Many Major League Baseball (MLB) fans, especially Mexicans, may wonder why Fernando Valenzuela was never inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Valenzuela, who is an idol for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was not able to enjoy this milestone, even though at a statistical level he did meet the minimum requirements to be a candidate for the Hall of Fame.
The Mexican, in life, was able to enjoy six nominations to the All-Star Game, in addition to having been awarded Rookie of the Year and Cy Young in 1981. But his most important numbers came with the Dodgers.
Valenzuela had statistics to envy. 453 games (424 started), 173 wins, 153 losses, 3.54 ERA, 2,930 innings pitched and 2,074 strikeouts were enough numbers to put the Mexican’s name on the discussion table to enter the Hall of Fame, statistically speaking.
But for the MLB the numbers are not enough. One of the rules to enter this select group is that the player must have played at least 10 seasons (with active player status), a point that Valenzuela fulfilled, since he was with the Dodgers from 1981 to 1997. In addition, other points such as not to be part of the ‘Not Eligible’ list, which the Mexican also did.
However, Valenzuela was dropped from inclusion in 2003 and 2004 when he failed to pass the last filter. Be admitted by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee, by at least 75% of the votes.
The Bull of Etchohuaquila, as he was also nicknamed, managed to get 6.3% and 3.8% of the votes in 2003 and 2004 respectively, so he could not enter the list of the most emblematic players in the league.
Despite this important disappointment, for the Dodgers team, Valenzuela is a historic player, to the point of immortalizing his number 34 by retiring it so that no other player can use it.
It is worth noting that the Toro de Etchohuaquila did enter the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame on November 13, 2014.
