Mark Fidrych of the Detroit Tigers, for one season, was the most exciting…
… athlete in America. The Bird… Mark Fidrych was one of the most fascinating, intriguing and just plain COOL players in baseball history, starring in a pretty bad Tigers club during the rebuilding phase of the mid-1970s.
What made Bird a showman, who could fill ballparks from coast to coast, was the fact that he didn’t even know…or care…that he was acting and it all came naturally. That’s what those great crowds came to see!
Talking to the ball… getting on his knees to fix the mound… shaking hands with his teammates after they made big plays… his giddy, goofy, everyone-friend attitude – it was all 100% real and that’s what made it a fan favorite.
The bird was goofing around in Massachusetts, playing high school baseball when the Tigers drafted him No. 232 in 1974… his #1 pick was Lance Parrish, so they did well that year, better than many of those drafts- with 2 big stars, but very different careers.
…and while the Tigers really struggled in ’75, Fidrych was working his way up the minor league ladder, first at “A” Lakeland, going just 5-11, then at AA Montgomery and finally reaching Triple-A Evansville. late summer… pitching very well and drawing attention – an entire minor league coaching career packed into a single season. Many thought he had a chance to make the major league team in ’76.
…and he did! The Tigers kept him when he finished camp, shutting out Dave Lemanezyk, who had pitched in the majors in ’75. Manager Ralph Houk liked what he saw in the Florida Winter League and was convinced the boy was a major leaguer.
But he was relegated to the background… all the way until May 15, when his first start came against the feisty Cleveland tribe… and it was an immediate hit and sensation… the antics: aiming the ball toward his intended path, circling the mound, refusing the help of the handyman, and fixing the hill himself—all of that was different, but more importantly, he held the Indians hitless for 6 and finished with a 2-1 victory. Even the Indians were amused – and distracted – by their antics. Veteran Rico Carty put it best: “The more he does, the more you want to hit him, and the more you want to hit him, the worse you get.” How can you hit when you’re laughing? A crowd of just over 14,000 were lucky enough to say they were there for their first big league “W!”
But they put him on the shelf again, he didn’t pitch again for 10 days until he started in Boston, he lost to the Red Sox, but he only allowed 2 runs and 6 hits in a hitter-happy Fenway… but then Houk and the Tigers began to know they had something special and El Pájaro entered the starting rotation. After Boston’s loss, he pitched again on May 31, a Monday night, at the Stadium and beat the Brewers 5-4…throwing 11 full innings in a thrilling comeback earned on Tom Veryzer’s single …his record stood at 2-1 and the conversation was really heating up throughout baseball about this guy.
…and surprisingly another victory followed in an 11-inning complete game at Texas, allowing the Rangers just 2 runs on 7 hits. It’s hard to imagine a man filling up 11 times these days, let alone twice in a row!
Birdmania actually showed up for the first time on a Friday night at the old ballpark… June 11 brought 36,377 fans together to see two teams with sub-.500 records, well not really… they all came to see the Bird… and Fidrych did not disappoint them. He again goes all the way, giving up just 1 earned run for his fourth straight win. Another stadium cliffhanger followed when old pro Mickey Stanley singled on the game-winning run in the final inning for another complete game victory – the bird has now won 5 in a row! …and it wasn’t luck, not according to many guys who actually knew baseball. Baltimore coach Jim Frey said, “He doesn’t pitch at all like a kid…he knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s dumb as a fox.”
A pair of road wins in Minnesota and Boston made him the hottest pitcher in the majors and ready for the big, nationally televised game against the AL champion Yankees in Detroit…and this one was special! ! A crowd of 47,855 turned out to see the new sensation in action and, once again, it did not disappoint. It was an absolutely electric atmosphere as Bird dominated the Bombers in a 5-1 victory. The huge crowd called out to him after the win with cheers of “We want Fidrych” and he was the first player to be called that since McLain won the #30 in ’68. He was now, not just the talk of baseball, but the talk of almost everyone, everywhere. It seemed like it would go on forever, but the baseball Gods had other plans…
…but that was for later. A Saturday night shutout of Baltimore at Detroit followed before over 50,000 and another packed house saw his next start…his streak was finally snapped but he pitched another complete game and certainly well enough to win when the Tigers lost 1 -0, bringing his record to 9-2. But he atoned for that mistake by beating Oakland in his next start, after the All-Star game, 1-0 — another 11-inning complete game in front of another big crowd — the kid was becoming a money machine for the fans. Tigers, paying out bigger than any gate draw in team history.
