signals for later analysis is not permitted (and that is why the Patriots were punished by the NFL), but this is not the same as intercepting a catcher's signals in real time and banging a trash can in the dugout to let the batter know in real time the exact pitch that is coming. Further, the Astros and Red Sox attempted to conceal what they were doing, while the Patriots' videographers were wearing team colors, and their presence could not have been more obvious if they had been waving semaphore flags. Regarding "Deflategate," independent scientists examined the evidence and concluded that the methodology and conclusions of the infamous Wells Report were flawed.

NFL cheating incidents that should outrage fans include (1) the 2010 Saints putting "bounties" on opposing players en route to winning the Super Bowl, (2) the Denver Broncos circumventing salary cap rules to stack enough talent around John Elway to enable him to win two Super Bowls in the 1990s, (3) the San Francisco 49ers circumventing salary cap rules during the 1990s, and (4) the massive steroid use that fueled the Pittsburgh Steelers' 1970s championship teams (and may be responsible for the sad, early demises suffered by many of the players from those teams).

Of course, the media picks and chooses who to target and who to absolve in these situations. New England Coach Bill Belichick rarely provides useful soundbites to the media, so it is OK for the media to dub him "Belicheat." The Saints were a fairy tale story in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, so their intentional maiming of opposing NFL players is readily forgotten; Gregg Williams, the ringleader of the Saints' bounty scheme, is back in the NFL and is a respected coach, even though some players say that he is still coaching his players to intentionally injure opposing players. Elway's Broncos, and the 1990s 49ers are also popular, so their transgressions are forgotten. The Steelers are part of the NFL's ancient and storied history, so no one cares to examine their widespread steroid abuse.

It will be interesting to see how the media choose to depict the Astros and the Red Sox. For me as a baseball fan, Major League Baseball has not been the same since the strike canceled the 1994 World Series, and then the "Steroids Era" combined with Bud Selig's bumbling (remember the 2002 All-Star Game that ended in a tie while Selig shrugged?) permanently stained the sport and its once-hallowed record book--though, as a basketball fan, I thank MLB for having a strike that lasted so long that it helped push Michael Jordan back to the NBA. This latest scandal just confirms to me that the baseball record book before 1994 was nonfiction, while the baseball record book post-1994 is fiction, replete with fraudulent home runs, fraudulent MVPs and, now, fraudulent champions. This is not to say that other pro sports are pure or flawless, but the past 25 years or so have been brutal for MLB.

Boston Takes Game One of the World Series With 8-4 Victory Over L.A.

I have never romanticized baseball, or loved the sport the way that so many passionate fans do--but before the 1994-95 strike and before the sport became overrun by performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to the extent that its hallowed record book was stripped of any meaning, I followed the sport closely and I particularly enjoyed the playoffs and the World Series. I remember as a child being awed by Reggie Jackson's heroics and being entertained by the "We Are Family" Pittsburgh Pirates (even though the Pirates eliminated my Cincinnati Reds en route to the World Series title).

I do not watch much baseball anymore--though I enjoy going to Dayton Dragons games with my four year old daughter Rachel, who loves the entire spectacle and yearns to join the players on the field--but tonight's World Series game one was fun to watch. The Boston Red Sox beat the L.A. Dodgers, 8-4. I don't have a dog in this hunt, so I just savored the back and forth nature of the contest and the various strategic moves made by both sides. I love seeing the best of the best compete against each other and there is no doubt that both of these teams are great.

Boston jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead and never trailed, but L.A. tied the score at 2 in the third inning. Boston scored one run in the bottom of the third and then L.A. answered with a run in the fifth inning to once again tie the score. Boston added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 5-3 lead and L.A. pulled to within one run in the seventh inning. It looked like we were heading for a nail-biting finish but then pinch hitter Eduardo Nunez uncorked a three run home run to break the game open, 8-4. The Dodgers' bats fell silent the rest of the way. Matt Barnes, who pitched one scoreless inning, was credited with the win, while Dodgers' starter Clayton Kershaw--who gave up five runs in four innings--suffered the loss.

After nearly a century of frustrating futility, the Red Sox appear to be on the cusp of capturing their fourth World Series title since 2004.