June 29, 1990: Fernando Valenzuela predicts, then throws no-hitter for Dodgers

As predictions go, it doesn’t rival Joe Namath’s guarantee that his New York Jets would defeat Baltimore in Super Bowl III. In fact, it wasn’t even a guarantee.

Nonetheless, it was right on the money.

A half-hour or so before he was to face the St. Louis Cardinals on June 29, 1990, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela watched on television as former teammate Dave Stewart of Oakland completed a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays. According to Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, Valenzuela said, “That’s great. Now maybe we’ll see another no-hitter.”1

And they did.

Approximately three hours later, Valenzuela and a crowd of 38,583 saw Juan Samuel grab Pedro Guerrero’s groundball, step on second to put out runner Willie McGee and throw to first to beat Guerrero by a step and clinch the only no-hitter of Valenzuela’s career. It remains the only time since 1900 that two no-hitters have occurred on the same day.

And it’s doubtful that anyone, except perhaps the man himself, had seen it coming.

Since 1987, Valenzuela had not been the same pitcher as in his previous six full seasons, when he was an All-Star each year, won 97 games, including a 21-win campaign, and ignited “Fernandomania” by sweeping the Rookie of the Year, NL Cy Young, and Silver Slugger Awards in 1981, in addition to being named Major League Player of the Year by The Sporting News. He posted a 29-35 won-lost record from 1987 to 1989 and, after going 255 games without missing a start, was on the shelf for a good part of 1988 because of shoulder trouble.2

When Valenzuela started against the Cardinals on that June night in 1990, he owned a 5-6 record and a 4.09 earned-run average. In his previous start, against Cincinnati, he had allowed eight earned runs in 5⅓ innings.3 Announcers Joel Meyers and Ron Cey on the SportsChannel telecast of the game touched on this.

“The Dodgers, more than anything, are concerned about the lofty ERA,” Meyers said. “It’s been going up the last three or four weeks.” Cey, the former Dodgers third baseman, added that Valenzuela had been “very inconsistent,” adding, “In one game, he’ll pitch extremely well and follow up with not a good game.”4

On this night, he delivered the goods.

His teammates gave Valenzuela a quick lead in the first inning when Lenny Harris singled off St. Louis starter José DeLeón and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Hubie Brooks. The Dodgers added single runs in the fifth and sixth to lead 3-0. Harris singled and eventually scored on a squeeze bunt by Stan Javier for the fifth-inning run, and Brooks hit a solo home run in the sixth.

For his part, Valenzuela breezed through the first six innings – throwing 75 pitches and striking out five – with only Guerrero reaching base for the Cardinals on a dropped fly ball by left fielder Kirk Gibson in the first inning. There were no really close escapes, although Gibson did have to track down a hit into the left-center-field gap in the fourth.

Meyers told his TV audience that “Fernando is quietly walking into the fifth [inning] with a no-hitter.” Cey opined that he “must be taking a tip from former teammate Dave Stewart, who threw a no-hitter tonight in Toronto.” In the sixth inning, while talking in the booth with former Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine – himself the author of two no-hitters – Meyers remarked, “We [now] may be watching another great moment in Dodger history.”5

Valenzuela was doing it primarily with control and movement on his pitches.

Cey said, “Fernando has done an excellent job of getting in front of [the hitters on] just about every count. He hasn’t given the Cardinals any opportunity to get started. And [because his control had been good] he’s getting the calls on borderline strikes.”6

He wobbled a bit in the seventh, walking Guerrero and Todd Zeile with one out and bringing third baseman Terry Pendleton to the plate. Pendleton, Cey noted, represented the tying run and “can occasionally hit the ball out of the ballpark.”7 Pendleton indeed came close, lifting the ball to the warning track in left field, where Gibson made the catch for the second out. Guerrero moved to third base on the play, but José Oquendo, a career 10-for-31 against Valenzuela at that point, grounded out to Harris at third to end the inning.

Los Angeles added to its lead in the bottom of the seventh inning when Valenzuela and Harris singled and Gibson drove in both with a single for a 5-0 Dodgers advantage.

Later, Lasorda mentioned a joke he played on Valenzuela – “I yelled for [Mickey] Hatcher to pinch-hit for Fernando. You should have seen the look on Fernando’s face.”8

By this time, too, superstition was taking hold in Dodger Stadium.

