What made Fernando Valenzuela's screwball so unhittable | Fernandomania @ 40 Ep. 7

[@bengolfs1]

It would have been nice to see some actual clips of Fernando throwing the screwball.

[@bullfrogger1208]

I saw him pitch a few times and that screw ball didn't look that impressive. In fact, it didn't move much. He reminded me of Greg Maddux in that he had no over powering pitch but good command of what he had. As a hitter, you could look at both and think you are going to have your way. Right up until you go 0 for 5 and look like a rookie doing it.

[@-maccabee]

nah, id rather listen to 20 drugged out californians tell me about how his pitch united us all as one with the universe... rofl

[@ALCRAN2010]

MLB copyright strikes . Lmao 😂

[@saints3824]

Bir there are videos of other players doing dumb shit​@ALCRAN2010

[@Public_Toilet_Troll_2025]

@@-maccabee Excellent analysis and humorous sarcasm.

[@dangrimes5078]

I'm 65 and I remember what a fun time it was when Fernando was playing.

[@Glostahdude]

I’m 47….. I grew up watching Fernando as well! He was my favorite pitcher growing up!! I grew up in Boston area…. We had Rocket Roger but Fernando was King in my book!

[@Carnivorous_edc]

Fernando to me was a hero for us growing up in East LA as a kid.Thinking back on him, he brings a lot of great memories. He is a timeless classic. RIP.

[@Jeff-kz5kl]

That was a cool video. The only thing it was missing was showing him throwing the pitch. You told us about how amazing and unique his windup and screwball were but never once showed either.

[@mjr4314]

If you cannot get the MLB rights to his pitches, then what is the point? Everyone wants to be Ken Burns, but few are...

[@rrth556]

Thank you

[@svetcovladich9996]

Exactly. And worst all, we couldn't get the full effect of how he threw the scroogie because these guys demonstrating were all RIGHTHANDERS. LAME.

[@ivanherrera3857]

Put him in the Hall of Fame already!

[@flamingfrancis]

Though I am an Aussie I am a great admirer of Fernando. What he achieved in the game and for his people was tremendous. The release action of rolling the ball out of the back of the hand is something we see in the sport of cricket. It is done by a specialist bowler, what we call a leg spin bowler and like Fernando there are not many that are gifted to perform the skill. One of the greatest leg spinners was Shane Warne and you can find videos on YT where he describes the various actions of his skills. Thank you Fernando.

[@anthonyriche552]

Fernando was one of my favorite players growing up and I would look at the box scores in the papers to see if he'd won the game the night before. I remember him winning a lot more than not. What a great pitcher and an even greater character. He did a lot for the game of baseball at that time, especially for the Spanish and more specifically, the Mexican communities.

[@rickrobitaille8809]

Me to..nice🇨🇦😎

[@vikingjerome2438]

Fernandomania till this day!💙

[@TrunkDaPhunk]

Fernando is the reason why I got into baseball. When I was 7 years old Fernandomania was very much alive.

[@YUMMYB823]

Love this series, such an important part of baseball history

[@miguelzambrano2260]

Not only baseball.

[@joejordan1259]

It was more about nationalism in Los Angeles that about baseball.

[@teresafernandez9849]

@@miguelzambrano2260 YOUR SO RIGHT BOUT THAT! The Mexicans were upset for a long time bc of the Mexican families they kicked out of Chavez Ravine to build the stadium, for years! It was Fernando who got us to pack the stadium. I hate what the Dodgers did to Fernando! They used and abused him. Bc of the way they used him for games, he doesn't qualify for the baseball Hall of Fame! If he was a white or black super star, they would have made sure he qualified!! They were cold when they let him go!! When Fernando is gonna be at the old timers game, it's packed with the Mexican community! He still draws a crowd. Fernando will always be one of our most beloved heroes!! He was finally convinced, I think, by Jaime Jarring, to be a Spanish speaking broadcaster for the Dodgers, glad he did, bc he still keeping us close to the Dodgers.

[@coachleif]

I love that the coaches were able to instill in him the value of development over winning in the immediate. Because he took the harder road, he was able to reach greater heights, and it all started with using his time in AA to develop his pitch instead of trying to win games in AA. Special athletes make these types of adjustments and see big picture, lover Fernando and the Dodgers coaching staff at the time for seeing this!

[@ceretomer5987]

No video of Fernando actually pitching? Strange. That would have shown the pitches you talked about.

