The historic impact Fernando Valenzuela made on the city of Los Angeles traces its roots to the 1950s, according to renounced sports commentator Roy Firestone.
After calling Brooklyn home for more than a half-century, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley got approval in 1957 to move the team to Los Angeles after failing to reach a deal to build a new ballpark in New York.
The following year, as the Dodgers began play at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, voters approved a measure to build a ballpark in Chavez Ravine, in L.A.’s Elysian Park neighborhood, which was primarily Hispanic at the time.
“Because of the fact that city wanted so badly for the Dodgers to have their own stadium, Elysian Park was cleared out of hundreds of Mexican American families,” Firestone told KNX News Radio on Wednesday. “People were just moved out – pushed out. Take it or leave it [eminent domain] deals. Their homes were destroyed. Their communities were destroyed to make way for Dodger Stadium.”
Construction on the ballpark began in earnest in 1959, and the Dodgers began playing in Chavez Ravine three years later. However, the displacement of the Elysian Park community left a mark.
“For years, because of that, there was a lot of hostility and resentment frankly from Mexican American families,” Firestone noted.
Fast forward to 1981, when a young pitcher from Navojoa, Mexico, changed everything.
Fernando Valenzuela’s rookie campaign for the Dodgers captivated the baseball world and galvanized L.A.’s Mexican American community. His stretch of seven complete games with five shutouts gave birth to “Fernandomania,” and Valenzuela would go on to win the National League’s Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards that year.
“For the first time, Mexican Americans and Hispanic Americans who weren’t necessarily big Dodgers fans because of what happened in Elysian Park suddenly became Dodger Fans,” recalled Firestone, who worked as a broadcaster in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 80s. “He broke barriers and built bridges, and I think he made Mexican Americans full of pride.”
Valenzuela, who became the Spanish language voice of the Dodgers after his playing career ended, died Tuesday at age 63 from an unspecified illness.
Today, Latinos comprise an estimated 40% to 50% of the Dodgers’ fan base, and Valenzuela jerseys are ubiquitous at every home game. The team officially retired his number 34 in 2023, breaking with its tradition of only retiring jerseys of baseball Hall of Famers.
Valenzuela’s impact, Firestone says, paved the way for future foreign players to captivate the Dodgers fan base in ways that were unimaginable 50 years ago.
“Before we had Hideo Nomo and, of course, later [Shohei] Ohtani, it was rare, frankly, for a non-White player to be viewed as a beloved figure in Dodger lore. That just was the fact. That was the time,” Firestone says. “You cannot put into words what this man meant.”
