Los Angeles Dodgers ‘ 147-pitch, full match victory over the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series at Dodger Stadium was Fernando Valenzuela’s 43rd birthday just two weeks before the 43rd celebration of one of his most famous games for the team. He was 20 at the time.
The same two groups opened another World Series against each other Friday evening at the same estimate, the Dodgers winning afterwards, this moment 6-3, on the strength of Freddie Freeman’s walk-off, 10th inning grand slam, the first in World Series history. It’s the 12th time the two leagues have met in the Fall Classic, but the first since 1981.
Tommy Lasorda let Fernando leave because the boss in those days had control over the ball depend. No football operations director or general manager may have responded in favor.

Now?
Rick Monday, who was in right field that moment behind Valenzuela and currently airs Dodger game on the television, said in an interview that” Top agencies would be calling the bleachers, sending protection down to the dugout, or go to the mound and simply eliminate him.” ” Fernando was relentless”.
Lasorda, who had a penchant for burning out arms, was an enabler.
” Well, because the guy was having pretty good luck on the mound, too”, Monday said. There were some games that Ferrando played while playing yarn balls with a kitten.
When Valenzuela passed away on Tuesday following a lengthy illness, his former teammates and broadcasters cried out indignantly. Fans gathered on Friday to lay flowers and memorials near the Vince Scully gate to the stadium parking lot. Before the game, there was a brief video and a moment of silence. In contrast to throwing out the first pitch before the World Series opener, former teammates Orel Hershiser and Steve Yeager placed a baseball close to a sign of his number 34 on the pitcher’s mound.
Those in the press corps watched him physically deteriorate, losing weight over the course of months. A very private person, he refused to tell anyone what was happening, including his close friend Jaime Jarrin, who acted as his mentor and translator back in 1981 when Valenzuela broke in with a virtual scoreless run – 8-0, an 0.50 ERA and five shutouts – that became known as Fernandomania.
” He was a very proud man”, Monday said.
Valenzuela worked for 20 years with Jarrin, 88, on the club’s Spanish broadcasts before the latter retired in 2022. In September, Fernando took a leave of absence from that position and entered the hospital. He never came out.
” He was not doing well at all”, Monday said. However, that does n’t diminish our sense of emptiness. I mean, he brought cultures together, in our community here and really around the country. It’s never easy to lose a friend”.
The Yanks were about to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series when they surged ahead in Game 3 with a 4-3 lead after four innings after winning the first two games of the 1981 World Series in New York. In those initial innings, Ferrando struck out six and gave up seven runs.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Venezuela settled down and threw the final six scoreless innings for the win. The Dodgers then came back to take the lead, 5-4, in the bottom of the fourth. That’s the way the game ended. Fernando pitched the only World Series game of his career.
In that legendary game, Monday recalled how “my lower back was stiff after getting up and down in right field on all those pitches.” ” He just never let up, never let up”.
The Dodgers won the series three home games, winning it six games in a row, and returning to New York.
Game 2 of the 2024 World Series begins at 8: 08 p. m. Saturday at Dodger Stadium. Fernando is gone, but the memory of his accomplishments remains.