[@longlakeshore]

Another great screwball pitcher the Dodgers had was reliever Mike Marshall. He was only in LA for two years but won the Cy Young in 1974 and was an All-Star in both 74 & 75. He passed away in May at age 78. RIP Iron Mike.

[@hawaiianpunch5432]

Before Marshall, there was Jim Brewer who also threw the screwball and was the Dodger closer in the late 60's through the early 70's.

[@jasona9]

Fernando had the best screwball I've ever seen! Bill 'Soup' Campbell the Twins/Red Sox All Star reliver also had a quality screwball.

[@trenauldo]

How is Fernando not in Cooperstown at this point? If anyone’s earned their spot, surely he has. The man was amazing to watch and a nightmare for batters.

[@jjuanmarin]

experts say his numbers where not that great but i am with you he was a disrupter of the game bese ball benefited from fernando not only at home but on away homes the stadiums of those teams dodgers visited would see sold out games today people go to see the dodgers back then they went to see fernando

[@ernestcortes1392]

I second your motion!! NL Rookie of the year, Cy Young Award, and Silver Slugger. In 81 had an eight game winning streak, and Led the league in K's. Beast. HOF FOR SURE!

[@ArturoZamora-s4h]

R​@@ernestcortes1392RACISM !!! There's inductee pitchers with horrible stats, the difference they're white !!!

[@PeterTea]

My first baseball glove was a Fernando Valenzuela glove when I was a kid. Although, I didn’t realize at the time that pitchers had smaller gloves.

[@ronsenzel9056]

I threw that same screwball pitch, not realizing until this video that it was just like Fernando's but my elbow couldn't take the stress. To me, it's an amazing feat that his arm and especially his elbow could survive the screwball that he threw for as long as it did.

[@poolside16190]

RIP Fernando. This World Series is for you.

[@johnfay8931]

Fernando was/is one of the best stories in baseball history.

[@elhoob]

RIP El Toro, I just sleeved up some of your cards today and had no idea you had left us.

[@seejeh4060]

Antonio Villagairosa lol how did you guys misspell that ?

[@floydian022]

Oooh, story time! When I was a young kid(5/6), my parents signed me up for tee ball. I wanted nothing to do with it(or any other sports). Fast forward several years, and ~14yo me decides that he's really interested in baseball now and wants to learn how to pitch. I was sort of a physics nerd, so I kind of inherently understood the concepts behind grip and spin - and I happened to have a best friend who was already an actual pitcher on his little league team(which his dad coached). I knew I didn't(and, based mostly on my size/frame/arm length, wasn't ever going to have) the kind of velocity to be able to blow people away with straight heat. So I spent the next two or three years with him(and/or every other friend I could talk into going out to a field and squatting behind a plate for me for an hour or two lol), working on a two-seamer/sinker, a slider/slurvy-looking thing and an OLD SCHOOL FERNANDO-STYLE SCREWBALL. Not even so much because I idolized Fernando(again, I wasn't even particularly into baseball at all during his prime years), but basically because I wanted something that would be similar to but inversely mirror my slider/slurve thing and that _nobody_ was using anymore. Once I could throw it with decent consistently, it was my go-to breaking pitch for as long as I played(which, admittedly, didn't last past my freshman year of college). I still hold firm to the belief that it worked as well as it did for me not because I was so good at throwing it, but only because of the sheer obscurity of it which simply caught batters(who were basically NEVER expecting it) off guard. There's not exactly a whole lot of scouting happening at those levels, you know? Little leaguers(and even high-schoolers) just weren't throwing that pitch. All of that said, there's a very good reason why they don't. This pitch is SO brutal on your elbow/shoulder(and forearm/wrist, albeit usually to a lesser extent). The human arm just isn't really meant to go that way(or at least not with such torque behind it). I regularly struggled with elbow tendonitis even - if not especially - back while I was first learning and repeatedly/consecutively throwing it. And it's not like I was oblivious going in; like I said, I was kind of a science/physics nerd, so it wasn't at all surprising or unexpected that such an abnormal sort of strain was going to inevitably going to come with some drawbacks. Holy crap, did I nonetheless underestimate them, or just how much pain/chronic discomfort it would lead to(particularly after any instance where I'd fail to throw it "correctly" and end up over-pronating too far). Even if I'd had remotely near enough overall talent to continue playing(spoiler alert: I definitely didn't), there was no way I was going to be able to continue throwing that pitch for much longer and was 100% going to have to try and develop something else to replace it. Even now, I'm a middle-aged dude with chronic neck/shoulder/arm issues, almost exclusively on my throwing side(and literally just had yet another round of corticosteroid injections administered earlier today lol). I absolutely can't even fathom the level of self-induced torture this guy put himself through(even despite what was probably a nice, steady regiment of horse-caliber painkillers) in order to be able to rely on it SO heavily for _seventeen years_(and SO effectively for most of them).

