The Summer of the Bird

In the spring of 1976, a 21-year-old right-hander named Mark Fidrych made the Detroit Tigers' roster as a non-roster invitee. He was 6-foot-3 with a mop of curly blond hair that stuck out from his cap in every direction. A minor league coach had nicknamed him "The Bird" because he looked like Big Bird from Sesame Street. Nobody expected him to stay.

In his first major league start, on May 15 against the Cleveland Indians, he threw a two-hit complete game. He talked to the baseball. He got on his hands and knees to pat down the mound between innings. He pointed at the ball after every out. He shook hands with his infielders after good plays, not at the end of the inning but during it. After the game, Indians outfielder Rico Carty said Fidrych "was trying to hypnotize them."

Fidrych won his next eight starts. He pitched 24 complete games that season, an astonishing number even by 1976 standards. His ERA of 2.34 led the American League. He was named the starting pitcher for the AL All-Star team. He won Rookie of the Year and finished second in Cy Young voting. Bill James later calculated that Fidrych was the fastest-working pitcher in the American League that year, with an average game time of 2 hours and 11 minutes, 17 minutes quicker than the league average.

Crowds followed him everywhere. At Tiger Stadium, attendance doubled and tripled on his pitching days. A nationally televised game against the Yankees on June 28 drew 47,855 fans and made Fidrych a household name. After the game, fans refused to leave until he emerged from the dugout for a curtain call. When the Tigers played on the road, opposing teams moved his starts to their largest venues. Economists estimated the extra attendance he generated around the league was worth more than $1 million. His salary was $16,500.

Then it ended. In spring training 1977, Fidrych tore cartilage in his knee while shagging flies in the outfield. He had surgery, came back, and won six straight games. On July 4, pitching against the Orioles, his arm went dead. He felt something give in his shoulder. It was eventually diagnosed as a torn rotator cuff, a career-ending injury in an era before modern surgical repair. He tried to come back for three more years, making a handful of starts, but the magic was gone. The Tigers released him in 1981. He was 27.

Fidrych went home to Northborough, Massachusetts. He married, had a daughter, bought a 107-acre farm, and worked as a commercial truck driver hauling gravel and asphalt. On weekends, he helped out at his mother-in-law's diner. He showed up unannounced at local baseball fields to work with kids on their fundamentals.

On April 13, 2009, Fidrych was found dead beneath his ten-wheel dump truck at his farm. He had been performing maintenance when his clothes became tangled in the truck's power take-off shaft. He was 54.

Two months later, his daughter Jessica threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Comerica Park. Before she threw it, she got on her hands and knees and manicured the mound, the way her father always had.