While his actual age has long been in contention, you can't take away what the guy did in the 1980s as well as the amazing career rejuvenation he had past 30 after playing a year in Mexico at age 31.
He spent most of his 1980 season with the Dodgers AA team in San Antonio at age 19, then got called up to the big club at the end of the year as a reliever, going 2-0 in 10 games with a 0.00 ERA.
The next year he was a starter for the Dodgers in the strike season and went 13-7 with a 2:48 ERA, but that doesn't really tell the story.
He started off the season 8-0 with a ERA of 0.50 and 5 shutouts in his first 7 starts. He gave up 1 run each in the other two. He didn't give up more than 1 run until beating Montreal 3-2 on May 14th, and didn't lose a start until May 18, 4-0 to the Phillies. he started his career with 8 straight complete games. He only went 5-7 the rest of the season, which because of the strike was split into two halves - the first ended June 11 and the second started August 11. Despite the regression - he lost his last 3 games in a row, although one of them was 1-0, he became the only rookie ever to win the Cy Young, and obviously Rookie of the Year.
The playoffs were extended that year because of the strike. He went 1-0 vs. the Astros with a 1.06 ERA in 2 games, 1-1 vs. Montreal in the NLCS with a 2.45 ERA, and beat the Yankees 5-4 in Game 3 of the World Series, which LA won in 6.
In the NLDS vs. the Astros, Houston won the first 2 games, ,then LA the last 3, with Fernando outpitching Vern Ruhle 2-1 in Game 4. Both guys threw complete-game 4-hitters.
For someone of his size, he was a surprisingly good hitte, with 10 career home runs - including 3 in 1984 - and a .304 batting average in 1990 (21 for 69 with 11 RBI). He had a .730 OPS that year!
Moreover, he's largely credit with the massive rise of Hispanic baseball fans in LA. When the Dodgers moved to LA they played at some smaller park, but the city enticed them into building a stadium at Chavez Ravine, which was the home of three very large Hispanic neighborhoods that were all bulldozed for a baseball stadium.
Here's MLB's "Remembering Fernando Mania" from a few hours ago. Great stuff.
RIP El Toro. "Fernandomania" forever. I was a 10yo boy growing up in Los Angeles, consumed with baseball and the Dodgers when "Fernandomania" hit. That year we beat our archrival Jankees in the WS and the immortalization of the kid from Etchohuaquila Mexico began. He was one of one. A chubby kid from a tiny town in the Sonoran desert. Baseball would never be the same again. I would never be the same. Go easy Toro, rest easy.
