April 14, 2009
Dear friends,
One of the most colorful Pawtucket Red Sox performers of the early 1980's, Mark Fidrych, died Monday 4/14, age 54, in a farming accident in Northhampton, MA.
In 1976, as a 21 year old Detroit Tigers rookie, Fidrych's enthusiasm on the mound reinvigorated baseball. However, the Tigers ownership and manager Ralph Houk, burned out Fidrych's arm with too many starts and too many innings, finishing Fidrych's career by early 1977. Fidrych's best year proved his rookie year when he owned a record of 19-9. With later arm and shoulder problems, "the Bird" finished his major league career with a record of 10-10.
If Fidrych had been born 20 years later, he would have owned a longer career. Health care for pitchers improved dramatically in the past decade. Thirty years ago, Tiger management allowed him no pitch counts. In one game in summer 1976, Fidrych threw nearly 200 pitches in an 11 inning outing.
By the time Fidrych reached the PawSox in his first start on July 3, 1982, as a fan, I noticed his velocity was gone. However, attendance at McCoy Stadium increased from an average of 2,000 per summer game, to a full house of 6,000 whenever Fidrych pitched.
In essence, Fidrych made the game fun, before the days of free agency and greedy agents.
