Fernando Valenzuela will always have a place on my Día de Muertos altar – San Diego Union-Tribune

There was once a leftist from EtchohuaquilaWhose shit went down better than any tequilaHis debut speeches fueled FernandomaniaConquer Los Angeles and fill the stadiumsDodger, Padre, Angel, O, Card and PhilHurler, the broadcaster at the time, was king of the hillDeath has now announced El Toro’s final farewellIf you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky

I became a huge fan of Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican pitcher from the state of Sonora who died of liver cancer on October 22 during his phenomenal rookie year in 1981. I have also long been fascinated by Mexican folk culture and its depiction of people as skeletons. with humorous “calavera literaria” poems like the one above, published around November 2, All Saints’ Day.

These interests came together after I met Marialuisa Vilchis Kaprielian, owner of the Tesoros de Mexico store in Old Town San Diego, which sold paper mache skeletons made by Mexican artist Joel García. In 1993, she made a deal for García, who had studied his craft under the great Pedro Linares, to create a skeletal likeness of Fernando for me.

For me, there is a connection between Major League Baseball and Día de los Muertos. Day of the Dead-themed Padres, Dodgers and Yankees hats, T-shirts and figurines are available. After Fernando’s death, altars to him appeared in Los Angeles. At Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, Mexican-American graves have long been decorated with Dodgers motifs for Día de los Muertos, sometimes with skeletons of Dodgers greats such as Sandy Koufax, Clayton Kershaw, Pedro Guerrero and Fernando.

In 1981, when my sister Nancy moved to Los Angeles, I flew from the East Coast to meet her and also watch Fernando play at Dodger Stadium. It wasn’t his best game, as he gave up three runs to the Cincinnati Reds in a no-decision over 4 1/3 innings. But I had the opportunity to see first-hand how “Fernandomania” electrified the stands, which he filled with an incredibly large number of Mexican Americans.

More than ever, I worshiped at the altar of baseball when he helped the Dodgers overtake the Yankees in the World Series, also winning Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and Silver Slugger honors for pitchers. As Dodgers announcer Vin Scully put it, “The 1981 season and Fernandomania bordered on a religious experience.”

In 1990, after Fernando threw a no-hitter in a game against St. Louis Cardinals, prompting former 1981 teammate Guerrero to make a game-ending double play, Scully came up with another great line: “If you’ve got a sombrero, throw it to the sky.”

When I was growing up in Florida, there was no major league team nearby, and as an advocate of equality, I became a Dodger fan after reading a biography of Jackie Robinson in first grade. However, I also rooted for the Padres in the 1984 World Series against the victorious Tigers. After coming here to work for the San Diego Union in 1985, I was part of the group that held Padres season tickets and was very disappointed when the Padres lost the series to the Yankees in 1998.

A year after arriving in San Diego, Fernando won the first major league game played in Mexico when the Padres defeated the New York Mets in Monterrey in 1996.

I was hoping Fernando would sign an autograph on my paper mache sculpture, but then-Padres vice president of Hispanic marketing Enrique Morones rightly told me that no Valenzuela team in Dodgers blue would come near the field on his watch.

After my mother — a huge baseball fan — died in 1995, the day before Mickey Mantle. I started the tradition of having my own altar on the Day of the Dead. The altar was later enlarged to honor my father and sister Patsy. This year Fernando joined the group.

In his honor, Dodger players wore a patch with his number 34, which was retired in 2023, during this year’s World Series victory over the Yankees.

Fernando, who would have turned 64 on Friday, left behind many memories, including his look at the sky before putting the ball on the plate. Now we look towards the sky. Adios, Fernando. Descansa en pazand welcome to baseball immortality.

Gaddis Smith is a former foreign editor and Mexico columnist for the San Diego Union. Lives in San Diego.