Happy Baseball Birthday...Mark "The Bird" Fidrych

Today's Happy Baseball Birthday is former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych.

Mark Steven Fidrych was born on August 14, 1954, in Worcester,  Massachusetts, and  attended  Worcester Academy High School.

The Detroit Tigers drafted Mark in the 10th round if the 1974 amatuer baseball draft.

After a couple of years in the Tigers farm systen, Fidrych made his big league debut for the Tigers on April 20, 1976.

All Tigers fans around in '76, myself included, can rattle off Fidrych's 1976 season... 19 wins, 9 losses, an American League leading 2.34 ERA and 24 compete games. 

Fidrych was a baseball rock star who talked to the baseball, manicured the dirt around the pitching mound on his hands and knees, had a big, infectious smile,  ran on and off the field, and thanked his Tigers teammates after they made plays like it was a Little League game.

Injuries, starting in the spring of 1977, would allow Mark Fidrych to start only 27 games between '77-'80, and his final big league game was in Toronto,  on October 1, 1980, vs the Blue Jays.

Nearly five years later, in 1985, famed baseball doctor James Andrews diagnosed Fidrych with a torn rotator cuff injury, and although it was repaired, the damage was done,  and Fidrych never pitched again.

Mark Fidrych passed away at the age of 54 on April 13, 2009, of a accident on his farm in Northboro. 

No player, not  Alan Trammell,  Kirk Gibson, Jack Morris,  Cecil Fielder, Justin Verlander, or Miguel Cabrera ment more or was more beloved by Tigers fans like Mark Fidrych was in 1976.

Happy Baseball Birthday Mark!

PLAY BALL!

Today in Baseball...May 15, 1976.

Few pitchers with a 29-19 career record are remembered in baseball.

In Detroit, a rare bird took flight on this day in 1976, sending Tigers fans in a frenzy every day he pitched.

Mark Fidrych is revered by all us Tigers fans who grew up in the 1970s.

Fidrych was just a kid, not much older than we teenagers were.

I was 16 years old in '76, and the Tigers were everything to me.

Mark Fidrych was just 22 years old when he made his big league debut on May 15th, and what a debut it was.

9 innings, just 2 hits and 1 run allowed to the Cleveland Indians.

That amazing debut by the curly haired rookie was the first of 19 wins, a American League best 2.34 ERA and 24 complete games.

The A.L. Rookie of the Year in 1976, Mark Fidrych was the starting pitcher for the Junior Circuit at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

Fidrych hurt himself running around in the outfield grass in Lakeland during the spring if 1977, and he really never recovered.

Mark Fidrych was the big baseball show in 1976, and we can only imagine what a healthy career would've been for him and the Tigers.

Fidrych was beloved by Tigers fans long after his big league career was over, right up to his passing in 2009, and continuing to this day, 38 years after he took the ball at Tiger Stadium for his first start.

To me, the Tigers need to honor Mark Fidrych, with a nice statue of him talking to the baseball.

We miss Mark Fidrych and that great big smile.

A special thanks to the DetroAthletic Company for the Fidrych box score on their Facebook page today.