Sports legend Fernando Valenzuela was named commissioner of the Mexican Baseball League (LMB) at a meeting of owners and presidents Thursday.
As High Commissioner of Baseball, Valenzuela will attend to sports issues related to the league and its teams, Javier Salinas remains in the position of CEO / Executive President of the circuit.
A commission for League relations was also announced, consisting of Erick Arellano, Francisco González Albuerne, Fernando Valenzuela Burgos and José Miguel Bejos.
Likewise, progress is being made in the formation of the new statutes and regulations, an issue that will continue in development during the next assemblies of presidents.
The Mexican Baseball League reiterated its commitment to advancing in unity toward the development of professional baseball in Mexico as it heads to the end of its 2019 season.
It’s been a good summer for Valenzuela, the Yucatan Leones’ former pitcher whose career was celebrated in Merida last month.
For Fernando Valenzuela Day, all the Mexican League players in all eight parks that played that day wore the famed player’s number, which was retired Saturday in the Mexican League.
The former Leones southpaw caught the attention of a Los Angeles Dodgers recruiter in 1979 while he was pitching a game in Yucatan.
Valenzuela rocketed to stardom in Major League Baseball’s 1981 season, when he became the first player in history to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the same season. That same year, he pitched on the World Series’ winning team.
He played 11 seasons with the Dodgers, in which he garnered 141 wins and 1,759 strikeouts, in addition to six appearances in the All-Star Game and a no hit or run game in 1990.
In 2017 he returned again to the Mexican Baseball League as owner of the Tigres de Quintana Roo.
Source: Leones, Yucatan Expat Life