Rick Monday paid tribute to former teammate and fellow Dodgers broadcaster Fernando Valenzuela, who passed away at 63 of an undisclosed illness three days before the World Series.
For those not around or aware in 1981, when Valenzuela started 8-0 with a 0.50 ERA and triggered Fernandomania, it was bigger than even Shohei Ohtanimania or, really, anything baseball has seen.
“We knew it was coming, but it still doesn’t take away the emptiness of the fact that Fernando is not here. He meant so much,” Monday told The Post. “He brought together cultures, not only here in LA, but he brought cultures in other cities.”
Valenzuela — the only one to win Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young in the same season and one of just two non-Hall of Fame Dodgers to have his numbers retired (alongside Jim Gilliam) — excited the masses but always remained calm, Monday recalled.
“There were times he would take the mound and it was like he had lived that game before,” Monday said. “I never saw Fernando fluster on the mound. I saw him fluster on a golf course, but never the mound.”
Valenzuela looked like an Everyman. But he was built different, Monday said.
“To see him in public, where you see children look up to him and you see adults mesmerized meeting this young guy from a remote area in Mexico,” Monday said. “He had this presence that was royalty. He never looked at himself as royalty.
“He didn’t want to capture the attention. But everywhere he went, people looked up to him. And they were mesmerized by him.”