It wasn’t really all that wild
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Fernando Valenzuela passed away this past week at the age of 63. Were you alive at the time and having the memories fresh enough to bring them back, you know what “Fernandomania” was. People flocked to his starts with the Dodgers, whether they were home or on the road, and were rewarded by one of the greatest single season phenomenons to ever grace a baseball field.
Flash forward to 1994.
Valenzuela was a 33 year old lefty that “relies on control now that his velocity has diminished” 1 pitching in Mexico since he had rejected arbitration with the Orioles after a 1993 season that really wasn’t very good (31 GS, 178 2⁄3 IP, 4.