By Mauricio Sulaimán
President of the WBC – Son of José Sulaimán
Sad week for Mexican and world sports. One of the greatest baseball players in history, Fernando Valenzuela, has passed away. A great pitcher, a great human being who is now eternal.
Fernando Valenzuela finally rests in peace. These were days of great uncertainty with a lot of concern about fake news and no real information. We pray that God provides consolation and support for his wife Linda, Fernando Jr., and all the family and friends who are going through this difficult time.
Valenzuela achieved what very few do, becoming an idol and impressing a city, state, country, and world with his fabled performances. When Valenzuela pitched, Los Angeles paused, froze, and nothing else mattered. That was called, Fernandomania! Millions of people tell with melancholy, happiness, indelible memories and tears for what The Truly Great Valenzuela meant in their lives.
Even though the Major Leagues did not enthrone him in the Hall of Fame, he is, without doubt, as valuable or more so than any of those who are in Cooperstown for eternity.
Valenzuela had a great relationship with the Mexican sports community. The COMEDEP awarded him 1981 Athlete of the Year, and my father presented him with his trophy at Dodger Stadium.
Fernando spent many times with boxing champions, and his era will be remembered as that of the Three Kings: Valenzuela, Julio Cesar Chávez and Hugo Sánchez, the three greatest athletes in the history of Mexico.
One of the great days of Mexican sports was that November 15, 2017, when they were together for the first and only time. We had the great honor of organizing the Heroes of Mexico event, and that magical day they talked alone, and then enjoyed lunch and socialized with a very small group before being awarded at the Monument to the Heroes of Chapultepec.
Another unforgettable moment was sitting next to him at Campo Marte when we received the National Sports Award (November 20, 2020). Afterwards, we spent an unforgettable afternoon at my brother Hector’s house.
The baseball community has remembered and recognized Toro Valenzuela, and his magic was already present during the World Series in which the Dodgers faced their archrivals, the New York Yankees.
An inspired Dodgers team has taken the lead in the series by winning the first two games at home.
On the other hand, last Thursday we received a great surprise in the mail. A letter signed by the Holy Father Francis in which he thanks the WBC and the Sulaimán family for a donation that was made, after the promise made when we visited him in February of this year.
Pope Francis told us on that occasion that he was dismayed because he had a meeting with a group of children from Ukraine. When he approached them, he made jokes, and to his great surprise, none of them smiled. “What is happening is tragic, it is sad and it worries me enormously. These children have forgotten how to smile, I see the sadness and anguish on their little faces.”
On that occasion, he blessed the WBC Undisputed belt, which was at stake between the English monarch Tyson Fury and the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, and the latter gave Ukraine a glorious victory that they so needed.
The WBC, on behalf of all the boxers and promoters who have participated in fights of our organization, made a donation, which the Holy Father allocates to humanitarian aid for the victims.
The WBC is a non-profit organization, dedicated to regulating world boxing and making it safer for fighters, fair, and modernizing and breaking paradigms.
We are just a few days away from celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of the best fights in history, The Rumble in the Jungle. Muhammad Ali achieved the unthinkable, knocking out WBC world champion George Foreman in eight rounds in Zaire, in the heart of Africa, in a fight in which each won five million dollars!
That amount in 1974 was unthinkable, unimaginable, not even in dreams … but Don King did it.
On Friday, there was a great boxing card in Xochimilco. Brian Mercado got up from the canvas, when everything seemed to end in the very first round, to defeat his tough Chilean rival, Juan Velázquez. Latin KO and Silva Promotions put on a great event with the important participation of Mayor Circe Camacho, who believes in boxing and sport.
Did you know…?
Muhammad Ali won the world heavyweight championship three times. First, he knocked out the formidable Sonny Liston in 1964. He regained it by knocking out the super favorite Foreman in 1974, and finally he avenged his defeat against Leon Spinks, and regained it in 1977.
Today’s anecdote
Fernandomania was in the 80s, just when satellite dishes were coming to Mexico. My dad put a giant one on the house. Our roof at home looked like a TV station, because that way he could locate among the many satellites the fights that were happening in various countries around the world. It was quite a sensation, the great novelty, friends visited us daily to watch movies, programs, and events that at that time were inaccessible in any other way.
We children realized that Don José had arrived home when suddenly the signal of what we were watching would scramble and the satellite dish would start moving in search of what my father longed to find, the Dodgers’ games to see Valenzuela on the mound. My father managed to have a very special relationship with Fernando Valenzuela, admired him, and recognized him on every occasion that was possible. May God have Fernando “El Toro” Valenzuela in His Holy Glory.
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