The 'Bird,' Mark Fidrych Loses Life in Apparent Accident

Sometimes I get lazy and let the dishes stack up, but they don't stack too high. I've only got four dishes."

The 1976 Rookie of the Year- Mark Fidrych, The Bird, is Dead.

It was an apparent accident while working at home in Worcester on the trucks that he loved.

He was baseball’s magical star that year, capturing the imagination of fans across the nation with exuberance, energy, and his resemblance to the cartoon character on Sesame Street, The Big Bird.

He finished second in the Cy Young voting that year, while winning 19 games, leading the league in ERA, and how ‘bout this modern era baseball, completed 24 games. He electrified the nation by being the starting pitcher in that year’s All Star Game. He was Fernando Valenzuela before Fernandomania. He became an idol and icon by his antics on the field, manicuring his mound, and generating a youthful exuberance that was innocent and non offensive. No insulting fist throwing.

What I liked about him was that in spite of all the fame and notoriety he did not opt, as Manny Ramirez has for a $2,000 a nite penthouse apartment at the Sheraton. Nope, he lived in a small Detroit bachelor pad apartment, saying his league minimum salary of $16,500 was still more then he would make if he had been pumping gas in Northborough, his home town. It was that devil may care manner which landed him on the cover of Rolling Stone, the first athlete ever to reach that pinnacle. Sorry Michael Jordan.

Like Valenzuela years later, Fidrych packed Tiger Stadium in every one of his home starts. How much so? His 18 appearances accounted for half the attendance for all of the Tigers 81 home games that year. Over a million bucks for the Tigers. He wound up signing the next year for less than 10% of that, without an agent, saying he did not want to screw a good thing up.

Amongst the hurlers he beat that first year were Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry, Bert Blyleven, Luis Tiant, and Dock Ellis. While his one spectacular season will be etched into the record books forever, he did not pitch long and will not make the Hall of Fame.

Forever, however, Mark Fidrych will be scorched into baseball’s lore as one of its most loving, energetic positive personalities, who brought a youthful zeal and spirit to the game that will be etched forever into America’s soul.

As we get older, the daybreaks pass and sunsets come upon us. We get nearer to the shadows and the shade than to the sunshine and the surf. Let history record that on the diamond Mark Fidrych brought us sun and smiles and sportsmanship, and I for one will never forget it. If you lived it, neither will you. This is another sad day for baseball, losing also the great Phillies announcer Harry Kalas. That for another blog.