| Mark Fidrych | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born:(1954-08-14)August 14, 1954 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. | |
| Died: April 13, 2009(2009-04-13) (aged 54) Northborough, Massachusetts, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 20, 1976, for the Detroit Tigers | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| October 1, 1980, for the Detroit Tigers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Win–loss record | 29–19 |
| Earned run average | 3.10 |
| Strikeouts | 170 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Mark Steven Fidrych (/ˈfɪdrɪtʃ/FID-rich;[1] August 14, 1954 – April 13, 2009), nicknamed "the Bird", was an American professionalbaseballpitcher who played five seasons inMajor League Baseball (MLB) with theDetroit Tigers.
Known for his quirky antics on the mound, Fidrych led the major leagues with a 2.34 ERA in 1976, won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award, and finished with a 19–9 record. Shortly thereafter, however, injuries derailed his career, which ended after just five seasons in the major leagues.
The son of an assistant school principal, Fidrych played baseball atAlgonquin Regional High School inNorthborough, Massachusetts, and atWorcester Academy, a day and boarding school in central Massachusetts.[2] In the 1974 amateur draft he was selected in the 10th round by the Detroit Tigers. He later joked that when he received a phone call informing him that he had been drafted, he thought he was drafted into the armed services, not thinking there were any Major League teams considering him. In the minor leagues one of his coaches with theLakeland Tigers dubbed the lanky 6-foot-3 right-handed pitcher "The Bird" because of his resemblance to the "Big Bird" character on the popularSesame Street television program.[3]
Fidrych joined the Tigers spring training camp in 1976 and made the roster, though he did not make his Major League debut until April 20, pitching only one inning through mid-May.
In his third appearance, on May 15, Fidrych made his first major leaguestart, caught byBruce Kimm, hisbatterymate in 1975 atTriple AEvansville. He held theCleveland Indians hitless through six innings and ended up with a two-hit, 2–1complete game victory, with one walk and five strikeouts.[4] In addition to his pitching, Fidrych attracted attention in his debut for talking to the ball while on the pitcher's mound, strutting in a circle around the mound after every out, patting down the mound, and refusing to allow groundskeepers to fix the mound in the sixth inning. After the game, sports writer Jim Hawkins wrote in theDetroit Free Press: "He really is something to behold."[5]Rico Carty of the Indians said he thought Fidrych "was trying to hypnotize them."[6]
On May 25 atFenway Park in Boston, Fidrych started his second game in front of two busloads of fans who traveled from Fidrych's hometown of Northborough. Fidrych pitched well, allowing two earned runs (a two-run home run byCarl Yastrzemski) in eight innings, butLuis Tiant shut out the Tigers, and Fidrych received his first major league loss.[7]
On May 31, Fidrych pitched an 11-inning, complete-game victory over theMilwaukee Brewers.[8] On June 5, he pitched another 11-inning, complete-game victory over theTexas Rangers inArlington.[9] Fidrych continued to pitch well heading into the All-Star break:
Fidrych was named to the1976 AL All-Star team; the game was played on July 13 atVeterans Stadium inPhiladelphia. He was named the starter, at the time becoming just the second rookie to start an All-Star game followingDave Stenhouse in 1962.[23] Fidrych gave up two earned runs in the first inning, none in the second, and took the loss.[24]
Just three days later, on July 16, Fidrych won his tenth game, a 1–0 victory over the A's. Four days later in Minnesota, before Fidrych's thirteenth start, the Twins released thirteen homing pigeons on the mound before the game. According to Fidrych, "they tried to do that to blow my concentration."[25] Fidrych pitched another complete game, an 8–3 win, and improved his record to 11–2. On Saturday, July 24, Fidrych surrendered four earned runs on nine hits and lasted only 41⁄3 innings;John Hiller got the win for the Tigers in long relief on theGame of the Week.[26]
After the game, Fidrych was interviewed on live television, and a small controversy arose when Fidrych said "bullshit" on the air. Fidrych recalled: "He (NBC commentatorTony Kubek) said, it looked like you were gonna cry. I just said, No, I wasn't about to cry. I was just bullshit.... And then I said, excuse me. I said, I didn't mean to swear on the air but I just showed you my feelings."[27] The next day, Fidrych received a telegram informing him he had been fined $250 by baseball commissionerBowie Kuhn; however, it was a prank sent by his own teammates.[28][29]
On July 29 and August 7, Fidrych threw consecutive six-hit complete games. He won one of the games and lost the other. The Tigers edged the Rangers, 4–3, on August 11 as Fidrych notched his 13th win overGaylord Perry. Six days later, the Tigers drew a season-high 51,822 fans as Fidrych went to 14–4, beating opposing pitcherFrank Tanana 3–2. On August 25, the Tigers downed the White Sox, 3–1, in front of 40,000 fans on a Wednesday night in Detroit. Fidrych held the White Sox to five hits in a game which lasted only 108 minutes. Between August 29 and September 17, Fidrych lost three consecutive decisions, bringing his record to 16–9.[30]
Fidrych beat the Indians two starts in a row, on September 21 and 28. In his last start of the 1976 season, Fidrych picked up his 19th win, defeating the Brewers, 4–1, giving up five hits.[30] A month later, Fidrych was announced as the runner-up for theCy Young Award, withJim Palmer taking the award.
