Fernando Valenzuela

As he did 30 years ago, Fernando Valenzuela will take the mound at Dodger Stadium on opening day. From the very place he started a phenomenon that radically altered the country's cultural and sporting landscape, Valenzuela will throw the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodgers face the San Francisco Giants on Thursday. Fernandomania will return to Los Angeles -- but with a notable difference. When he winds up to throw the ball, Valenzuela won't look skyward the way he used to. "I can't do it if I think about it. I would fall down, especially if I'm wearing street shoes," he said, laughing.

Every season, Andre Ethier seems to be bothered by something different. His thumb. His knee. His toe. His ankle. But not this season. "I think this is the healthiest I've been in four, five years and the best I've felt every day," the Dodgers outfielder said. "Something's not adding up. " Ethier began Saturday batting .235 with three home runs and 10 runs batted in. Laughing, Ethier recalled how the team's medical services director, Stan Conte , jokingly told him, "Maybe we should slam a hammer on your toe or something and ding you up. " The left-handed-hitting Ethier has historically hit right-handers far better than he has left-handers.

Fernandomania was an original. All individual sports manias were borne from the knee of Fernando Valenzuela. Valenzuela, of course, was not just a remarkable sensation for the Dodgers, but a huge favorite back in his native Mexico. He played in the Mexican winter leagues dating to the late '70s. And now he's going to be honored there. On Sunday, Valenzuela will be inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Hermosillo, Mexico, at the Universidad Sonora.

We recently asked you to list your choices for the 10 greatest Dodgers of all time, and vote you did, as we received an amazing 12,231 ballots. So many people voted that we have decided to expand the list from the top 10 to the top 20. Each weekday at 11 a.m. PDT, a new player will be listed as we count down all 20. Remember, any Dodger, Brooklyn or L.A., was eligible, including managers, owners, announcers, etc. Points were assigned based on where you listed the person on the ballot.

We recently asked you to list your choices for the 10 greatest Dodgers of all time, and vote you did, as we received an amazing 12,231 ballots. So many people voted that we have decided to expand the list from the top 10 to the top 20. Each weekday at 11 a.m. PDT, a new player will be listed as we count down all 20. Remember, any Dodger, Brooklyn or L.A., was eligible, including managers, owners, announcers, etc. Points were assigned based on where you listed the person on the ballot.

It was already dark at Hollywood Park. Saturday's ninth race had been run and the crowd was drifting away into the night. Few fans paid much attention to the scene in the winner's circle. There, Fernando Valenzuela paused briefly for the traditional photo, jumped down from his filly and shook hands with Charlie Whittingham.

Daloma took the lead approaching the top of the stretch Wednesday and went on to win the $83,300 Monrovia Handicap by 1 1/2 lengths over Valdemosa before a crowd of 17,250 at Santa Anita. Daloma, ridden by Fernando Valenzuela and carrying 117 pounds, covered 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:16 1/5 and paid $8.60, $4.80 and $3.20. The victory was the fourth for Daloma in 25 lifetime starts and was worth $49,550, raising the 5-year-old mare's career earnings to $233,756.

Fernando Valenzuela was uncharacteristically nervous and unmistakably elated to be back in the major leagues Thursday night during his exhibition debut with the Baltimore Orioles. Making his first appearance in a major league uniform since 1991, Valenzuela pitched two scoreless innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. He worked his way out of a bases-loaded, no-outs situation in his final inning to put an exclamation point on his first step toward a return to the big leagues.

Fernando Valenzuela, released by the Dodgers in March, signed a one-year contract with the Angels on Monday and will start in a Class-A California League game at Palm Springs Wednesday. Under the terms of the contract, the 30-year-old left-hander will make a specified number of minor-league starts--probably three--before joining the Angels, whose five-man rotation already left-handers Mark Langston, Jim Abbott and Chuck Finley.

He's a solitary figure, and that's just the way he likes it, sitting alone in the uppermost row of seats behind first base at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. His view is unobstructed, the teasing lights of the Strip glimmering in the distance while his pride and joy takes his place on the field, until the waves of autograph seekers begin to crash his solitude between innings. "Are you Fernando's dad?" a youngster asks.

Fernandomania was an original. All individual sports manias were borne from the knee of Fernando Valenzuela. Valenzuela, of course, was not just a remarkable sensation for the Dodgers, but a huge favorite back in his native Mexico. He played in the Mexican winter leagues dating to the late '70s. And now he's going to be honored there. On Sunday, Valenzuela will be inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Hermosillo, Mexico, at the Universidad Sonora.

