Fernando Valenzuela, the Dodgers' beloved pitching ace, died of septic shock, a coroner says

Fernando Valenzuela, the popular Los Angeles Dodgers pitching ace who helped the team win the 1981 World Series, died last month of septic shock, according to his death certificate.

TMZ Sports obtained the document on Tuesday. Valenzuela died on October 22nd at the age of 63a few weeks after resigning from his job with the Dodgers' Spanish-language television broadcast and days before the Dodgers began their run to the team's eighth World Series championship. A cause of death was not given at the time.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office listed the immediate cause of death as septic shock. This is a life-threatening disease that occurs when organs fail and leads to dangerously low blood pressure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 350,000 people die from the disease each year in the United States.

The medical examiner cited decompensated alcoholic cirrhosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis cirrhosis as the underlying causes. Also listed as a significant condition contributing to Valenzuela's death was “probable” Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rapidly progressive brain disorder.

The document also shows that Valenzuela was cremated. A public mass was held last week at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

He was a native of Etchohauquila, Sonora, Mexico and is affectionately known as “El Toro” by fans throughout the baseball world.

The man behind “Fernandomania,” which took Los Angeles by storm in the 1980s, spent 11 of his 17 seasons in Major League Baseball with the Dodgers, leading them to the 1981 World Series title.