Sorry to get a little weepy on this one, boys, but Fernando's passing this week drummed up some s**t. Back to football picks and other such stuff another time. But first... What Fernando Valenzuela Meant To Me - Sports Chump
That was a great read, Chump. Thanks. As I said in the Mariners thread, Fernando was an icon in Mexico. Alongside Hugo Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez, they were the holy trinity of Mexican sports. The 80s were rough in our country. The economy tanked (several times during the decade, in fact), people struggled a lot...that included my parents. I wasn't even born yet in 1981 (I was an embryo by october) but my dad told me the stories of Fernando and his whitchcraft screwball making hitters looke like fools. Then I saw a tweet by the Cooperstown Hall of Fame and some people got mad he never made it. Apparently his 10 years in the ballot were up and he was never voted in. That needs to be fixed and it sucks that he had to die for people to realize. His stats are borderline but that's only because he had a 6-year prime and then was average the rest of his career. But what he did outside the field for the latino community is comparable only to Roberto Clemente. They must do the right thing.
Agreed, Teej. If Yao Ming is in the NBA's Hall of Fame for what he did expand the game in his native country, Fernando without question deserves to be in Cooperstown.
