Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

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The Third Man
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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by The Third Man »

Sheesh. In a couple of weeks, we've lost a promising up-and-comer (Adenhart), a former star and well-known character (Fidrych), a legendary announcer (Kalas) and one of my favorite baseball writers (John Brattain). Who's next, a well-known manager or a Negro League legend?

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InvincibleCakeEater
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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by InvincibleCakeEater »

Pretty cool video. He seemed like a good dude.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm_jU0b5 ... r_embedded][/youtube]

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Joe Shlabotnik
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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

Thanks for posting that ICE - it will let the younger GRB'ers see what he was like and why he is remembered by those of us who saw him growing up. He was a real character.

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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by Spider John »

heyzeus wrote:
lukethedrifter wrote:I sure hope he wasn't doing something stupid and his truck fell on him. Baseball sure could have used a few more years of his goofiness on the mound.
Apparently he was pitching with a torn rotator cuff in the late 70s that wasn't even diagnosed til 1985. That's really sad; if it had been found at the right time, there's no telling if he'd have ever been great again....but it would've been a lot more likely.
This could explain his torn rotator cuff:
One other person who couldn't get enough of Fidrych was Tigers manager Ralph Houk. The Major, as Houk was known, should have been court-martialed for the way he abused his rookie pitcher. In Fidrych's third and fourth starts of the season Houk let him pitch back-to-back 11-inning complete games.

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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by fanforever »

Spider John wrote:
heyzeus wrote:
lukethedrifter wrote:I sure hope he wasn't doing something stupid and his truck fell on him. Baseball sure could have used a few more years of his goofiness on the mound.
Apparently he was pitching with a torn rotator cuff in the late 70s that wasn't even diagnosed til 1985. That's really sad; if it had been found at the right time, there's no telling if he'd have ever been great again....but it would've been a lot more likely.
This could explain his torn rotator cuff:
One other person who couldn't get enough of Fidrych was Tigers manager Ralph Houk. The Major, as Houk was known, should have been court-martialed for the way he abused his rookie pitcher. In Fidrych's third and fourth starts of the season Houk let him pitch back-to-back 11-inning complete games.

in fairness to Houk that was the "norrm" back then

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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by lukethedrifter »

For some reason I always associate Joe Charboneau with Fidrych. Anyway, when looking up Super Joe I came across this on Page 2
The List: Baseball's one-hit wonders
By Jeff Merron
Page 2 staff


One great thing about the baseball All-Star Game is that you always get at least a few guys, sprinkled among the superstar veterans, for whom this will be the first and last time in the big spotlight. Sometimes, they're one-hit wonders -- players for whom this turns out to be not only the best season of their baseball careers, but also the only one worth talking about. Hopefully, Dontrelle Willis will stay healthy and have a long and productive career ... but you never know.

Which got us to thinking about baseball's shooting stars, the players (and one team) who scored the equivalent of a hit single (one or a few great games), or a hit album (a great season), then were pretty much through.

