Kicking up dust running bases on a makeshift diamond in Sells or taking the mound for the New York Yankees organization, it made no difference to Joseph C. Valenzuela.
It was all the same game: baseball.
"He was definitely a credit to the game," said retired University of Arizona assistant baseball coach Jim Wing.
Valenzuela was long gone from Tucson High when Wing stepped into the Badger batter's box, but the pitcher's reputation was lasting. He played on three state championship teams while in high school, traveled the country for almost a decade playing professional ball and, after returning to Tucson, organized "old-timers" benefit games to raise money for children's charities.
Some who played ball with Valenzuela, and others who know the native Tucsonan by legacy, remembered his sports achievements last weekend at the annual Tucson High Baseball Alumni Dinner. The 87-year-old Valenzuela died Dec. 9.
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"He's certainly an integral part of the history and rich tradition of Tucson High baseball," Wing said.
Valenzuela was born in Tucson but grew up in Sells, where his father worked construction on the Tohono O'Odham Reservation. He played on the Sells Indian School baseball team coached by Frank Sancet, who would go on to the University of Arizona and become the second-winningest coach in the history of college baseball.
Valenzuela returned to Tucson to attend high school, where he was a four-year letterman on the football and baseball teams and pitched and fielded on the 1941, '42 and '43 state championship teams, according to the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame. While playing on the 1941 Arizona Legion team for coach Chuck "Mr. Baseball" Hollinger, Valenzuela pitched the longest Legion game in Arizona history, 16 innings, and he became the first Arizona Legion pitcher to beat a California team.
"He was an outstanding pitcher, and he could swing the bat very, very well," said former Tucson High second baseman Bud Grainger Jr. "We played against the UA freshman team, and we whupped them more than they beat us."
Valenzuela was recruited by the Yankees organization straight out of high school. He played AA and AAA pro ball for seven years. While with the Yankees and San Diego Padres, he was coached by Vernon "Lefty" Gomez and Casey Stengel. His teammates included Ralph Houk and Whitey Ford. After his stint in the minor league, Valenzuela pitched for the Naranjeros de Hermosillo in Sonora for five years.
"He should have made the major leagues, but ... he was with too good a team. They always had great pitchers" in the Yankees organization, said John Gleeson, president of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame, which inducted Valenzuela in 1995. He was with the Yankees organization from 1944 to '49, during which time the New York team won two World Series.
Valenzuela was married to his high school sweetheart, Mary, for 64 years, and she and their four daughters - Norma, Gloria, Irma and Aida - joined him on the road.
When he settled back in Tucson, Valenzuela worked as a heavy-equipment operator, but his thoughts were never far from the diamond. He started the South Tucson Benefit Sports Club, organizing baseball tournaments to raise money for children's charities, and he continued playing into his 50s, said his daughter, Norma Alday.
"He was a tremendous athlete," said Valenzuela's son-in-law, Richard Alday, a former Pima Community College baseball coach. "I happened to catch (for) Joe one time, and still, in his 40s, he had pretty good stuff. He didn't throw as hard, but he had a good curve ball and he was definitely a competitor."
Diamond Joe
Off the baseball field, former pro pitcher Joseph Valenzuela twice rescued motorists stranded in monsoon floodwaters. He was honored as a hero by firefighters for the 1962 rescue of eight people, including a pregnant woman and several children, from a city bus that was washed down an arroyo. In his Jeep, Valenzuela chased down the bus. When the bus ran aground in the arroyo, he tied a garden hose to his Jeep, then swam out to the bus, where he tied the other end of the hose to use as a guide line. The pregnant woman named her baby boy after her rescuer. One of Valenzuela's four daughters, Norma Alday, who was along for the Jeep ride, said of spending time with her father: "It was always an adventure with him."
On StarNet
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