1983 Topps Fernando Valenzuela Breaks the Winter

And/or ushers it in, as the case may be

Note: I originally wrote and scheduled this post before Fernando passed away on October 22. His passing just makes the “winter” theme all the more, well, wintry. RIP to a baseball legend.

1983 Topps Fernando Valenzuela (#40) - Card of the Day

If you were ever looking for a reason to love baseball, and baseball cards, you should try being a kid stuck inside during the winter of 1982 and 1983 … and then pulling a 1983 Topps Fernando Valenzuela from one of the first wax packs of the spring.

Now, I know what you’re thinking — you don’t have a time machine handy.

Well, let me help you out with that one …

OK, so now, if you’ll allow a bit of personal projection …

You’re in your room after the school bus drops you off one afternoon, hunkering down with a stack of homework, when your mom reminds you she’s been to the store that day.

Or, maybe you just got home on a Saturday morning from another trip to the greasy auto shop with your dad to pick up another part for the family ride — a ‘76 Dodge pickup.

Either way, you’ve been out, or someone else has, and you’ve landed a pack of baseball cards as part of the deal.

Now, you’re still not sure you like baseball or baseball cards, but you’ve warmed up to the idea over the winter, for some reason. Your mom has been buying you cards — again, for some reason — for a couple of years, and maybe you’ve already had your first encounter with that 1983 Donruss Cesar Cedeno game-changer.

Whatever the case, it’s still cold outside in that way only early spring can be, the air cracking at you like a whip if you dare try to push the boundaries of summer, letting you know winter might yet have an encore or two in store.

But you have that wax pack, and it’s warm inside the house … and baseball cards are better than homework, no matter how you stack them.

So you tear open the waxy wrapper, slide that dusty, chalky, terrible, exquisite gum into your mouth, and thumb through the cards.

Names you don’t know — Gary Lavelle, Randy Martz, David Green.

Names that led their teams — Bill Laskey, Bo Diaz, Jerry Mumphrey.

Super Veterans, All-Stars, League Leaders, Record Breakers … and all of the cards looking somehow crisper than the others in your collection, from 1981 and 1982.

And then … Fernando!

You don’t know why Valenzuela is pitching next to a building or a bench or whatever is going on over there to his right. You won’t have a clue about bullpens and the like for a good couple of months yet.

And you can’t figure out how throwing to a batter while standing that close to the chain link fence behind him can work out well for anyone.

You have no idea, either, that Valenzuela is just 21 or 22 years old in that photo, and probably would have guessed 30 or 40 or 70 if someone had asked.

But Fernando, you already knew about. Knew he’d been some sort of phenomenon when the Dodgers won the World Series in 1981. Knew because the world has buzzed about him.

Knew because Dad had told you that Fernando was really something else, even though Dad was no baseball fan.

And more than all of that, the 1983 Topps Fernando makes you feel something.

Valenzuela is wearing long sleeves and stands half cast in shadows, and yet his barrel chest thrusts into the sunlight, carrying the “Dodgers” on his uniform with it. His tensed chin leads the march, and you think it might have actually morphed into a baseball itself — maybe it happened with every pitch.

Can a chin become a baseball, and then turn back to mere flesh?

And Fernando wears a blue glove on his right hand. That feels pretty special.

And then … your left arm tingles and you swear you can smell fresh-mown grass and you want, suddenly, nothing more than to throw a baseball. Or grip a bat. Or toe the dirt.

Fernando breaks out of winter’s darkness, and you are ready to follow him into the green cathedrals of summer.

And, as hard as it is to believe, Fernando would have turned 64 years old today.

The Mini Uniforms of Gary Matthews

Valenzuela made his big league debut as a reliever against the Braves on September 15, 1980. Fernando set down the first three batters in order in the bottom of the sixth inning before running into trouble in the seventh.

Glenn Hubbard was the first runner to reach base against him, courtesy of an error. Fernando balked facing the next hitter, Gary Matthews, to send Hubbard to second. Matthews then managed an infield single, the first hit ever against Valenzuela in the bigs.

A couple years later, Sarge was starring for the Phillies in the NLCS and then helped make the Cubs contenders in the middle of the decade. You can see him in his northside glory on a variety of 1985 Topps cards, including the little-remembered mini version.

Read all about that card, and more about Matthews, right here.

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Just a reminder that this entry wraps this “season” of my daily ramblings here in this space. You can probably expect it to be pretty quiet around here at least through November. We’ll see what happens after that.

The weekly Wax Pack Gods Newsletter will continue as always.

Until we meet again, thanks for reading.

—Adam

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