Fidrych won the AL Rookie of the Year Award and was named Tiger of the Year by the Detroit baseball writers. He led all of MLB in ERA (2.34) andAdjusted ERA+ (158), while leading the AL in complete games (24). He finished in the top five in several other statistical categories, including wins, win percentage, shutouts,walks plus hits per innings pitched (WHIP), and bases on balls per nine innings pitched. He received the 11th-highest vote total in the year's AL MVP voting.
In Fidrych's 18 home starts in 1976, he compiled a 12–6 record while the Tigers averaged 33,649 fans; the team drew an average of only 13,843 in his non-starts.[31]
During the offseason between the 1976 and 1977 seasons, Fidrych published an autobiography with Tom Clark titledNo Big Deal.
Fidrych tore the cartilage in his knee fooling around in the outfield duringspring training in 1977.[32] He picked up where he left off after his return from the injury, but about six weeks after his return, during a July 4 game against Baltimore, he felt his arm just, in his words, "go dead." It was a tornrotator cuff, but it would not be diagnosed until 1985.[33] At the time Fidrych injured his arm in Baltimore his record was 6-2 before the game. He was removed from the game after 5.2 innings right afterEddie Murray hit a two-run home run. The Baltimore Orioles scored six runs in the inning and won the game 6-4.[34] Fidrych finished the season 6–4 with a 2.89 ERA and was again invited to the All-Star Game, but he declined the invitation due to injury. Still on the disabled list toward the end of the season, Fidrych worked as a guestcolor analyst on aMonday Night Baseball telecast forABC; he was subsequently criticized for his lack of preparation, as when play-by-play partnerAl Michaels tried talking with him aboutPhiladelphia Phillies playerRichie Hebner and Fidrych responded, "Who's Richie Hebner?"[35] As an AL player, Fidrych had never had to face Hebner, who played in the National League.
He pitched only three games in 1978, winning two, including an opening day win. On August 12, 1980, 48,361 fans showed up at Tiger Stadium to see what turned out to be his last attempt at a comeback. Fidrych pitched his last MLB game on October 1, 1980, in Toronto, going five innings and giving up four earned runs, while picking up the win in an 11–7 Tigers victory which was televised in Detroit.
At the end of the 1981 season, Detroit gave Fidrych his outright release and he signed as a free agent with theBoston Red Sox, playing for one of their minor league teams. However, his torn rotator cuff, still not diagnosed and left untreated, never healed. At age 29, he was forced to retire. Fidrych went to famed sports medicine doctorJames Andrews in 1985. Dr. Andrews discovered the torn rotator cuff and operated; still, the damage already done to the shoulder effectively ended Fidrych's chance of coming back to a professional baseball career.
Fidrych remained cheerful and upbeat. In a 1998 interview, when asked who he would invite to dinner if he could invite anyone in the world, Fidrych said, "My buddy and former Tigers teammateMickey Stanley, because he's never been to my house."
Fidrych lived with his wife Ann, whom he married in 1986, on a 107-acre (0.43 km2) farm in Northborough. They had a daughter, Jessica. Aside from fixing up his farmhouse, he worked as a contractor hauling gravel and asphalt in a ten-wheeler. On weekends, he helped out in his mother-in-law's business, Chet's Diner, on Route 20 in Northborough; the diner was later operated by his daughter.[2] He would also frequent the local baseball field to help teach and play ball with the kids.
