The Big Lead

Fernando Valenzuela dies: How broadcasting connected 'El Toro' to his audience

By J.P. Hoornstra

Oct 5, 2022; Los Angeles, California, USA; Retiring Spanish-language broadcaster Jaime Jarrin (center) talks with Pepe Yniguez (left) and Fernando Valenzuela (right) prior to the game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Valenzuela and Yniguez will be the Spanish broadcast team for SportsNet LA.
Oct 5, 2022; Los Angeles, California, USA; Retiring Spanish-language broadcaster Jaime Jarrin (center) talks with Pepe Yniguez (left) and Fernando Valenzuela (right) prior to the game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Valenzuela and Yniguez will be the Spanish broadcast team for SportsNet LA. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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Jorge Jarrín was engrossed in an important task Wednesday: scheduling interviews for his father, Jaime.

The elder Jarrín, who was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for his broadcasting career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, served as Fernando Valenzuela's interpreter during the pitcher's magical 1981 season. Valenzuela died Tuesday at 63.

The younger Jarrín had a direct role in Valenzuela's second career as a broadcaster. Valenzuela was six years removed from his final major league game, and 12 years removed from his time with the Dodgers, when he joined the Dodgers' Spanish-language broadcast team in 2003.

From 2000-04, Jarrín served as the Dodgers’ Manager of Radio Broadcast Sales and Hispanic Initiatives. In that capacity, he oversaw the team's Spanish-language radio broadcast, expanded its Spanish radio network, and consulted on Latino marketing initiatives.

Getting Valenzuela back into a visible role in the organization was a key initiative. For that, Jarrín credits former Dodgers Senior Vice President of Communications (currently the Arizona Diamondbacks' CEO), Derrick Hall.

"He wasn't going to be a roving instructor," Jarrín said of Valenzuela. "He's not that type of person. He wasn't going to be an advisor."

The radio booth it was. Easier said than done.

For more than a decade, Valenzuela was not going to be a Dodger at all. In his 2007 book with Bill Plaschke, former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda wrote about his criticism of Valenzuela at a grievance hearing in 1991, when he told an arbitrator that Valenzuela’s career was done.

Lasorda (via Plaschke) claimed he said this only out of loyalty to the organization. Valenzuela was embittered nonetheless, and Lasorda remained an influential, visible part of the organization after his time as manager ended in 1996.

Valenzuela needed to reconcile more than just his relationship with Lasorda and the Dodgers. He needed to reconcile his own personality with the duties of a baseball analyst.

"At first it was hard for him," Jarrín said. "Fernando, being a player for so long, said he wasn't comfortable criticizing another player. 'Who am I to criticize him? I know what I went through.' That was his biggest challenge. Later he got more comfortable.

"My dad hit on the idea of 'let me interview you through the game. Let me ask you questions.' That's the way they got him to be comfortable."

To the Dodgers' audience of Spanish-speaking listeners, this might seem like a minor hurdle. Valenzuela was the reason many became fans in the first place. Having El Toro on the broadcast meant much more than hearing him critique a player. His gentle, sparse commentary was a reminder to fans of their own history, intertwined with the story of the team as it played out in real time.

"Fernando could be Fernando," Jarrín said, "and that was it."

Valenzuela remained part of the Dodgers' Spanish-language broadcast team from 2003 until he stepped away in September to focus on his health.

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