Mark Fidrych
Mark "The Bird" Fidrych (1954-2009) was a baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers during the middle-1970's, gaining fame in his first year as a starter by having 19-9 win/loss record, leading league in ERA (2.34) and complete games (24), voted as American League Rookie of the Year for 1976, and packing stadiums to full capacity as everyone wanted to see his antics on the field.
Early life
Mark Fidrych was born August 14, 1954 in Northboro, Massachusetts, the son of a high school assistant principal. He played his baseball at the schools he attended, and in 1974 was selected in the tenth round of the amateur draft by the Detroit Tigers, in which he stayed for two years in the minors; one of his pitching coaches gave him his nickname "the Bird" after he saw similarities between his lanky pitcher and the "Big Bird" character on the television show Sesame Street.
Major leagues
On May 15, 1976, Fidrych got his first start against the Cleveland Indians, pitching six scoreless innings, giving up a single in the seventh...and talking to himself or the baseball, arranging the mound every innning with his hands, and strutting about the infield after every strikeout. The Tigers won that game, 2-1, but the growing talk of Detroit was Fidrych and his personality. Between May 25 and June 5, Fidriych played - and won - against the Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and Texas Rangers. of which the last two were complete games pitched 11 innings.
From June 11 to 24, the Tigers started Fidrych against the Rangers - where he bested opposing pitcher Nolan Ryan - the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, and the Red Sox, where the Bird posted another complete game. Already, "Bird-mania" had taken hold, with fans filling the stadiums to see the guy who "manicured the mound" and talked to the baseball; he would also curse the baseball - as if the baseball itself made a wrong decision - every time a batter got a base hit or a home run. He would aim the baseball like a dart. And he sometimes interrupted the umpire to toss an errant baseball to him, with the excuse "That ball had a hit in it, so I want to get it back in the ball bag and goof around with the other balls there. Maybe it'll learn some sense and come out as a popup next time." [1] But his own professional start was phenominal; the Tigers manager at the time was Ralph Houk, who couldn't believe what he was seeing. "In all my years in baseball, I've never seen anything like it. I don't think even Walter Johnson started this fast." [2]
On national television, June 28, 1976 the Yankees were at Tiger Stadium before a crowd of 47,855, and the Bird didn't disappoint. The Tigers won 5-1 in a game barely lasting two hours as the country watched the antics of the Bird, with fans in the stadium refusing to leave after the game was over unless and until the Bird popped out and tipped his cap. Yankees pitcher Rusty Staub, who played in that game, said of Fidrych "There's an electricity that he brings out in everyone, the players and the fans. He's different. He's a 21-year-old kid with a great enthusiasm that everyone loves. He has an inner youth, an exuberance." [3]
The day before the nation's Bicentennial, the Bird shut out the Baltimore Orioles 4-0, giving up just four hits in front of over 51,000 fans at a sold-out Tiger Stadium, which was also sold out in a 1-0 loss to the Royals on July 9, Fidrych going for nine innings while giving up one run. On July 13, he was selected as the first rookie in major league history to start the All Star Game, despite losing to the National League stars 7-1. [4]
Retirement and death
The Bird retired to his hometown of Foxboro, Massachusetts, working on a farm and business he owned, happily married, and raising his children. Mark Fidrych died April 13, 2009, apparently the victim of an accident while working under a dump truck on his farm.