All through its history, there has never been a shortage of characters in baseball. In 1976, there was no bigger character than the Detroit Tigers Mark "the Bird" Fidrych.It was quite a jolt watching the local news tonight and hearing that Fidrych was found dead under his dump truck in Massachusetts today.
In 1976 I was living in Saginaw, MI. The local and national media was all abuzz about this eccentric, but amazingly talented pitcher who was starring for the Tigers. Several of us with the day off, decided to drive the hundred miles south to see Fidrych pitch. We got there, but the game was rained out. We spent the next several hours drinking beer at the legendary Lindell AC bar. So, while we missed seeing history on the mound, we did spend some time in a historic bar before schlepping back to Saginaw.
R.I.P. Bird and the bar.
He really lit up the game during his brief time on the hill. I have great memories of The Bird, and I'm a Yankee fan (but a baseball fan first...)
ReplyDeleteI was a Yankee fan until the Joe Torre fiasco.. but the Apple's loss is your gain, eh? Great manager.
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