When "The Bird" was the word

At the end of every year sports fans look back to the athletes who provided to them everlasting memories that passed away that year and 2009 was no exception. For me, the athlete that was sadly taken too soon in 2009 was Mark "The Bird" Fidrych and the memories he provided will remain in the hearts of every baseball fan fortunate enough to have seen him in action.
It was the summer of 1976 on ABC's "Monday Night Baseball" when I and most of America were introduced to a pitcher with a 7 win and 1 losss record at the time named Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. It was a game in late June when Fidrych's team the Detroit Tigers faced the New York Yankees. The word was that Fidrych was an exciting young pitcher and a unique character. When watching him on the mound, it was obvious that those words completely underrated him. Fidrych was a tall and lanky man with curly brown hair that looked like the seventies version of "Napoleon Dynamite". If you saw him walking down the street you would never guess that he could possibly be a major league baseball pitcher, but when you saw him on the baseball field, you would never be able to get him out of your mind. That game in late June against the Yankees, Fidrych would remove cleat marks with his hand from the pitching mound, talk to the baseball and aim it as if he was telling the ball where he wanted it to go, and shake the hands of all his teammates on the field after he had successfully held the Yankees scoreless that inning. There was nothing staged or pretentious about "The Bird's" behavior. He was just a quirky baseball pitcher with an infectious charm that captured the imagination of baseball fans. He was also a great pitcher. That game the Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 5 to 1 and the sold out crowd in Tiger Stadium was all there to see Fidrych get the last out in the 9th inning. Every person at that game was on their feet and many more baseball fans at home who had little interest in the Tigers were cheering "The Bird' as well. Even though it was a regular season game, as Fidrych got the last out to win the game, it almost felt like the Tigers had just won the world series. As the baseball season went on visiting ballparks would sell out every game that Fidrych pitched. A geniune media star was born without any publicist or marketing "expert" telling him how to act or what to say. At the end of the season Fidrych would win rookie of the year with a 19 and 9 record, a 2.34 ERA ,and 24 complete games.
Unfortunately, the only thing as fast as Firdrych's rise in baseball was his fall. The following year a knee injury and undetected torn rotator cuff tear would cut short his season and Fidrych would finish the season with a 6 and 4 record. He would only pitch 3 games in 1978 and after being released by the Tigers, tried unsuccessfully with the Red Sox to make a comeback in 1981. He would then go back to his farm living with his wife and daughter and working moving gravel and asphalt in a 10 wheeler. Fidrych never complained about it or in any way felt regret. He was a simple man who was more than content living a simple life.
In one way "The Bird" was right for his time. In 1976 baseball was seen sparingly on television and mostly heard on radio. There was no ESPN, no all day news, no TMZ, and thankfully no reality television. If Fidrych were pitching today, his behavior would be seen more skeptically by viewers who would be thinking that he was simply trying to get attention. In another way, Fidrych may have been better off if he pitched today. In the seventies, there were no set up men or long relievers in bullpens and no pitch counts. Starting pitchers were expected to pitch complete games. Fidrych pitched 24 complete games in one season. That is more than most modern day pitchers will pitch in their entire careers. One can only wonder if Fidrych would have sustained a longer career and avoided his rotater cuff injury if he would have been taken out of games early to let the bullpen finish what he had started.
Whether the majority of baseball fans see Fidrych's career as triumph or tragedy is a bit unknown but "The Bird" for me will remain one of the most unique pitchers ever to play major league baseball. He is not a pitcher that is judged liked most pitchers by his career number of victories, complete games, strikeouts, or no hitters but by an unusual quirky charisma that fans embraced. While it is clear his career was too short for him to be inducted into Cooperstown, it is even more clear to every baseball fan with any memory of 1976 that for that one brief moment in time baseball belonged to "The Bird".