Fernando Valenzuela, the beloved Los Angeles Dodgers pitching ace who helped the team win the 1981 World Series, died of septic shock last month, according to his death certificate.
TMZ Sports obtained the document on Tuesday. Valenzuela Died on 22 October at the age of 63Just weeks after he was fired from his job on the Dodgers' Spanish-language television broadcasts and just days before the Dodgers began their run to the team's eighth World Series championship. No cause of death was given at that time.
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The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office ruled septic shock as the immediate cause of death. This is a life-threatening condition that occurs when organs fail, causing blood pressure to drop dangerously low. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 350,000 people die from the disease in the US each year.
The medical examiner listed decompensated alcoholic cirrhosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis cirrhosis as the underlying causes. Listed as a significant condition contributing to Valenzuela's death was “probable” Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a rapidly progressive brain disorder.
The document also shows 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 Atachohuaquilla, Sonora, Mexico, and was affectionately known as “El Toro” to baseball fans.
The man behind the “Fernandomania” that swept Los Angeles during the 1980s spent 11 of his 17 seasons in Major League Baseball with the Dodgers, leading them to a World Series title in 1981.