Mark "The Bird" Fidrych Dies

[filkertom]

Wow. I'm really feeling my age now. An icon of Detroit baseball for one glorious season, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych was found dead today. He was 54. Dana Houle has an appreciation at dKos.

Comments

[wood-dragon.livejournal.com]

Ah damn.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

That's sad. He was the subject of one of my all-time favorite Tank McNamara strips, in which the baseball started talking back to him and scared him silly. Punchline: "It had to happen sometime, Mark!"

Sports death trifecta

[vid848.livejournal.com]

We hit the "death trifecta" in one day, and two of them had baseball ties.

1. Mark Fidrych
2. Harry Kalas--the voice of the Phillies and NFL Films for the last 25 year years. He collapsed in the broadcast booth before the Phillies/Nationals game and died at the hospital.
3. Bruce Snyder--former Arizona State football coach, lead them to an undefeated regular season back in 1996 before losing to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. after a 10 month fight with cancer

Re: Sports death trifecta

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

The last few days have been brutal; I don't follow sports, but I gather that a really promising Angels rookie got killed by a drunk driver a few days back, right after his first start, and a very successful one at that.

Pathetic waste.

[pjhandley.livejournal.com]

oh man......I remember meeting him when I was a kid, the first "pro athelete" I ever met. Darn shame....

[rook543.livejournal.com]

Fidrych was my all time favorite player! My dad took me to many of his games in 76 and got me a "The Bird Is The Word" button from one of the souvenier stands, which I still have, along with my autographed pic of the bird that the Tigers sent me and a team signed baseball with his name among them. When I was 9, Baseball and Fidrych were a big part of my childhood.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

He didn't die of old age, though.