I felt it necessary to take a brief diversion from my normal, daily posts about the games in the 2009 Detroit Tigers season to comment on The Bird. Mark Fidrych died yesterday, April 13 at the age of 54. I read about this after returning home from a cold but fun day at Comerica Park. It was truly sad to read about the accident that took him from us. It is reminiscent of the injuries that took him from our sports lives in the years after his tremendous 1976 season.
His numbers from 1976:
19 W, 9 L, 2.34 ERA, 24 Complete games, 250.1 IP, 53 BB, 97 SO, 1.079 WHIP. He won AL Rookie of the Year and started in the All-Star game.
I remember listening to him pitch on the radio and watch him on TV back in that great year. MLB network had just recently shown a Monday Night Baseball game against the Yankees in 1976 that was his national coming out party. Hope they show it again soon.
The Bird was not just a goofy kid, he was a great pitcher whose career was shortened by injuries to his knees and shoulders. Now, his life is shortened by a horrible accident.
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