LOS ANGELES – Fernando Valenzuela died this week at age 63, just two days shy of the 43rd anniversary of one of his most productive games for the Los Angeles Dodgers – a 147-pitch victory over the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the 1981 World Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. He was 20 years old at the time.

The same two teams opened another World Series against each other in the same stadium on Friday night. The Dodgers won again, this time 6–3, thanks to Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning, the first in World Series history. It will be the 12th time the two clubs have met in the Fall Classic, but the first since 1981.

At that time, the manager controlled the number of pitches and Tommy Lasorda let Fernando go. No general manager or president of baseball operations would have told him no.

Today?

“The front offices would call the dugout or send security to the dugout or go to the mound and just remove him,” Rick Monday, who was in right field behind Valenzuela that day and now calls Dodger games on the radio, said in an interview. “Fernando was relentless.”

Lasorda, who had a penchant for burning out weapons, was a trailblazer.

“Well, because the guy on the mound was pretty lucky too,” Monday said. “Fernando, there were some games where he was like a kitten out there playing with a ball of yarn.”

When Valenzuela died on Tuesday after a long illness, it caused great emotion among his former teammates and broadcasting colleagues. On Friday, fans gathered near the Vince Scully Gate to the stadium parking lot and laid flowers and memorial items. Before the game there was a minute's silence and a short video. And former teammates Orel Hershiser and Steve Yeager placed a baseball near a representation of his number 34 on the back of the pitcher's mound instead of throwing out the first pitch before the World Series opener.

The press watched as his body deteriorated and he lost weight as the months went by. A very private person, he refused to tell anyone what was going on, including his close friend Jaime Jarrin, who served as his mentor and translator in 1981, when Valenzuela went on a virtually scoreless run – 8-0, a 0 ERA .50 and five – snapped shutouts – that became known as Fernandomania.

“He was a very proud man,” Monday said.

Valenzuela worked with 88-year-old Jarrin for the club's Spanish broadcasts for 20 years before he retired in 2022. Fernando started his job in September and went to the hospital. He never came out.

“He wasn’t doing well at all,” Monday said. “But that doesn’t diminish the feeling of emptiness we have. I mean, he brought cultures together, in our community here and across the country. It’s never easy to lose a friend.”

The Yanks had won the first two games of the 1981 World Series in New York and were on the verge of taking a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series when they trailed 4-3 after four innings in Game 3 took the lead. Fernando was ever-present during that first innings, ending up walking seven and striking out six.

The Dodgers came back to take a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the fifth as Venezuela settled down and pitched the final six scoreless innings to win. This is how the game ended. It was the only World Series game Fernando ever officiated.

“My lower back was stiff from going up and down on all those pitches in right field,” Monday recalled of playing behind Fernando in that legendary game. “He just never let up, never let up.”

The Dodgers won the three home games and returned to New York to win that series in six games.

Game 2 of the 2024 World Series begins Saturday at 8:08 p.m. at Dodger Stadium. Fernando is gone, but the memory of his achievements remains.