00:00Well, let me let me go here then with with Clayton Kershaw here. Second best pitcher in Dodger history, you
00:07know, Newcomb, of course, Koufax, Drysdale and these guys, and also to Earl Hershizer. You know, you can even throw,
00:13you know, Fernando Valenzuela in that conversation as well.
00:17You know, as well. In your opinion, where do you put Kershaw behind Koufax? I do. I think I put
00:24him right behind Koufax has to be. You know, the thing is, Kershaw was able to pitch a lot longer,
00:28obviously, but just the the lore of Koufax as well and what he did when he was at his elite
00:35level before getting hurt is pretty unbelievable.
00:37You know, Fernando had a lot of cultural significance. You know, me growing up in L.A., you know, when
00:43the LAPD came by, they had L.A. Dodger cards and we just hope they had that Fernando card.
00:48All the kids would would be collecting those. So from a cultural thing, Fernando Valenzuela is pretty big.
00:53But overall, I think you've got to say Koufax and and Kershaw won two there in terms of, you know,
00:59Dodgers pitchers.
01:01You know, Tommy, not to get too political with you here, but I'll say this to you about Fernando Valenzuela,
01:06who passed away a year ago.
01:08I think he's the most important Los Angeles Dodger in the history of that franchise because of what happened with
01:14Chavez Ravine.
01:15When they went in there, they displaced all the Mexican Americans who lived there without Fernando Valenzuela.
01:21You don't really have a organization with really great fan base, with really the great Mexican fans that really turned
01:28around.
01:29It was him who brought the Mexican fans back to the Dodgers. Am I correct when I say that?
01:35A hundred percent. During that era, you know, you had guys like Pedro Guerrero and others, but Fernando really brought
01:41the Latino market in.
01:44You know, you have you have a guy named Jaime Jarin, which is the Vince Scully of Spanish speaking folks
01:50here in Southern California.
01:51And it was just a time where you had a lot of new fans come up.
01:55And Fernando was a very big part of that. The Latino community and obviously now the Latino community backs the
02:01Dodgers like like nobody else.
02:03So, yeah, it was a turning point that really was a game changer for the organization.
02:09I mean, I remember when I was little, the whole Fernando Valenzuela, there was no Internet then or anything like
02:14that.
02:14It was newspapers, magazines and TV. And he was all over the place in L.A.
02:18I'll make this point to you. You know, I mean, you look at Jackie Robinson's numbers.
02:23They're not they're not Hall of Fame numbers, but his significance in the sport was important.
02:30I think Fernando Valenzuela's importance in the sport is almost not to that level because he crossed the color line,
02:38obviously, in 47.
02:39But in your opinion, Fernando Valenzuela's importance could be Hall of Fame worthy, no?
02:45Oh, from the same from the same same standpoint, absolutely.
02:49Again, he brought a whole new set of fans and he broke barriers as well, just like Jackie Robinson did.
02:54So, you know, a generational player, not only statistically, I mean, Fernando, when you look at the whole body of
03:00work, you don't you know, you see, OK, it was a pretty solid MLB pitcher.
03:03But for that window, what he did on the field, which was incredible as a rookie, but also culturally what
03:09he did and what Jackie Robinson did, very important in the whole, you know, whether you want to call it
03:13pop culture or just the overall cultural aspect of baseball.
03:17Because I think baseball has that more than any other sport.
03:19I mean, you can argue maybe with Michael Jordan and some generational NFL players, but there's something about baseball that
03:25those things are amplified.
03:27And it was it was a great time to be a Dodgers fan back then, you know, beating the Yankees
03:32in 81.
03:33I remember as a young kid, it was it was a wonderful time.
03:36And Fernando Valenzuela was a huge part of that.
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