American League Wins a White-Knuckler, 3-2 : Just Like Hubbell, Fernando Has This ‘Screwy’ Screwball

“Hey, Fernando. Ever heard of Carl Hubbell?”

The same question kept coming and coming. Fernando Valenzuela kept wiping his brow. He had to do all this in English, too. Over and over. Several times, he’d stop and say to the interviewers: “I do not understand the question. Please, go slower.”

Finally, he said: “Carl Hubbell? Yeah, he struck out five in row in the 1934 All-Star game. It’s true. He’s a pretty tough pitcher. Good stuff. I know him.”

And now, Valenzuela ranks beside him.

Valenzuela struck out five in a row at Tuesday night’s All-Star game, tying a record that had endured through the years. Remember the Hub? Remember his nickname? It was “The Meal Ticket.” He ate batters up with a new, funky pitch called the screwball. Back in ’34 at the Polo Grounds, he struck out five straight guys most people have probably heard of, five Hall of Famers.

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin.

And Valenzuela matched him 52 years later, throwing that same funky screwball that has endured all the significant changes in baseball--night games, artificial turf, domes, the wave, etc.

The screwball--after all these years--is still screwy.

Here, in 1986, though, the names have changed. Fernando’s feat won’t be quite the same because perhaps only two of the five guys he struck out have shots at the Hall of Fame. The five were Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken, Jesse Barfield, Lou Whitaker and pitcher Ted Higuera.

It’s just not the same.

Even so, there were mobs of people around Valenzuela afterward. He was dressed in a plain gray suit to match his gray demeanor. He was not dancing around the room. He was dancing around questions.

“I did not try to punch out all these guys,” Valenzuela said. “Today, I was lucky. I do not understand all these questions, but what I want to say is I feel very happy. I know the American League has good hitters, and I know five in a row is good.”

They kept asking him: “Don’t you try for strikeouts?”

He said: “No, I always try to throw strikes.”

He was not nervous on the mound.

“Well, it’s my sixth (All-Star game), you know,” he said. “Before the game, yeah, I was excited. But I no have nerves when I go to the mound. When I’m on the mound, I concentrate on hitters and try to throw strikes.”

His National League teammates loved this. For years, they have been missing his pitches, and now they got to watch somebody else whiff.

“That was a lot of fun,” San Diego’s Tony Gwynn said. “See, he throws everything for a strike. He has a fastball, a curveball, a slider, a changeup, a screwball. And they’re all strikes. You hear so much about Fernando’s screwball, but it’s the other pitches. Did you see Mattingly? Every pitch he swung at was down. He looked awful! It looks like you can hit it, but, boom , the ball’s in the dirt.”

Tom Lasorda, Valenzuela’s manager with the Dodgers, was asked to explain why this happened.

“Fernando, he doesn’t throw a pitch down the middle,” Lasorda said. “Ask Murph.”

Atlanta’s Dale Murphy said: “Tommy’s right.”

Then, Lasorda said: “Fernando, he wouldn’t give his mother a pitch down the middle if she were hitting against him on Mother’s Day. He’s got those corners, boy.”

Valenzuela didn’t even start this game. He relieved starter Dwight Gooden after three innings.

Then, it went like this:

--MATTINGLY. He was the first hitter, and he admitted later that he muttered to himself: “Just my luck.”

He struck out swinging at a screwball.

“It was the second time I’ve batted against him,” Mattingly said. “I’d seen him in spring training. . . . His pitches keep tumbling (down). By the time you swing, you’re pulling away. If his pitches stay up, you almost have to leave it alone. You know it’ll fall.”

--RIPKEN. He struck out looking at a screwball.

“Fernando? Mexican guy, right? Left-hander, right?” Ripken said when asked if he remembered the K. “I’ve seen his screwball a couple of times in spring training. But this was a good screwball tonight. In spring training, his screwball wasn’t like that.”

--BARFIELD. He struck out looking on an inside fastball.

“I’d like to face him again,” he said.

--WHITAKER. Leading off the fifth, he struck out looking at an outside fastball.

He’d hit a home run off Gooden earlier in the night.

“That’s one tough left-handed pitcher, man,” he said. “You can’t hit ‘em all.”

--HIGUERA. A pitcher, he struck out swinging at an average, ordinary, slow fastball.

“I have gone seven years without holding a bat,” he said. “No practice. Fernando says, ‘For you, I throw right here.’ Three fastballs right there (he held his hands over his belt). I miss (he laughed). In Mexico, they have a DH. In winter ball, I don’t hit. No practice.”

--KIRBY PUCKETT. He ruined Valenzuela’s chance to break the record. He grounded out to short.

Someone congratulated him.

“For a groundout?” he said.

Then, he said: “It was a curveball. . . . I wasn’t thinking about it. I knew he struck out every one in that first inning, but, by that time, I was lost. This was my first All-Star game. I was zoned.”

And in that American League clubhouse, Ripken and Barfield agreed it might be best to buy a satellite dish.

“So we can study him for next year,” Barfield said.

STRIKEOUT COMPARISON

Fernando Valenzuela, Dodgers

1986 Don Mattingly, New York Yankees Cal Ripken, Baltimore Orioles Jesse Barfield, Toronto Blue Jays Lou Whitaker, Detroit Tigers Ted Higuera, Milwaukee Brewers Carl Hubbell, NY Giants

1934 Babe Ruth, New York Yankees Lou Gehrig, New York Yankees Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia A’s Al Simmons, Chicago White Sox Joe Cronin, Washington Senators