April 9, 1981: Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela makes first start in historic rookie season

On April, 9, 1981 – 39 years ago today – at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, a cultural phenomenon began in Major League Baseball when a young Mexican left-handed pitcher named Fernando Valenzuela made the first big-league start of his career. He would throw a complete-game shutout of the Houston Astros (who were in the National League back then), allowing just five hits.

Rather amazingly, Valenzuela went nine innings in each of his eight outings and won them all. In that strike-shortened 1981 campaign, Valenzuela would finish 13.7 with a 2.48 ERA, leading the NL in games started (25), complete games (11), shutouts (eight), strikeouts (180 – first rookie to lead NL in Ks) and innings pitched (192.1).

Valenzuela became the first and still only pitcher in either league to win Rookie of the Year and Cy Young honors in the same season; Boston's Fred Lynn and Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki are the only two players who have been named Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same year.

Fernando even won a Silver Slugger Award in 1981 (he hit. 250, which is pretty darn good for a pitcher) and was fifth in the NL MVP voting. He was 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA in five postseason starts as the Dodgers went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series. Incidentally, the teams are co-favorites to win the 2020 Fall Classic at William Hill sportsbook, both price +300.

Valenzuela had a handful of other very good seasons – he actually debuted in 1980 but didn't start a game and pitched just 17.2 innings – but never one quite like 1981. On June 29, 1990, Valenzuela threw his only MLB no-hitter, beating St. Louis at Dodger Stadium. He last pitched in the majors in 1997 with the Padres and Cardinals. The Dodgers have honored Valenzuela with six bobbleheads over the years, and he became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 2015.