Posts Tagged ‘1970s’
‘BIG HAIR AND PLASTIC GRASS’ ON FACEBOOK
Those of you who followed my recreation of the 1969 baseball season would enjoy the Facebook page for Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s, the forthcoming book by pop culture historian Dan Epstein. I can personally attest that it’s a hugely fun book, and the author’s put together a FB profile that is in the process of goin’ viral with more than 600 fans in little over a week’s time. The page has regular updates with links to great YouTube footage from the 70s, wonderfully tacky images from the era shared by fans, and frequent commentary from the author featuring his characteristic wit.
Check it out.
MARK FIDRYCH, 1954-2009
I was saddened to hear of the death of Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, the former Detroit Tigers pitcher who took baseball by storm for one shining season back in 1976.
While the nation at large celebrated its bicentennial, Detroit celebrated a 22-year-old rookie who become the most entertaining player in the game. The gangly, curly-haired pitcher from Worcester, Massachusetts, delighted fans with his antic demeanor. He got down on his hands and knees to smooth out the mound with his hands. He talked to the baseball, telling it where he wanted it to go, and he extended his arm toward home plate to show it where he wanted it to go. He got rid of baseballs that seemed to have too many hits in them. He jumped around boyishly and slapped five with teammates on the field. In short, he was the biggest, most enjoyable flake in the majors.
The game has seen more than its share of offbeat characters, but what made Fidrych different was he backed up his act with his performance. In his rookie season, he went a remarkable 19-9 while giving up a league-low 2.34 earned runs per nine innings. Boston Red Sox manager Darrell Johnson named Fidrych the starting pitcher for the American League in that summer’s All-Star Game, in which he was joined in the starting lineup by Tigers teammates Ron LeFlore and Rusty Staub. Despite their three All-Stars, Detroit won just 74 games in 1976, which means Fidrych was credited with just over 25% of his team’s victories – an amazing load for a rookie to carry.
“The Bird” was the word in ‘76. Most of America was introduced to Fidrych (who got his nickname from his resemblance to Big Bird on Sesame Street) on the night of June 28 during a national broadcast of ABC’s Monday Night Baseball. He pitched a complete game in a 5-1 win over the eventual American League champion New York Yankees. Back then, MNB offered the only nationally televised regular-season games. Baseball fans watched it every week, and I remember watching this particular game and witnessing the rise of the next great young player. In games that I would act out between imaginary players from the majors, I began to smooth out the pitching mound and talking to the whiffle ball before throwing it plateward.
After he’d beaten the Yankees on national TV, the standing ovation in Tiger Stadium urged Fidrych to come back onto the field. As he did so, he seemed overcome, almost embarrassed, at the love being showered upon him. This, too, was what made him special. Those around him reported that there was nothing contrived about it. His flakiness appeared to come from his sheer enthusiasm for playing a game he loved.
How big was The Bird? In May 1977, the wacky wunderkind became the first athlete to appear on the cover of Rolling Stonemagazine (see below). Like the 1969 Miracle Mets, Fidrych’s baseball stardom captured the imagination of people throughout America, fans and non-fans alike.
Unfortunately, the Tigers phenom would not have a long career. While horsing around on the field during spring training in 1977, he tore the cartilage in his knee. (Staub would later remember warning Fidrych to settle down, to no avail, and then reacting with dismay when he realized his young teammate had indeed hurt himself.) He returned for part of the season, compiling a record of 6-4 with a 2.89 ERA, but then he developed arm troubles. Only years later would he discover that he’d torn his rotator cuff.
Much like Washington Senators shortstop Cecil Travis, whose all-star career was sidetracked by World War II, Fidrych was never the same again. He made a series of comeback attempts with the Tigers, and then in the minor-league system for his hometown favorite Boston Red Sox, but he would never pitch in the majors past 1980 and retired at the age of 29. His career record stands at 29-19 with an ERA of 3.10.
Yet his record does not sufficiently tell the story of Fidrych and what he brought to the game during its revitalization in the 1970s. He recently made an appearance on the MLB Network, relating the fond memories of his career. I was glad that people still remembered him. With recent advances in sports medicine, if Fidrych were pitching today, surgery might have repaired his damaged rotator cuff and allowed him to pitch effectively for many years. Instead, the times he lived in would allow him just one-and-a-half years of stardom.
When I heard of his death yesterday, the result of an apparent accident involving the ten-wheel pickup truck he was working on at his home in Northborough, Massachusetts, I felt sad for two reasons: one, for a player whose candle burned all too briefly; and two, for myself, as a piece of my childhood had died with him.
Rest in peace, Bird.
-Rob
For more on Mark Fidrych, click on:
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/mlb_player_locator_results.jsp