“Usually by the last innings, we have cleared all the players’ workout clothes off their chairs, but we decided not to touch Fernando’s stuff,” said Dave Wright, assistant clubhouse manager. “And usually we turn off the clubhouse fan late in the game. But by the seventh inning, with the no-hitter still going, we decided to leave it going. Anything that might make a difference.”9

And public-address announcer Pete Arbogast was concerned, as well. When announcing a seat location for a prize giveaway prior to the eighth inning, he said, “That’s Row N, as in ‘no-no.’” A “no-no,” of course, means a no-hitter, and tradition holds that it’s bad luck to mention it while the game is still going. “I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” Arbogast said. “But I guess if they had gotten a hit, I would have lost my job.”10

But Valenzuela avoided the hex by retiring the Cardinals in order in the eighth, although there was a near-hiccup when pinch-hitter Craig Wilson drove an outside breaking pitch to left-center field that center fielder Javier had to run down on the warning track by the 385-foot sign.

“I was thinking, if a ball is hit to me, I’ve got to get a good jump on it,” Javier said. “Then when he hit it, I didn’t think, I just ran. And I … had it all the way.”11

The Dodgers then made it 6-0 on a home run by Samuel in the bottom of the inning and set up the climactic ninth.

“We all had goose bumps,” Dodgers pitcher Mike Morgan said. “We were all just watching and hoping and waiting to charge the field.”12

Valenzuela began by getting Vince Coleman with a borderline called strike on a 2-and-2 pitch, but he then walked McGee on four pitches to bring up Guerrero. With the count 0-and-2, Guerrero grounded back up the middle. Valenzuela ticked it with his glove, diverting it directly to Samuel standing by second base. Samuel simply touched the bag to get McGee and flipped to first to complete the game-ending double play.

“I was playing him to pull the ball, so I was right near second base and in a good position,” Samuel said. “I don’t know what happens if I’m not there.”13

“Do you think if I don’t touch that ball, it goes through for a single?” Valenzuela said afterward. “Whoooa. I think it does. I think [if] I don’t touch it, I’m in trouble. I was just glad to see [catcher Mike] Scioscia running to the mound. Only then did I know it was over. This is a great moment for me.”14

Valenzuela’s agent, Tony DeMarco – in the stands with Fernando’s sons Fernando Jr., 7, and Ricardo, 6 – said, “When it finally happened, I sat there crying like a stupid baby.” And, he said, “[T]he boys were jumping up and down screaming, ‘My pappy! My pappy!’”15

It was a last hurrah for Valenzuela as a Dodger. In what was his last season with Los Angeles, he finished 13-13 with a 4.59 ERA and led the National League with 104 earned runs allowed. He moved to the California Angels in 1991 and followed that with stops in the Mexican League, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Diego before finishing with five appearances for St. Louis in 1997. His only really successful season during that stretch was 1996, when he was 13-8 with a 3.62 earned-run mark for the Padres.

But this one night was a shining moment. As his teammates swarmed Valenzuela, legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully told his listeners, “If you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky!”16

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN199006290.shtml

Notes

1 Bill Plaschke, “The Night of Two No-Hitters: Fernando Pitches One for the First Time as He Stymies Cardinals, 6-0,” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 1990: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-30-sp-434-story.html.

2 Tom Callahan, “Valenzuela Toils On in Serene Obscurity,” Washington Post, July 9, 1990: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-09-sp-111-story.html\.

3 Mark Langill, “OTD: A Tale of Two No-Hitters,” Dodger Insider, June 29, 1990: https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/otd-a-tale-of-two-no-hitters-98ad5de9bc93.

4 Telecast of Game, SportsChannel, June 29, 1990: https://www.mlb.com/news/fernando-valenzuela-no-hitter-mlb-network.

5 Telecast of Game, SportsChannel, June 29, 1990.

6 Telecast of Game, SportsChannel, June 29, 1990. The home-plate umpire was Jerry Layne.

7 Telecast of Game, SportsChannel, June 29, 1990.

8 Bill Plaschke, “His Feat Is No-No Big Deal to Valenzuela: Day After Dodger Gets a Call from A’s Stewart, but only Talks for a Minute. He Wants to Get On with Daily Routine,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1990. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-01-sp-1087-story.html.

9 “His Feat Is No-No Big Deal to Valenzuela.”

10 “His Feat Is No-No Big Deal to Valenzuela.”

11 “His Feat Is No-No Big Deal to Valenzuela.”

12 Plaschke, “The Night of Two No-Hitters: Fernando Pitches One for the First Time as He Stymies Cardinals, 6-0.”

13 Plaschke, “His Feat Is No-No Big Deal to Valenzuela.”

14 “His Feat Is No-No Big Deal to Valenzuela.”

15 “His Feat Is No-No Big Deal to Valenzuela.”

16 Ken Gurnick, “Rewatch Fernando Valenzuela’s 1990 No-Hitter,” MLB.com May 28, 2020: https://www.mlb.com/news/fernando-valenzuela-no-hitter-mlb-network.