"The Bird" is the word

I turned nine in the summer of 1976. It was a busy exciting summer. Of course, it was the Bicentennial celebration. My Girl Scout troupe marched in our hometown parade and I wore dress that was kind of "colonial" style. It was a long dress with a brown gingham pattern on the skirt.

1976 was the summer that I fell in love with baseball. The Tigers were a hopeless team, usually mired in fifth place. As fans, we were pleased if they finished ahead of the Indians. The big story on the team had been a home town guy named Ron LeFlore who came out of prison into the big leagues and stole a ton of bases. He had been the story until this lanky kid from Wooster, MA pitched. Mark Fidrych made his major league pitching debut in mid May and beat the Indians. I remember exactly where I was. My family was driving somewhere on Telegraph Road and the radio announcers started talking about this pitcher and how he would kneel down on the mound to smooth out the dirt. We laughed, but the kid won the game and I was hooked.

Later that summer, my parents took us to our first game and it was a game when Fidrych was pitching. The Tigers had poor attendance, except for his games. I've read that his games averaged 40,000 plus while non-Fidrych games averaged 14,000. We waited in a huge crowd outside of old Tiger Stadium waiting for tickets. It was hot, probably in July and I remember feeling woozy. As we made out way through the gate, ushers handed out Bird whistles. The game was magic. He won, but I can no longer remember if it was a complete game.

That summer saw Bird-mania all over Detroit. I had at least two t-shirts, one was an iron on decal from the Free Press. There were songs and people seemed happy.

His career never panned out; a knee injury did him in. He died this week on his farm, crushed by a truck. He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1976 and then basically faded away into a regular life. I know that Detroiters never forgot him. Who could forget a summer like that. Thanks Mark

I haven't quite mastered the art of linking to YouTube but here's a little video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzJui7dqVaw