Adrian Gonzalez fell a warning track short of producing his second magical moment in as many days with the Dodgers. With the bases loaded and the Dodgers down by two runs in the eighth inning, Gonzalez hit a towering fly ball that went back, back, back . . . and was caught at the edge of the outfield grass by right fielder Giancarlo Stanton. "It would have been great, absolutely," Gonzalez said. The Dodgers lost to the Miami Marlins on Sunday, 6-2, but Gonzalez looked back at his first two games at Dodger Stadium as a home player with warm feelings.

As he did 30 years ago, Fernando Valenzuela will take the mound at Dodger Stadium on opening day. From the very place he started a phenomenon that radically altered the country's cultural and sporting landscape, Valenzuela will throw the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodgers face the San Francisco Giants on Thursday. Fernandomania will return to Los Angeles -- but with a notable difference. When he winds up to throw the ball, Valenzuela won't look skyward the way he used to. "I can't do it if I think about it. I would fall down, especially if I'm wearing street shoes," he said, laughing.

One of the most pivotal at-bats in Dodgers history also ranks among the least known. Had it never happened, Fernando Valenzuela might never have pitched for the Dodgers and Fernandomania might never have gripped the Southland as it did 30 years ago this spring. "It's like a movie script," Mike Brito says. Brito played a starring role in a 1976 drama that unfolded not in Dodger Stadium or any other major league park, but rather on a dusty diamond in East Los Angeles. The batter was Brito, the pitcher Bobby "Babo" Castillo.

As a kid growing up in Norwalk, Rod Barajas used to look up to the heavens when winding up to pitch, just like his hero did. "I'm Fernando Valenzuela," Barajas would say. His mother would tease him whenever she heard him say that. "No, you're not," she replied. "You're Pedro Guerrero. " Barajas, 6 or 7 years old at the time, would get upset. "I loved Pedro Guerrero too, but I was Fernando," he said. Barajas laughed as he told the story recently in the Dodgers' clubhouse at Camelback Ranch.

Where were you during "Fernandomania," about 30 years ago? As a 14-year-old, Paul Haddad taped the radio broadcasts and edited them together, turning Vin Scully's calls of that 1981 season into personal keepsakes. It was, for the L.A. boy, a meeting of two masters: the pitching prodigy from a dusty Steinbeckian village in Mexico and the Bronx-born broadcaster at peak form ... baseball's velvet fog. And the ultimate L.A. marriage. "The best part is, at any given moment, I get to relive Scully in some of his finest moments," Haddad, now a freelance documentary producer, says of his collection of tapes.

Fernando Valenzuela strides majestically into the noisy dressing room of the Guadalajara Charros. A diamond-encrusted pendant rides his powerful chest. His eyes are fixed. The chatter dies. Stony faces and curious stares greet him. Someone mutters, sangron --big shot. Valenzuela takes no notice. His bubble cheeks are taut, jaw set, lips pressed into a thin line.

They came in caravans from as far away as Fresno, Mexicali and Tucson, all to wonder at No. 34, one of their own. "All of a sudden, everyone was cheering for this guy who was a Mexican," recalled Arturo Vargas, a college kid with big dreams in those heady days, remembering the ubiquitous buzz. "Here we had a Mexican--one of us!--who was a hero for all of L.A., not just for us." It has been 20 years since the craze known as Fernandomania shook Los Angeles.

Halfway through the Mexican national team's morning workout Saturday, a man slowly wheeled a cart full of baseballs toward the middle of the infield. Not every team has the luxury of using a 17-year major league veteran and Cy Young Award winner to keep its batting practice pitcher supplied with balls. But in this case, Fernando Valenzuela was only too eager to oblige. "Whatever they need," Valenzuela said. "I'm real, real happy to be part of this."

Comparing Jered Weaver's first four starts with the Angels this season to Fernando Valenzuela's first four starts with the Dodgers in 1981: *--* JERED WEAVER Date Result IP H ER HR BB SO W-L ERA May 27 at Angels 10, 7 3 0 0 1 5 W 0.00 Baltimore 1 June 2 Angels 10, at 6.1 4 2 0 2 8 W 2.84 Cleveland 3 June 7 Angels 6, at Tampa Bay 6 4 2 2 0 4 W 3.00 2 June 13 at Angels 4, Kansas 7 5 0 0 1 5 W 0.00 City 1 Totals Angels 30, opponents 7 26.1 16 4 2 4 22 4-0 1.