RIP: Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych, 54

My mailman died the same way.

 

Fidrych's glory days were a year or two before my time, but I remember his numerous comeback attempts, but didn't understand at a young age how much he was beloved at his peak.

Our young copy editor didn't know how he was. I told him Fidrych's fame was like Dontrelle Willis' several times over when Willis was a rookie.

RIP to The Bird.

 

Loved The Bird when he hit it big, but I think I dug him even more after a Where are they now feature in SI. The guy was comfortable with who he was, before, during and after his fame. You don't see many pitchers come out of nowhere like that much. Fernando, Clemens for sure, and maybe others have had the skill, but lacked the dynamic personality.

 

Sad.

Loved watching him and Al (The Mad Hungarian) Hrabowski pitch when I was a kid.

 

Great candid interview with the Bird from 1985, I think.

 

Here's that story.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1022912/index.htm

 

What else is there to say? Just, Damn.

RIP Bird

 

The one thing I can say, and it may be late, if any of you are working with somebody young who doesn't realize the impact The Bird had in '76, like Bubbler, make sure they do understand it so he gets the respect he deserves tonight.

 

I turned 10 the summer he hit the bigs and I still remember watching that Monday Night Baseball game on ABC that the MLB network just showed a few nights ago. I even bought the biography that came out on him after that season.

He burst onto the scene in much the same way Fernando Valenzuela would 4-5 years later. If I remember correctly, during spring training the next year, Fidrych tripped over or stepped on a sprinkler head while he was jogging blew out his knee or ankle and was never close to the same pitcher when he came back. He was truly a one-hit wonder.

But for one summer he captivated baseball fans at a time when baseball was still the National Pastime. As a 10-year-old who was just getting into baseball he was larger than life.

 

Amen. You had to be there.

The Bird was the word during a magical summer that was a perfect follow-up to the greatest World Series ever.

Whenever I think of Fidrych, his talking-to-the-ball exploits remind me of that great quote from Graig Nettles: "When I faced him, I told my bat to hit a home run. But it's a Japanese bat, and it didn't understand me."

RIP.

 

Man. They just do not make characters like they used to.