¡Viva Fernando!

The baseball world lost the great Fernando Valenzuela on Tuesday.

The only rookie to ever win the Cy Young Award, Valenzuela was a cultural icon in his native Mexico and among the Mexican community in the United States when he burst onto the scene in 1981 and launched what became known as “Fernandomania.” After a 17-year major league career, he went on to coach for Mexico in several World Baseball Classics and serve as a radio and TV color commentator on the Spanish language broadcasts on Dodger games for over 20 years.

It’s an impressive résumé, one I would argue deserves a place in the Hall of Fame given the breadth of his contributions to the game.

His pitching career is the foundation of his case, and while it probably falls short of the Hall of Fame by itself, it’s impressive nonetheless. I mean, there have been lesser pitchers elected.

A surprising number of Cy Young Award winners who are eligible for the Hall of Fame have not been elected, with Valenzuela being among them and pretty clearly in the upper echelon of the group that’s been passed over. Here’s the list, with Fernando and the pitchers who likely had better careers than him listed in bold.