Almost unprecedentedly, a rookie was chosen to be the starting pitcher at this year’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia…a strong Michigan connection to 3 Tigers and Grand Rapids Chairman Gerald Ford…Fidrych wanted to meet the Ford’s son Steve and learning the details of his dates with tennis star Chris Evert while Ford quipped, “Don’t talk to those guys… talk to the old man.” That bizarre encounter was the highlight of the All-Star Game for Bird, as he allowed 2 runs in 2 innings and was tagged with the loss, but it was still exciting for Fidrych: “In all my life I never played in an all-star game.” . before. Not in the minor leagues, not in high school, not in the minors, not anywhere.”
But if Fidrych wasn’t a big-league star, he’d be just another kid in a small town, probably working at a gas station, looking for girls and living in a basic apartment… even now he admits it.” Sometimes I let the dishes pile up, but they don’t get very tall… I only have four plates.” Just making the minimum wage of $16,000, he felt the need to live a bit frugally, driving a subcompact car instead of a truck… “That’s me… I’m a truck guy.”
He received the nickname in rookie baseball in ’74 from one of his teammates who noted that Fidrych bore a strong resemblance to the Sesame Street character “Big Bird.” The name stuck: it was natural, although no one seems to remember the exact person who invented it.
… and a book was being prepared for the printers… “Go, Bird, Go!” will be on shelves by mid-summer… Noticed that Yankees catcher Thurman Munson had called him “bush” , Fidrych replied, “They can call me bush or they can call me turkey… but my teammates don’t and they’re the ones that count.”
He was becoming one of the biggest gate draws of all time, drawing 5 times more than the Tigers would normally get… no one in team history had ever put them in like The Bird… maybe no one in Major League Baseball history had done it. that kind of appeal at the gate in the summer of 1976…his first 13 starts averaged over 42,000 per game (and that includes the first two before BirdMainia really took notice)…Veteran baseball player and manager of White Sox manager Paul Richards said, “Babe Ruth didn’t cause quite as much excitement on her brightest day.”
Bruce Kimm, The Bird’s “personal catcher”, was enjoying the trip… called up in April to replace the injured Milt May, Kimm caught Fidrych’s first game and continued from there – the manager knew something good when he caught him! he saw!
…and by the end of 1976, he finished with a stellar record of 19 wins against only 9 losses with a 2.34 ERA that led all AL starters… Rookie of the Year… imagine what he would have done if it had started in April instead of May. He drew 605,677 fans at Tiger Stadium in just 19 starts… an average of over 30,000, which was extraordinary in those days!
After all that, many thought he would hire an agent, he would demand a lot of money, but The Bird didn’t…he got a 3-year deal and was very happy with it. He could have signed a one-year deal for a lot of money, but what if I die next year? was his prophetic comment. In fact, he did pretty well as a rookie: endorsements and a $34,500 bonus given to him in September. The Tigers are good people,’ he said. They took care of me. I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t.”
… but if it all seemed too good to be true, maybe it was. Spring training of ’77 brought high hopes, but little good news…injured his knee in early March while running in the outfield and was rushed to Detroit for surgery to repair torn cartilage…even at Minus June….how many wins and $$ would it cost the team?
He came back in June and pitched some good games… he was 6-4 with a good 2.89 ERA, but he hurt his arm on July 12 and was suspended for the season… at that time, the Tigers and their the doctors did not think it was a career-threatening injury.
But he never really came back.
Always stating that he was pain-free and a little ways off from his return to form, Fidrych remained optimistic, but it was always one thing after another…he was left trying to bounce back for a few more years in Detroit before Boston. he gave him a chance… he scared all of us Tiger fans that he was coming back in a big way with Boston, but we all rooted for him.
We enjoy seeing him from time to time…he seems to have done well, running a small business, driving a truck and doing most of the work himself…he came back for the last game at Tiger Stadium, patted the mound and put some of his act… and we loved it.
I don’t want to dwell on the negative side of his too-short career… I’d rather focus on that great year of 1976 when he turned the world upside down.