Linsanity and Tebowmania: How Do They Compare to Fernandomania in the '80s?

It seems absurd to write an article about Linsanity or Tebowmania right now.

After all, the Knicks are floundering, having parted ways with Mike D’Antoni only weeks after being galvanized by Jeremy Lin.

Tebow looks like he’s been run out of town, not by the fans, but by VP of Football Operations John Elway, who has committed to erstwhile Indianapolis Colts star Peyton Manning—much to the liking of our Daniel Bogaard.

But there’s a question that must be posed:

Are both of these guys a flash in the pan?

Just to get you up to speed with Fernando Valenzuela before comparing him to the Lin/Tebow situation:

After a couple years of Mexican League baseball, Valenzuela was scouted by the Dodgers in the late ‘70s and brought in to pitch for a team that needed to improve its image with the Mexican community.

Dodger Stadium, the third oldest ballpark, was constructed from 1959 to 1962 on Chavez Ravine. In order to build the stadium, the city displaced many impoverished Mexican-American citizens that had moved there in the 1940s due to housing discrimination in other parts of Los Angeles.

This created tension between the Dodger organization and the Mexican-American community.

Valenzuela diffused that tension.

The youngest of 12 children raised in Etchohuaquila, Mexico, the 20-year-old phenom took the mound for the first time on Sept. 15, 1980 and was named the opening day starter as a rookie in 1981.

Valenzuela faltered a bit after the 1981 player strike, but still finished the season with a 13-7 record and a 2.48 ERA. That year he became the only pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award in the same season and helped the Dodgers win their first World Series since 1965*.

*They beat the Twins in 1965… I know.

Following the 1981 strike, he became a six-time All-Star, Gold Glove Award winner, earned two Silver Sluggers and pitched a no-hitter in 1990.

Fernandomania lasted a decade and brought the Mexican-American community to Dodger Stadium.

And then it all ended…

Valenzuela would be cut in Spring Training of 1991 and spent the next six years with five different organizations*.

 *For more on this, watch the 30 for 30 documentary. It’s good stuff.

So, here’s how Fernandomania matches up to today’s Linsanity and Tebowmania:

Linsanity

1. Both players had their breakout season in a lockout year.
2. They both made a big-market team relevant again.
3. There’s the race issue—Valenzuela packed the park with Latinos, Lin packed the Garden with Asian-Americans.

Tebowmania

1. Tebow had his breakout year after a lockout too—although the NFL lockout didn’t shorten the season.
2. Both ‘manias’ became a phenomenon.
3. Both players throw left-handed*—although Valenzuela can probably throw a tighter spiral.

*As far as we know…

The glaring difference here is that Valenzuela dominated for a decade.

Let me present a caveat because I don’t want Linsanity or Tebowmania to show up at my front door with torches and pitchforks:

I have no idea how the careers of Lin or Tebow will turn out.

For all I know, Lin will stay in New York, ball out of his mind and turn the Knicks into World Champions.

That seems doubtful, however, with the way GM James Dolan is running the franchise.

We know he’s not signed next season and with money tied up in Amare and Melo, there’s no guarantee he’ll stay—especially if the team continues to struggle and his play does not reach Linsanity levels again.

Lin has already been a part of three franchises. What’s to say he stays in New York?

We know Tebow may be on his way out.

He may head down to Jacksonville or Miami or wherever and turn a moribund franchise into a contender.

However, I have a gut feeling he’ll be a journeyman quarterback. He’ll probably have one or two ‘miracle’ seasons in his career where he takes a junk team to the Super Bowl, much like fellow religious man Kurt Warner did with the Rams and Cardinals*.

*By the way, sorry, Larry Fitzgerald, that Arizona didn’t pick up Manning. Come home, man, we need a receiver… and a defensive secondary… and some linebackers (James Laurinaitis, this is an open invitation to you, too)… Hell, Timmy T, if you’re going to sell tickets in our new stadium you can come, too.

That’s not to say Lin and Tebow haven’t had their impact on society.

Lin has brought many members of the Asian American community into the wider NBA Community. This is wonderful. Sports should bring people of different backgrounds together.

Tebow reminds us that popular athletes can be good people and probably put a smile on the face of Sports Night’s Casey McCall.

Of course, if either player dominates for the next 10 years, the mania will continue.

But maybe it’s more fitting if it doesn’t.

It’s been said a thousand times, we live in an instant-gratification, what’s-hot-now with Twitter-equipped cellphones and everyone is desperate for attention and sometimes get caught up in all of it so much that we can’t focus on what’s important*.

*For example what I just wrote about in that last paragraph.

The Saints’ bounty hunting?

That was so mid-March.

The UCLA expose?

Wait… what was that? When did that come out?

Perhaps the world is becoming, in the words of Grantland’s Tom Bissell, ‘Call of Dutified.’

Or maybe it’s always been that way and I haven’t been around long enough to make a judgment on it.

All I know is that Linsanity and Tebowmania were, at their core, good for sports just as Fernandomania was in the 1980s.

Why?

They brought people together.

And that’s what sports should be about.

Tom Schreier is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. This article can also be found on TheFanManifesto.com Follow Tom on Twitter @tschreier3.