[@RC-qf3mp]

In tennis, there’s a similar kind of serve (goes by different names) that spins in a completely different way from either kick or slice. Totally confounding as a returner. I played with one Filipino guy who was expert at it and would only save that serve for big points so that I could never get comfortable with it. Knowing that serve could come at any moment was also psychological warfare.

[@scottrayburn5563]

Loved this Dude. What a great man.

[@josecarvajal2905]

Indudablemente es el mejor beisbolista Mexicano que ha estado en grandes ligas 🇲🇽⚾️🇲🇽⚾️🇲🇽⚾️

[@louismcdermott5350]

Epitome of greatness!

[@isabelmunive1833]

Mi amor platónico. Ya es hora de que DISH tenga canales de beisbol. LMB, LMB Y LIGA INVERNAL. 302 y 303.

[@nuqwestr]

"Found The Release Point", we should all work so hard to find it, too.

[@craigclemens986]

I attended his first appearance in relief at Dodger stadium, as well as his no-hitter.

[@randyjames693]

No one throws the Screwball because it normally wrecks your elbow. Fernando was just Magical back in '81 ....back when people actually ♥️ L.A.

[@gargantuaism]

Some people think Tom Seaver should have won the Cy Young Award in 1981 because he was 14-2 and Fernando was 13-7 but that is absurd. Fernando had a hundred more strike outs than Seaver that year and Seaver had ONE shutout and Fernando had EIGHT. Good lord in Fernando's first SEVEN starts as a rookie he was 7-0 with FIVE shutouts. Absolutely phenomenal.

[@mariopantoja8259]

Got sharp pains in my elbow wrist and shoulder seeing these guys explain how Valenzuela threw that screwball.

[@robertschlesinger1342]

Amazing Fernando!

[@deniscortes9200]

Thanks for the memories, Fernando.

[@terrim9323]

Still have my Fernando T-shirt.

[@radar0412]

Because Fernando's first contract with the Dodgers was for only $42,500, the very first word in English Fernando learned was "Renegotiate." 🤣🤣

[@amybethhurst]

New drinking game: Take a sip every time he says "literally."

[@MarcosElMalo2]

There should be a lotería card for Fernando: El Lancero.

[@solar2k6]

Still have his jersey 🤗

[@encinobalboa]

LA Times dropped the ball. Video should have given Fernando a lot more camera time. Lara is worthy speaker. They rest us fluff. And where is Vin? Where is game footage of Fernando pitching? And what about Fernando mania?

[@MountainStreamLives]

The screwball the Hubbell threw was the same as FV’s. It was a backward curve rather than slider.

[@miguelzambrano2260]

How many baseball experts trying to disect Fernando’s style?

[@gregsheldon2351]

Tom Dill made the whole video worth watching.

[@rickrobitaille8809]

Special times special man🇨🇦

[@jameshudson169]

i remember seeing fernando doing pregame warm ups for the orioles at yankee stadium.

[@jlg395]

So no footage? Crazy.

[@joeoner6886]

Love the intro song 💯🇲🇽🤙🏽👍🏽😎

[@crispincash]

Go Dukes ! Best baseball summer of my life

[@eduardohache5559]

A greatest men and basesball Star

[@aids2099]

Name of the song at the beginning please.

[@-apple-4848]

いい動画だなぁ・・・

[@marcmarc4776]

6 min video that doesn't show Valenzuela throw one pitch.

[@robbynines2445]

my whole ball playing life i never understood how a pitcher could throw a screwball with any kind of speed and make it work without breaking his arm. then 1 day when I was 23 I played long toss with my boy after smoking weed and I somehow understood how he did it all at once. I was throwing nastyyyy screwballs at like 70mph(fastball never was higher than 86-87) . I was the master of the universe. I was Greg Maddux. Anyway I've never been able to replicate the success since. so the moral of the story is don't smoke and throw unless you have a high quality camera filming you

[@RoseMarieCampos-hq3en]

God Bless you Sir!!!

[@tsmumbles]

How about a few words from hitters he faced?

