It was a special occasion, Fernando Valenzuela’s first appearance of the spring. Johnny Oates, the Baltimore manager, pulled Valenzuela aside and told him, “Tonight’s a freebie. I know you’re nervous. Just go out and get your feet on the ground.”
Second inning: Valenzuela opened with a walk to John Olerud. Darnell Coles doubled; runners at second and no outs. Valenzuela hit the next batter. Bases loaded, still no outs. Valenzuela then went to a three-ball, no-strike count on Pat Borders, batting cleanup for the Toronto Blue Jays. Borders was the Most Valuable Player in Toronto’s 1992 World Series victory over Atlanta.
Orioles’ broadcaster Jon Miller put a hand over his microphone, blocking out his audience. Talking about it later, Miller recalled he said to himself, “This is going to be humiliating. He (Valenzuela) is going to get killed.”
Borders struck out, swinging and missing a screwball. Next up, Domingo Cedeno, a minor league infielder, grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
It was a good-enough debut: two innings, no runs. Today, three weeks later, Valenzuela has worked 14 innings in five appearances, and still hasn’t allowed a run.
Valenzuela has been facing big league hitters for the first time in two years. He was the star of the Dodgers’ pitching staff for 10 full seasons, from 1981 through 1990, and among the most effective pitchers of his time.
He was the first to win the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season, 1981. A workhorse, he averaged more than 200 innings per year. The Dodgers released him, convinced his arm was dead. The California Angels picked him up and, after a brief test-seven innings, a 12.15 earned run average, concurred. Valenzuela returned to his native Mexico.
It is too early to predict if he will make a successful comeback. He sat out the rest of the `91 season but refused to hang it up. Playing in both Mexico’s summer and winter leagues, he worked an aggergate of 263 innings last season with a combined 19-13 won-loss record, 37 starts and 16 complete games.
In late February, after the Orioles had opened their spring camp, General Manager Roland Hemond called Oates into his office.
“Roland asked me if I would be interested in having Fernando in camp,” Oates recalled.
“I said, `Sure. Why not?’ “
Hemond signed Valenzuela to a minor-league contract with the understanding he would be given a $250,000 guaranteed salary, and an additional $750,000 in incentives if he made the club.
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Oates gave himself a pep talk.
“I said to myself, `John, you’ve got to forget the last time you saw him. You can’t make any pre-determinations.’ “
Oates hadn’t forgotten a 1991 spring training game, Valenzuela’s last appearance with the Dodgers. Oates was then the Orioles’ first-base coach.
“Every time I looked up there was a ball going over the wall,” Oates said. “We scored eight or nine runs in two innings.”
Today, Oates says, it has been a pleasure. Still, Oates hasn’t committed himself, and will go only as far as to say that Valenzuela is in competition for the No. 5 spot in the rotation with Mark Williamson and Tony Telford. The decision may not be made until the Orioles break camp.
Sam Mele, a former big-league manager who now scouts for the Red Sox, has seen Valenzuela pitch four times this spring.
“He looks excellent,” Mele said. “He’s throwing harder now than two years ago. His fastball is up to 85-87 (m.p.h.). That’s a big improvement. He still throws strikes, and when he needs the groundball, he throws the screwball. He doesn’t pitch like a guy who had a sore arm. There’s no hesitation.”
Mele is staying at the Orioles’ hotel. “Every night after dinner he’s in the lobby signing autographs. He seems very happy, very assured. He’s good for the game.”
Valenzuela insists he never had a sore arm. He also refuses to acknowledge he had lost some of the zip on his fastball. When the Dodgers released him he was throwing in the mid-70s.
“My arm never bothered me,” Valenzuela told reporters here last Saturday after he worked two scoreless innings against the Cardinals. “I just needed to pitch. I needed innings to get my arm in shape.”
Spring training is not the best time for long-range evaluations but Red Schoendienst, the veteran Cardinals coach and Hall of Famer, believes Valenzuela is for real.
“He never threw that hard anyway,” Schoendienst observed. “Sure, once in a while he’d have something extra on his fastball but his game was changing speeds and location. He’s always had good control. Up and down, in and out, but never down the middle. He’s one of the best two-strike pitchers I’ve seen.”
“We took a chance on (Rick) Sutcliffe last year,” said Hemond. “Everyone thought he was through.” Hemond smiled. “But he wasn’t, was he?”
Discarded by the Cubs, Sutcliffe won 16 games for the Orioles last season; he will work their April 5 opener against Texas. Mike Mussina, coming off a brilliant 18-5 season, is No. 2 behind Sutcliffe. Also in the Baltimore rotation are Ben McDonald and Arthur Rhodes, both capable of 15 victories. Greg Olson, 36 saves last season, is the closer.
If the Orioles win their division, or stay in contention, it will be because of their pitching. Cal Ripken Jr., the veteran shortstop, is their only big-name position player.
“We have a young team but we have a chance of being a good ball club,” said Oates. “We’ll be stronger in the second half. Our youth will improve with experience.”
And what about Valenzuela?
“I’m not saying he’s the old Fernando,” Oates observed, “but who is?”