The Mexican Women’s National Softball Team has been awarded with the Mexican National Sports Award, the most prestigious sports prize in Mexico. In addition, Mexican MLB legend Fernando Valenzuela was also the latest recipient of the award for his outstanding career.
The Comisión Nacional del Deporte (CONADE) recently announced the award-winning list in seven different categories: amateur sports; professional sports; paralympic sport; coaches; umpires; outstanding career; and promotion of sports activities.
The Mexican women’s softball squad, which made history winning the WBSC Softball Americas Olylmpic Qualifier and advancing to the Olympic Games for the first time in history, will receive the award in the amateur sports category.
Fernando Valenzuela, also known as “El Toro”, is recognised as one of the best baseball players in Mexican history. He made his MLB debut in 1980 with Los Angeles Dodgers and one year later he won the National League Rookie of the Year and the National League Cy Young awards, being the only player in MLB history to win both awards the same year. He won the World Series with the Dodgers that year. He played 17 seasons in the majors and was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 2014. He will be recognised by CONADE for his outstanding career.
Mexican baseball stars like Jorge Cantú, Vinicio Castilla, Joakim Soria, Adrián González and Roberto Osuna have also previously received the award.
