SUPER SCOUT
Forty years ago, a phenomenon unlike anything seen before swept through Major League Baseball.
Fernando Valenzuela, a 20-year-old lefthander from Mexico with a twirling windup and an unhittable screwball, won his first eight career starts for the Dodgers, throwing five shutouts among them and captivating North America. Valenzuela won the National League Rookie of the Year award, the NL Cy Young Award and led the Dodgers to the 1981 World Series title, becoming MLB’s first Mexican superstar and an icon for generations to come.
This past season, on the 40th anniversary of Fernandomania, another Mexican lefthander, Julio Urias, won 20 games for the Dodgers, bookending four decades of franchise excellence fueled in no small part by Mexican players.
The common tie that binds them all is Mike Brito.
Brito, 87, has been the Dodgers’ top scout in Mexico since 1978. He has signed 32 major leaguers in 43 years, including Valenzuela, Urias, Yasiel Puig, Ismael Valdez and Joakim Soria. When the Dodgers won the
