His father was my 6th grade teacher. Sad day. 
We also lost Harry Kalas today.
It has been a sad few days for baseball.
Indeed. The local story is that he (Fidrych) was killed working on his pick-up truck. A friend found him underneath it.
I saw just about every home game he pitched. He got the crowd fired up like no one since. His quirks were many. He talked to the ball. Got down on his hands and knees to smooth out the mound and refused to use a ball that got hit hard. That is so sad.
If he enjoyed life half as much as he enjoyed baseball, he had a good one.
Big bird dead!!!
:(:(
Bye bye, Birdie.
I saw him pitch in a minor league game. I also remember seeing him on This Week In Baseball. Tigers games were never broadcast on Game of the Week broadcasts, so I never saw him pitch a major league game.
Bummer. I followed the Tigers in my youth and certainly remember “Big Bird.”
RIP
Marilyn Chambers also passed away today. She was 56.
They were THAT year. I remember watching him the second half of the season more than once, as I recall. Living in LA’s TV land at the time, so I suppose it might have been Angels games …
Back in the '84 season, my dad and I were at a game and walking the concourse of Tiger Stadium, and my dad goes “Bird!” Being nine, I had no idea who this guy was, but my dad made sure, after a few minutes of small talk, to have him sign my program.
Still got my 1984 Mark Fydrich-autographed program to this day.
If you watch interviews, if you listen to clips of him at the time, if you pay attention to the things he would do, you realize that he’s just the geeky nerd who manages to be a good athlete, but has no idea what to do with himself during the game. I mean, he’s just so damn adorably out of it when it comes to the established protocol of the game: sitting on the field and emptying his shoe of dirt then putting it back on and retying it, all without a clue that he’s looking like someone who has never been on a baseball field before. He’s so earnest when he is interviewed, it’s so great. No guile, no worries about how he comes off looking, just open honesty and having a great time playing ball. 
It was a damn shame about his arm. Baseball needed him.