By Penny Bancroft
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea (Latin American Spanish pronunciation: [feɾˈnando βalenˈswela]; November 1, 1960 – October 22, 2024), nicknamed “El Toro“, was a Mexican professional baseball pitcher. Valenzuela played 17 Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons, from 1980 to 1997 (except for a one-year sabbatical in Mexico in 1992). He played for six MLB teams, most prominently with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who signed him in 1979 and gave him his MLB debut in 1980. Valenzuela batted and threw left-handed, with an unorthodox windup. He was one of a small number of pitchers who regularly threw a screwball in the modern era.
Valenzuela enjoyed his breakout year in 1981, when “Fernandomania” rapidly catapulted him from relative obscurity to stardom. He won his first eight starts, five of them shutouts, and finished with a win-loss record of 13–7 and had a 2.48 earned run average (ERA) in a season that was shortened by a player’s strike. He became the first, and as of 2024, only player to win both the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season. The Dodgers won the World Series that year.
Valenzuela peaked from 1981 to 1986, when he was named a National League (NL) All-Star in each season. He won an NL-leading 21 games in 1986, when he was a runner-up to Mike Scott of the Houston Astros for the Cy Young Award. Valenzuela was also one of the better hitting pitchers of his era. He had ten career home runs and was occasionally used by Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda as a pinch-hitter. In 1986, he signed the then-largest contract for a pitcher in baseball history ($5.5 million/3 years). However, nagging shoulder problems diminished the remainder of his Dodgers career. He was on the Dodgers’ 1988 World Series championship team, but sat out the postseason with a shoulder injury. Valenzuela threw a no-hitter in 1990 before the Dodgers released him prior to the 1991 season. He spent the rest of his major league career with the California Angels, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, and St. Louis Cardinals, before pitching a couple of seasons in Mexico in his 40s.
Valenzuela returned to the Dodgers organization after retiring, serving as a broadcaster from 2003 to 2024, the year of his death. The Dodgers retired his No. 34 in 2023. His career highlights include a record of 173–153, with an ERA of 3.54. His 41.5 career wins above replacement (according to Baseball-Reference) is the highest of any Mexican-born MLB player.
On October 1, 2024, it was announced that Valenzuela had been hospitalized for an undisclosed illness, which was subsequently reported to have been liver cancer. The Dodgers announced the following day that he would not be in the “broadcast booth for the remainder of this year to focus on his health.”
Valenzuela died in a Los Angeles hospital on October 22, 2024, at the age of 63, three days before the Dodgers were due to play Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. Before the game, fans left flowers and memorabilia at the Dodger Stadium sign outside the stadium.
he Dodgers further announced that they would wear a uniform patch honoring Valenzuela during the 2024 World Series and 2025 season. Artist Robert Vargas was preparing a large mural of Valenzuela in Boyle Heights at the time of Valenzuela’s death. In a strange coincidence, the 2024 Dodger World Series celebrations took place on November 1, 2024, which would have been Valenzuela’s 64th birthday. Some people attending the victory parade and Dodger Stadium celebration held signs celebrating his birthday.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
The Day of the Dead, or Día de Muertos, is a very old holiday observed on November 2, when all souls of the dead are believed to return to the world of the living. It’s primarily celebrated in Mexico and in Mexican-American communities, honoring those who have deceased. Practiced initially by Indigenous cultures, Día de Muertos was later adopted by the Catholic faith (after the Spanish arrived in the 16th century) to coincide with All Souls’ Day.
During this special time, many families visit and decorate graves; some hold intimate family gatherings and create special altars (ofrendas) to remember and honor those who passed away with photos of their deceased loved ones and their favorite foods and drinks.
The Day of the Dead has become more prevalent in today’s culture, thanks to modern movies (such as Coco or James Bond) and Halloween’s popularity, as well as larger Mexican-American communities celebrating with colorful parades and processions. Sweet pastries such as Pan de Muerto, or bread of the dead (made in the shape of a skull) are traditions, as are sugary chocolate skulls. Bright flowers decorate the stalls and streets; the marigold is the symbolic flower as its bright yellow-orange petals (like the brightly-colored costumes) are beacons to welcome the souls of the dead as they return home.
November comes from the Latin word novem, meaning “nine,” because it was the ninth month of the early Roman calendar.
In Western Christianity, All Saints’ Day is celebrated on November 1. (In the Eastern Orthodox Church and others, it is observed on the first Sunday after Pentecost.) This is the day when all the saints are honored, especially those who do not have a day of their own. It’s also a family day to honor the memory of family members, visiting the graves of deceased relatives and lighting candles in remembrance. The Christian church often observes All Saints’ Day with a reading of the Beatitudes. Among the eight blessings, the best known may be: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
As the Roman Empire spread across Celt-occupied lands in the 1st century A.D., the Romans incorporated many of the Celtic traditions, including Samhain, from which the holiday Halloween developed. Around 800 years later, the Roman Catholic Church further modified Samhain, designating November 1 as All Saints’ Day. As All Saints’ Day was formerly known as All Hallowmas, the evening, or e’en” before the feast became popularly known as “All Hallow’s Even” or even shorter, “Hallowe’en”. (Hallow meaning to sanctify or make holy. Saints or holy people are called “hallowed.”)
All Saints’ Day is observed in Latin America as part of the Day of the Dead celebrations. Relatives often visit the graves of their loved ones on this day bringing flowers, lights, and deceased’s favorite foods to the cemetery. In some countries, a common practice is to make or fry sweet dough, in the shape of donuts or braided strands or rolls.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Antonio Canova (sculptor) –
- George Rapp (religious leader) –
- James Renwick, Jr. (architect) –
- Stephen Crane (American writer) –
- Robert Foxworth (actor) –
- Lyle Lovett (singer) –
- Fernando Valenzuela (baseball player) –
- Rick Allen (drummer of Def Leppard) –
- Sophie B. Hawkins (musician) –
- Toni Collette (actress) –
Died
- Ezra Pound (poet) –
- Mamie Eisenhower (U.S. First Lady) –
- Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (pilot of U.S. B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay, whose crew dropped first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during WWII; bomb nicknamed Little Boy was dropped on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. local time) –
Events
- Michelangelo’s fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was unveiled–
- Great earthquake at Lisbon, Portugal, accompanied by fire and flood, killed between sixty and ninety thousand people and destroyed the city–
- The first medical school for women opened in Boston, Massachusetts, founded by Samuel Gregory–
- First national weather service in U.S. began operation–
- Rainbow Bridge, an international bridge at Niagara Falls, opens to the public–
- U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt placed United States Coast Guard under Navy control–
- Two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman following a week of political unrest on the island–
- In Toronto, CBLT made its first hockey TV broadcast as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2–
- The Mackinac Bridge, connecting Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, opened to traffic–
- Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante put on a face mask and became the first NHL goalie to regularly use face protection–
- First direct flight from Canada to USSR–
- Elvis Presley scored his first number-one hit in more than seven years with Suspicious Minds.” It would be his last”–
- The Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey changes its name to Exxon Corp–
- Boston Bruins’ Ray Bourque signed a five-year, $12 million contract–
- The San Francisco Giants won the World Series. It was the first time the Giants won a World Series since relocating from New York to San Francisco at the close of the 1957 season.–
- The Houston Astros won the World Series (against the LA Dodgers) for the first time in the club’s history–
Weather
- A Hatteras hurricane battered the Union fleet attacking Carolina ports–
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