Fidrych was not an overpowering pitcher, posting strikeout rates below the league average throughout his career. He was, however, praised for having exceptional control (compiling a walk rate of 1.77 per 9 IP over his first two seasons), and for having good late movement on his pitches while keeping the ball down and inducing many ground balls. He allowed only 23 home runs in412+1⁄3 major league innings (0.5/9 rate).[36]
Fidrych captured the imagination of fans with his antics on the field. He would crouch down on the pitcher's mound and fix cleat marks, in what became known as "manicuring the mound," talk to himself, talk to the ball, aim the ball like a dart, strut around the mound after every out, and throw back balls that "had hits in them," insisting they be removed from the game.[37][38] He would also walk around to shake hands with the infielders after they made great playsin the field. Because the Tiger coaches were somewhat superstitious about jinxing Fidrych's success,Bruce Kimm, a rookie catcher, caught each of Fidrych's outings.[39]
As his success grew, Tiger Stadium crowds would chant "We want the Bird, we want the Bird" at the end of each of his home victories. The chants would continue until he emerged from the dugout to tip his cap to the crowd. While these "curtain calls" have become more common in modern sports, they were less so in mid-1970s baseball.[40] In his 18 appearances at Tiger Stadium, attendance equaled almost half of the entire season's 81 home games. Teams started asking Detroit to change its pitching rotation so Fidrych could pitch in their ballparks, and he appeared on the cover of numerous magazines, includingSports Illustrated (twice, including once withSesame Street characterBig Bird),[41][42]Rolling Stone (as of 2015, the only baseball player ever to appear on the cover of the rock and roll magazine), andThe Sporting News. In one week, Fidrych turned away five people who wanted to be his agent, saying, "Only I know my real value and can negotiate it."[43][44]
Fidrych also drew attention for the simple, bachelor lifestyle he led in spite of his fame, driving a greensubcompact car, living in a small Detroit apartment, wondering aloud if he could afford to answer all of his fan mail on his league-minimum$16,500 salary, and telling people that if he hadn't been a pitcher, he'd have been happypumping gas in Northborough.[45][46][47][48][49]
At the end of his rookie season, the Tigers gave him a $25,000 bonus and signed him to a three-year contract worth $255,000. Economists estimated the extra attendance Fidrych generated around the league in 1976 was worth more than $1 million. Fidrych also did anAqua Velva television commercial after the 1976 season. He was considered for the role of the jock Tom Chisum inGrease (1978), a role that ultimately went toLorenzo Lamas.[50]
According to theWorcester County district attorney's office, family friend Joseph Amorello found Fidrych dead beneath his ten-wheel dump truck at his Northborough home at around 2:30 p.m. on April 13, 2009. Fidrych appeared to have been working on the truck at the time of the accident.[51] Amorello later said: "We were just, in general, getting started for the [road-building] season this week and it seems as though his truck was going to be needed. It looked like he was doing some maintenance on it. I found him under the truck. There's not much more I can say. I dialed 911 and that's all I could do."[52] Authorities concluded that Fidrych hadsuffocated after his clothes had become entangled with a spinningpower takeoff shaft on the truck. The Massachusetts medical examiner ruled the death an accident.[53] Fidrych was cremated and a memorial service was held in his honor that was attended by thousands.[2]
A 2012wrongful-death suit filed by Fidrych's widow against the makers of the truck and the spinning component was dismissed by a Massachusettsappeals court in November 2017.[54] In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the companies provided warnings and that their equipment was free of design defects. The court decreed that the companies had no legal duty to provide any such warnings because Fidrych had modified the truck.
Fidrych was inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals of theBaseball Reliquary in 2002.[55]
In one ofBill James' baseball books, he quoted the Yankees'Graig Nettles as telling about an at-bat against Fidrych, who, as usual, was talking to the ball before pitching to Nettles. Immediately Graig jumped out of the batter's box and started talking to his bat. He reportedly said, "Never mind what he says to the ball. You just hit it over the outfield fence!" Nettles struck out. "Damn," he said. "Japanese bat. Doesn't understand a word of English." Nettles actually hit Fidrych very well in his career, though, with a .389 average [7-for-18] and two home runs.
On April 15, 2009, the Tigers paid tribute to Fidrych atComerica Park with a moment of silence and a video before their game against theChicago White Sox.[56]
At the time of his death he was about to be inducted into theNational Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.[57] He was inducted posthumously on June 18, 2009.[58][59]
On June 19, 2009, Jessica Fidrych honored her father atComerica Park by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to managerJim Leyland for the Tigers game against theMilwaukee Brewers. Prior to throwing out the first pitch, Jessica "manicured the mound" just like her father. Ann Fidrych, widow of Mark Fidrych, was also present on the field for the ceremony.[60]
The Baseball Project, a band that specializes in songs about baseball, honored Fidrych in their song "1976".[61]
The Varsity Baseball Field atAlgonquin Regional High School is named in honor of Mark Fidrych.
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