During Sunday’s annual FanFest event at Dodger Stadium and in addition to all of the usual great FanFest activities, there was some breaking news – some long overdue and very welcomed breaking news.

In front of a crowd in the tens of thousands, Dodgers President Stan Kasten summoned former Dodgers great Fernando Valenzuela and his lovely daughters Maria and Linda to the FanFest stage.

“I am really proud to announce today that this summer in 2023, we are officially and finally retiring Fernando’s number,” Kasten said to the roaring crowd. “Fernando, the number 34 is yours. It will always be yours. No other Dodger will ever wear it again.“

As you would expect, the extremely popular former Dodger lefthander was (modestly) emotional over the long overdue announcement, which he actually knew of in advance of Kasten’s FanFest announcement.

“He did not want to tell me. ‘You’re going to post it. You’re going to share it,’ Maria Valenzuela told the large crowd of what he father had said to her (with a huge smile on her face). “We’re very happy, honored and excited for the future, knowing that this will be his legacy forever at Dodger Stadium.

“He doesn’t like to show emotion, but I know deep down he’s very honored,” Maria added. “I know they don’t do this for just anyone. I know that he’s very grateful and thankful.”

Not for just anyone indeed. In the (now) 140-year history of the Dodgers franchise, there have been only 11 who have had their numbers retired:

• 1 – Pee Wee Reese
• 2 – Tommy Lasorda
• 4 – Duke Snider
• 14 – Gil Hodges
• 19 – Jim Gilliam
• 20 – Don Sutton
• 24 – Walter Alston
• 32 – Sandy Koufax
• 39 – Roy Campanella
• 42 – Jackie Robinson (also retired in all of baseball)
• 53 – Don Drysdale

Make that 12.

“To be a part of the group that includes so many legends is a great honor,” said Valenzuela. “But also for the fans. The support they’ve given me as a player and working for the Dodgers, this is also for them. I’m happy for all the fans and all the people who have followed my career. They’re going to be very excited to know that my Number 34 is being retired.”

But there’s another side to this story that many – perhaps even most – Dodgers fans are completely unaware of.

Longtime Dodgers clubhouse manager Mitch Poole, who has been with the organization going on 39 years (that’s not a typo), has had a decades-long one-man challenge to not re-issue Valenzuela’s former jersey after the (now) 62-year-old Navojoa, Mexico native left the team in 1990 to play for the California Angels.

Poole did so because, in his heart and knowing Fernando’s popularity among generations of Dodgers fans, absolutely knew that this day would come. That’s a 33-year-long one-man challenge, and it involved snubbing some pretty big names in the game – including Manny Ramirez.

“When Manny was in the locker room that was unbelievable, he’s a joker,” Poole said during a 2013 interview with ThinkBlueLA. “I enjoyed my whole time with him. That year [2008] was really special. Even though we didn’t win it, it was an incredible year.”

As Dodgers fans know, Ramirez had come to the Dodgers from the Boston Red Sox, where he sported jersey number 24 for 16 of his eventual 19 Big League seasons. But since Dodgers number 24 had already been retired (having belonged to Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston for 23 years), Ramirez wanted number 34.

No dice.

Instead, Poole gave the eccentric Ramirez number 99.

“Manny’s reaction to the number that we gave him was a big joke. I was going to give him 28. It ended up he wanted 11, then he wanted 34, which we’ll never use that number. It went to 66 and then finally to 99.”

In the 2009 documentary film Bluetopia: The LA Dodgers Movie, this interaction between Poole and Ramirez was one of the funnier scenes in the hour and a half-long movie. When asked if Ramirez was actually as upset as he appeared to be in that scene in the movie, Poole answered with a chuckle.

“No, he was just screwing around. He knew what number he was getting. His agent wanted 99 because it was a good marketing scheme.”

Well done, Mitch Poole. Well done, indeed!

Play Ball!

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