Fernando Nation

Back in the early 1980s, the hottest name in baseball was Fernando Valenzuela. So big, that he won BOTH the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in his first full season in the Major Leagues. However, by the early 90s, he disappeared from baseball and I always wondered what happened to him. While this is not THE main focus of this episode of "30 for 30", this question is answered. What the show IS about is his arrival at baseball as well as how important this was to the Mexican-American community in L.A. at that time. As usual for the series, it's fascinating, well made and worth seeing even if you aren't a big fan of baseball. Not among the best episodes of the series, but still quite good. What is the most interesting thing I learned from this show? That during this award-winning season, Valenzuela was paid the league minimum salary!! Crazy.