At 30, Valenzuela Is Qualified for Angels

These once-in-a-lifetime opportunities keep beating the Angels over the head.

Bo Jackson last week.

Fernando Valenzuela today.

The Angels said no to Bo because he’s hurt--with the Angels, the career-ending injury usually happens after they sign the guy--but with Fernando, how can they possibly resist?

Valenzuela just turned 30. Finally, he’s old enough.

Valenzuela is a Latin Ballplayer. The Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays have been using them to win many games for many years, but the Angels just discovered them, which is why they’ve added Luis Polonia, Luis Sojo and Junior Felix in the past 10 months.

Valenzuela is a big name. That’s what wins in the real Freeway Series--Keeping Up With The Dodgers. After spotting the Dodgers Darryl Strawberry and Brett Butler early in the off-season, the Angels have rallied to tie with Gary Gaetti and Dave Parker. Add Fernando and the Angels win in extra innings.

Valenzuela sells tickets. What’s that ringing in the Angels’ ears? Three million in attendance, three million in attendance ...

Valenzuela is looking for a job as a No. 5 starter. And, look here, the Angels have an opening. Bert Blyleven is down and the Angels are down to asking Scott Lewis to pitch in for him.

Scott Lewis?

Are you kidding?

Scott Lewis is in his 20s.

It’s an obvious call. Fernando needs the Angels--it’s work, and it’s close to home--and the Angels need Fernando. Right now, we’re not sure who or what is directing Angel team policy--Rich Brown, Mike Port, Doug Rader or a 1982 Strat-O-Matic game they dug out of the attic. Dave Winfield. Dave Parker. Floyd Bannister. Gary Gaetti. Fernando Valenzuela? Come on down.

The Angels haven’t assembled a baseball team for the 1991 season; they’ve opened a time capsule.

The Angels are old, encrusted with the marquee names of yesteryear, banking everything once again on sending Gene Autry out into the golden sunset--and you know how they got there?

Fernando Valenzuela.

Since it’s the theme of the hour in Anaheim, let’s go back in time, to the outset of the 1980s. There, the Angels have finally taken a chunk out of the Dodgers’ pre-eminence over the L.A. basin. In 1979, the Dodgers stopped winning division titles and the Angels started. Jim Fregosi, Orange County’s favorite son, has returned the conquering hero, managing the Angels into their first American League playoff. Rod Carew, Don Baylor, Fred Lynn, Bobby Grich and Rick Burleson are on board.

The Southland is there for the taking.

The Dodgers wobble into 1981 and stumble over a round mound of a rookie who debuts with eight victories and five shutouts in his first eight starts. He wins games, 1-0, because he drives home the winning run. He packs Dodger Stadium every fifth day and turns the advance ticket window into a regular mob scene.

Fernandomania is on the air.

Back to the back seat, Angels. You know the way.

While Valenzuela was winning the National League Cy Young Award and the Dodgers the World Series in 1981, the Angels were finishing fifth. This was after a 65-95 season in 1980, the worst in franchise history.

The thunder above Chavez Ravine was deafening and the Angels tried to steal some back the only way they knew how.

They bought Reggie Jackson.

For the rest of the decade, the Angels were playing catch-up against the Dodgers, scrambling for a pennant of their own, a Fernando of their own.

In the pennant chase, they got as close as 1982 and 1986, expiring one victory short both times. In the Fernando race, they got as close as Mike Witt, who outpitched Valenzuela some years, although the rest of the country never knew it. Witt was unmarketable. He hated the limelight and hated the media even more. Dozens of writers made the journalistic pilgrimage to Valenzuela’s hometown in Mexico. Can anyone remember a single in-depth profile on Witt, published anywhere, at any time during his Angel career?

The Angels tried to make do with imports: Doug DeCinces, John Candelaria, Don Sutton, George Hendrick. For one celebrated summer, there was Wally World, a genuine buzz in the bleachers that dissipated as soon as the home runs did. From there, it was back to Rent-A-Star: Bill Buckner, Chili Davis, Mark Langston . . . and onto the recent splurge for Gaetti, Winfield and Parker.

Valenzuela helped get the Angels’ ball rolling in 1981 and now the ball has outlasted him. It is speeding along still--down, up and, as always, over the hill.

Most likely, it will roll on past Valenzuela, leaving him open to another team’s waiver claim, which, for the Angels, is just as well.

The man has already done his bit.