More bad news... The Bird has died

[cincrazy]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

BOSTON (AP) -- Former All-Star pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych has been found dead in an apparent accident at his farm in Northborough, Massachusetts. He was 54.

Worcester County district attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. says a family friend found Fidrych about 2:30 p.m. Monday beneath a pickup truck. He appeared to be working on the truck, Early said.

The colorful right-hander was the American League rookie of the year in 1976 when he went 19-9 with a 2.34 earned run average. He spent all five of his major league seasons with the Detroit Tigers, compiling a 29-19 record and a 3.10 ERA.

His career was cut short by injuries.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[remdog]

Wow! Bad day all around!

No doubt the guy was a character! Too bad injuries derailed his career but he seemed to be the kind of guy that just went with the flow and went ahead with his life.

Sorry to hear of this as well as Harry.

I think I'll stay in today and hope we don't have an earthquake that pancakes the roof on my head.

Rem

[BoydsOfSummer]

Wow, well it's said they they come in 3's. I guess that's the third. Way to young at 54. He was quite a character.

[hebroncougar]

Wow........this stinks. I just saw him on the MLB Network this weekend, and thought they should make him a studio analyst, he was great.

[MrCinatit]

Just this morning, I finally got to watch his performance against the Yankees on the MLB Network where he had New York batters tied in knots - and was of great entertainment to the announcers.
One of the great "what if..." stories. May he rest in peace.

[Matt700wlw]

[pedro]

Fidrych's 1976 season was one of the main reasons I got hooked on baseball. Just saw him on mlb tv this spring and he was as engaging as ever.

[Team Clark]

That just terrible. Very sad day for baseball.

[westofyou]

Just sad news, the Bird was a big part of what made 1976 a great baseball year.

Mark Fidrych and Ron LeFlore. You can’t think of 1976 without touching on The Bird. 21 year old Fidyrch took the league by the storm, talking to the ball and completing 24 games at the age 21. Meanwhile Ron LeFlore a former felon in his 3rd year in major league ball was the lead off hitter for the American League in the All Star Game. Both were great stories for a team that had lost 107 games in the first year of Al Kalines retirement and the city of Detroit rode the Bird craze hard and fast. If you blinked you might have missed that year in Motown, it was something special and something that doesn’t happen very often, especially in this hitting era.

[OnBaseMachine]

Very sad. What's that, three deaths in the baseball world in the last four days?

[George Anderson]

Wow, well it's said they they come in 3's. I guess that's the third.

I thought the exact same thing when Kalas died but didn't wanna say anything becuase I thought i may jinx someone.

Wow!!!

[oneupper]

I still remember looking at the paper in May 1976 and thinking "Who is this Fidrych (0-0) who is starting against the Indians".
I think he two-hit them or something.

The Tigers were my AL team back then. (It was OK to have both AL and NL teams).
Great Season: Tigers sucked but had "The Bird" and the BRM swept through the WS.

RIP

[Always Red]

That was one magical summer for me.

I was a young man, the Reds were on top of the world, and the Bird was incredibly surreal, like a cartoon character, almost. He was Rookie of the Year, and finished 2nd in the Cy Young voting that year to Jim Palmer.

Godspeed, Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych.

[Tony Cloninger]

If the Bird had pitched in 1977.....anywhere close to 1976....that 1977 team had some offense to go farther than people expected.

Jason Thompson.....Tito Fuentes.....Rusty Staub and LeFlore had very good to great years.

[RedsFan75]

Loved watching the Bird. Thought he was great. Very sad news.