[@jeffhartwig5283]

Condolences to “El Toro’s” family, he left us too early ✝️

[@anthonyvalerio6665]

Love that y’all got willie g to interview lol

[@bluedog101c]

happy B day. We had a parade through LA for you..

[@therowen]

He was looking at Jesus 🎉

[@immemeisi420]

A nod to the gods

[@joedapro555]

Legend

[@UnlimitedK9]

RIP to a legend

[@marcusanderson933]

Fernando was so dominant in his early years of his career. He made some of the best hitters look foolish! ⚾️

[@oatechaosincycles]

Does any video of him pitching exist?? Sarcasm

[@Ken_Weber_organist]

Here is an analogy with another sport: BOWLING. If a pitcher can effectively throw a screwball, why can't a professional bowler perfect a BACK-UP bowl to throw strikes??? They are the same, they are REVERSE CURVES. They are also very UNnatural for the human arm to throw.

[@jesuspenaalzua978]

Sub titulalo en español ; xfa.

[@LaughingWolf18]

Well by looking at that thumbnail, Fernando looking up probably put some mojo in those pitches, he be looking hella funny 😅🤣😂, no disrespect to Fernando, REST IN PEACE 🙏

[@jfmac71]

I love Fernando Valenzuela

[@reneangulotrujillo1]

viva L.A. raza cosmica!

[@DMonge581]

descanse en paz, La Leyenda 😔

[@ageofthoughts]

No video of these pitches and interviews with… playwrites and filmmakers?

[@100chuckjones]

When your too cheap to pay for the rights for some video footage. You paper makes millions, splurge on some video clips of this mans awesome pitching technique.

[@davey70dave]

R.I.P.

[@surferpam1]

Bitchen getting Little Willie G. But even *more* suave hearing Fernando in his own words -- en English

[@Sagiterrian77]

😮And a good hitter.

[@stevesandoval4918]

LIVE! BREATHE! BLUE! 🌎✌️🔀⚾

[@Dodgers4Life7]

RIP 🙏

[@joejordan1259]

There have been a handful of great Dodger players in Los Angeles but fernandomania was more than a baseball thing it was National Heritage pride thing of the people who lived in Los Angeles who at that time we're becoming the main population of the city of Los Angeles it was kind of like he's one of us that's what made him so famous his nationality more than his ability don't get me wrong he was an outstanding picture for about four years after that he became very mediocre.

[@humbertoderobles-se3kj]

West Coast till the casket drop

[@hectororozco514]

Hall of famer not in the hall of fame

[@brutesquadbbq2268]

Everyone knows it was breathing thru his eyelids that made his unhittable

[@az-bx3rk]

And yet not a movie.

[@affiliatedivision2782]

Well it looks like he’s possessed in the thumbnail. He probably got help from a demon throwing that.

[@KevinLe-k9r]

RIP El Torro!!!

[@joeswampdawghenry]

My wife has a similar screw release

[@strada21_]

Rip 🙏🏼

[@cadeanglin4238]

RIP king!

[@seaTiger51]

RIP Toro 🙏

[@todd.goslin6190]

That's more how Mike Marshall threw a screwball. I think Fernando had more side spin.

[@1peruvianguy]

RIP 💙🙏🤍

[@steftrando]

It took until 3:47 to actually get a screwball demo.

[@snakefinger]

LOOK AT ANTONIO ! I’M GRABBING MY BONG. I’LL BE RIGHT OVER ! 💨💨💨💨💨💨💨

[@Buddha_Approved]

Same reason the Mets loved him

[@BrittneyCooper-yb3td]

RIP Fernando. Thx for the great memories. P.S I will never buy a L.A Times newspaper again for not endorsing Kamala Harris.😡

[@megamondragonify]

Y de seguro era un ejemplo para la juventud ya dejenlo en paz. Fue lo que fue ya no quiera hacerlo bueno o malo fue benito y luego se junto con pendejos y Le gusto ser hasi ni modo

[@tpsin713]

He tried to lose weight and fit in the la scene. Lost his mojo going skinny man!!! lol

[@fernandocadena2625]

Sherman oaks ain't even in los Angeles they'll travel over 2 hours to Sherman oaks instead of driving down the street to LA high or manual arts or even usc is down the street

[@bombcheeto4153]

RIP

[@krunchykarrot6537]

The curveball is still coming out the same way dude lmao You just turned your hand in a way that made you confuse yourself.

[@TerryRosariojr]

I always thought he was looking up to God trying to get God's attention. Like he was looking towards heaven for strength. He is one of a kind. God made someone special.