The 2024 World Series begins Friday night, with many of baseball's biggest stars slated to face off in a Fall Classic that pits two iconic franchises against each other: the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The series will begin in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium, with the home team donning black patches on their jerseys in honor of the late pitcher, Fernando Valenzuela.
The circular patches, which read "Fernando 34" on them, are on all Dodgers jerseys for the World Series and all of the 2025 season in honor of Valenzuela, who died of liver cancer Tuesday at the age of 63.
Valenzuela is the lone Dodger to have his number retired by the franchise without also being a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and with good reason.
Debuting in September 1980 at the age of 19, Valenzuela took the league and Los Angeles region by storm in 1981, posting a 13-7 record with a 2.48 ERA across 25 starts in a tantalizing rookie campaign that included eight complete game shutouts.
Valenzuela went on to win both the NL Cy Young Award and NL Rookie of the Year award before leading the Dodgers to a World Series championship, against none other than the Yankees.
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Coined "Fernandomania," Valenzuela's sudden emergence as one of baseball's elite pitchers ignited unforeseen excitement among fans in Southern California and throughout Latin America.
Born in Mexico, Valenzuela emerged as one of the first MLB stars from the country, proving to be incredibly influential to baseball's popularity growth in the region.
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Though Valenzuela played for six teams throughout his career, 11 of his 17 MLB seasons were with the Dodgers.
As of the end of the 2024 season, Valenzuela ranks among the franchise's all-time top 10 rankings in several different statistical categories, including wins, innings pitched, strikeouts and complete game shutouts.
