While the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers have one of Major League Baseball’s fiercest rivalries, Mike Krukow, a longtime Giants color analyst who previously pitched for the San Francisco, took a moment to say that Fernando Valenzuela, one of his former opponents in the rivalry, should be in the Hall of Fame.
It started when the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast of Friday night’s Dodgers-Giants game showed a graphic that favorably compared Krukow to some legendary pitchers. The graphic highlighted the pitchers with the best home earned run averages in the rivalry since 1958, when both franchises moved to California. The list featured names that most fans would likely expect to see, like Sandy Koufax (2.10), Juan Marichal (2.29) and Clayton Kershaw (2.30). Valenzuela’s 2.07 ERA was No. 2 on the list, trailing only Krukow’s 1.94.
“I had no idea this statistic even existed,” Krukow said.
After an infield single from Andy Pages, Krukow continued.
“I hope Fernando Valenzuela gets into the Hall of Fame someday,” he said. “We know that Clayton Kershaw’s gonna be in the Hall of Fame. Koufax and Marichal, of course.”
For anyone curious, Krukow and Valenzuela were on opposite sides of the rivalry from 1983, when Krukow was traded to Giants, through 1989, the final year of his career. That said, they only started against each other (as Giants and Dodgers) three times. Both Krukow and Valenzuela lived up to the aforementioned graphic.
The Giants were 2-1 in those games, with both pitchers having a 1-1 record. Valenzuela posted a 1.13 ERA, 1.042 WHIP and 22 strikeouts in 24 innings. Krukow, meanwhile, had a 1.64 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 18 strikeouts in 22 innings.
Valenzuela, who died in October, took Major League Baseball — and the entire city of Los Angeles — by storm in 1981. He was the National League’s Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winner while helping lead the Dodgers to a championship. He remained one of baseball’s best pitchers for the next few seasons but began to decline in the later part of the 1980s. Still, given how great the early part of his career was and how massive Fernandomania was, there’s a solid Hall of Fame argument to be made.
Krukow was a fine pitcher but certainly not Hall of Fame caliber. As an announcer, though, it’s an entirely different story. Moments like this speak to why.