Mark Fidrych
Fidrych became better known for his mound antics after 1976.
1. Mark Fidrych
The ultimate one-hit wonder crafted a single, scintillating masterpiece season in 1976 with the Tigers, filling both home and away stadiums with his pitching prowess and zany mound antics. Fidrych went 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA in his only complete Major League season, before succumbing to arm problems and going only 10-10 in the final four years of his career. Besides his prowess, there was, well, the other stuff.
William Barry Furling profiled the pitcher in the Aug 22, 1976 issue of the New York Times Magazine: "Mark Fidrych did catch the public imagination suddenly this summer when, in the course of defeating the New York Yankees, 5 to 1, he was observed indulging in an idiosyncrasy that might get other men committed: He was talking to his baseball." What he told it was direct, pithy, and obscene (Mark has a distinct language problem). 'F------ way to flow! Now ya gotta go outside, ya motha------. Outside!' That is a fairly accurate representation of what he says to the ball. What the ball says back is a matter of conjecture to everyone but Mark. 'When it goes over the fence, it yells, '"Ya shouldn'a thrown that pitch,"' he says."
Furling captured what still enthralls us about The Bird more than 25 years after his star faded. "Fidrych is more than a fad. He is an experience -- existential, romantic. He is almost an act of faith in an age of doubt, a happy display of innocence in a time of cunning."
2. Joe Charboneau
"Super Joe" Charboneau was a unique physical specimen, a guy who could blast a booming homer and then celebrate after the game by opening a beer bottle with his eye socket, then drinking the beer with a straw -- through his nose. Why beer? Well, he needed something to wash down the cigarettes he was eating.
In other words, Charboneau was a true flake, celebrated by Indians fans in song. "Who's the newest guy in town? Go Joe Charboneau. Turns the ballpark upside down. Go Joe Charboneau ... Who's the one to keep our hopes alive? ... Straight from seventh to the pennant drive ... Raise your glass, let out a cheer ... For Cleveland's Rookie of the Year!"
The 24-year-old rookie made an astounding debut in the Cleveland home opener, hitting a single, double, three-run homer, and walking in his four plate appearances. He didn't stop there; by season's end, Charboneau, a fan favorite, hit 23 homers, drove in 87 runs, and hit .289 to win Rookie of the Year honors. He played only 70 more games in the Majors in the next two years, and then his career was over.
3. Bob Hamelin
How many athletes can say they broke a record set by Bo Jackson? Hamelin can. In his first Major league season, the strike-shortened one of 1994, he hit 24 dingers, besting Jackson's Royals rookie record of 23. And with a .282 batting average and 65 RBI, he ran away with AL Rookie of the Year honors. The following season, though, he hit only seven homers and batted .168, and was even sent down to the minors. Less than three years after his great rookie season -- at the end of spring training in 1997 -- the Royals released Hamelin.
The Tigers picked him up and he played well in 1997, hitting 18 homers and driving in 52 in only 318 AB, but Hamelin was out of baseball after a very poor season in 1998.
4. 1997 Florida Marlins
What can $89 million in free agents buy? A World Series champion. Wayne "Blockbuster" Huizenga spent and spent and spent in the 1996 offseason, and with the newly-acquired Alex Fernandez, Moises Alou and Bobby Bonilla, Florida compiled a 92-70 record, good enough for a wild card berth. Then they beat the Giants in the first round of the playoffs, topped the Braves for the NL flag, and took the Indians in seven games to win the World Series.
Huizinga's free-spending ways bought a title, but the team lost $30 million, and the owner decided a fire sale would be fun. Exit Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Moises Alou, Robb Nen, Dennis Cook, and others and in 1998 the Marlins dropped to 54-108, 52 games out of first place.

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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by Freed Roger »

InvincibleCakeEater wrote:Pretty cool video. He seemed like a good dude.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm_jU0b5 ... r_embedded][/youtube]
thats a good interview. Thanks.

Its sad to have the Bird gone. He was such the phenom -even drawing the attention of NL fans, something that didn't happen in those days.

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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by jim »

I was a big fan when I was a kid. I remember watching him and just getting a kick out of him. My Dad would just hoot and holler watching all the antics. He definitely put the fun back in the game.

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Re: Mark Fidrych Dies at 54

Post by Fan_In_NY »

I always knew about him, saw a couple of highlights, knew the stats and the stories, but caught some of that game against the Yanks on ESPN Classic during dull times of the Cards game tonight. It was crazy. I mean first off the man was an amazing entertainer. Besides the constant running around on the mound, and throwing a pitch basically right after he got the ball back, the whole scene was unreal. I mean they Tigers beat the Yanks in June and he goes off the field basically running up to ever player on the field and shaking their hand. Then shakes the policemen's hands, and because its the 70's of course there are fans coming onto the field for no reason and he is shaking their hands. and its not like a TLR after the game shaking of the hand, its like lunatic street bum/beggar shaking hands he is doing. Just running all of the place... it was a regular season game in JUNE!! He came back out of the dugout to shake more fans hands, and remember Lastings Milledge was murdered in the press, and chastised in his own lockerroom and traded away from the Mets for slapping five with fans as he ran out onto the field in the bottom 10th inning of a game after hitting his first ever home run to put the team in the top of the inning (it may have been the 9th, and it might not have been his first of his career, but I am too lazy to check). And this guy was loved for doing this. Warner Wolf and the other guy doing the game couldn't believe what was going on. Between him, Doc Ellis, Spaceman Lee, even Hungo... what a crazy crazy time the 70's were...

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