The Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela was an LA icon. To the son of an immigrant, his death was personal

The legendary Mexican pitcher died just before the Dodgers' World Series win against the New York Yankees

Fernando Valenzuela died and all I wanted to do was cry.

I don't understand it. I didn't know him, not really, not personally. The man is a legend to anyone who knows baseball. As a 20-year-old immigrant from Mexico pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers, he became the only Major League Baseball player to ever win the Rookie of the Year award and the Cy Young award in the same year. But that was in 1981; I wasn't even born yet. As I stared at a friend's Dia de los Muertos ofrenda, featuring a photo of Fernando among passed loved ones, I wondered: why am I so sad?