Fernando Valenzuela, a popular pitching ace for the Los Angeles Dodgers who helped them win the 1981 World Series, died last month of septic shock, according to his death certificate.
TMZ Sports obtained the document on Tuesday. Valenzuela Died on October 22nd at the age of 63.It was a few weeks after he quit his job as the Dodgers’ Spanish-language television broadcaster and days before the Dodgers began their run to their eighth World Series championship. The cause of death was not disclosed at that time.
Wally Scully/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office listed septic shock as the immediate cause of death. This is a life-threatening condition that occurs when organs fail and blood pressure drops dangerously. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 350,000 people die from the disease each year in the United States.
The medical examiner cited decompensated alcoholic cirrhosis and nonalcoholic fatty cirrhosis as the underlying causes. It also said Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rapidly progressive brain disorder, was “probably” a key contributing condition to Valenzuela’s death.
The document also indicates that Valenzuela was cremated. Last week, a public mass was held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.
He was a native of Echohaukira, Sonora, Mexico, and was affectionately known as “El Toro” by fans around the baseball world.
The man behind the “Fernandomania” that took Los Angeles by storm in the 1980s spent 11 of his 17 Major League Baseball seasons with the Dodgers, leading them to the 1981 World Series championship.
