lordstanley

Guardians lose. Division deficit down to 9.5 games.

April 22, 1978 Rangers at Tigers. Ernie Harwell starts broadcast by announcing that Fidrych experienced tightness in the shoulder during warmups and was scratched as the starter. Replacement starter? Jack Morris.

Tigers win, 4 in a row!!

Quebec could support an NHL team if the Nordiques only had 9 home games per season.

I got a subscription to Sports Illustrated every Christmas as a gift starting around that time. Very first issue I received in the mail as a 9 year old was a swimsuit edition with twins on the cover, lol. With paper route money I subscribed to the Sporting News for a couple of years but that came later. I would read Sport when I got my hands on it, I remember it being somewhat saltier, allowing swear words and stuff. Then Inside Sports arrived onto the scene and it was slick! I would cut out pictures from all those magazines and use it to wallpaper every inch of my bedroom wall. I really wish to have a photo of it from that time. https://sundaylongread.com/2018/01/28/inside-inside-sports-the-oral-history/

Sounds like it. From this blog post, which also has some great stats on Fidrych’s heavy usage in 1976 and his strong deferred start to 1977: https://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/update-things-i-meant-to-write-just-after-mark-fidrych-died/ “He threw complete games in seven of his first eight starts. By that time he was 6-2 with a 1.83 ERA. He didn’t give up a home run in his first 66-1/3 innings. He faced 38 batters in each of those last two starts, with just three days rest between them. Performance-wise, he was every bit the pitcher he was in 1976 (at least through the end of August), if not better”. “Then he got the hell beat out of him in two starts, being knocked out in the sixth inning of each game, allowing 21 hits and 12 earned runs in 11-1/3 innings. He later came to believe he tore his right rotator cuff in the first of those two games, July 4 at Baltimore, although the injury wasn’t diagnosed as such until 1985. (In the 1986 SI piece, Gary Smith wrote Fidrych’s right shoulder popped “ten days after he returned from the disabled list,” which would be early June, which seems unlikely based on his performance.) On July 12 he was pulled while facing the fourth batter of the game and was done for the year. (Jim Crawford came in to relieve Fidrych and threw 8-1/3 shutout innings.) According to the next day’s Detroit Free Press, team doctor Clarence Livingood diagnosed Fidrych’s problem as “a tired arm.”

There was an article around that time in, I believe, Sport magazine win which Fidrych tells of him and a girl jumping a fence at a ball field so they could do it on the pitcher’s mound. But he got injured from shagging balls, not shagging broads.

There was a bit more Fidrych mania in 1977. I went to the June 28, 1976 game (held my 9th birthday party in the lower deck in the LF, last day of school had been Friday, truly the most memorable day of my childhood) and to two others that summer and one Fidrych start in 1977. I think he came back in late May of 1977 after his first injury and got off to a 6-2 start. He was picked for the 1977 All Star Game but didn't pitch. We went to White Sox at Tigers in early July. One of the wildest games I ever went to. Friday night, 45k attendance. Fidrych went in with a 6-3 W/L record but gave up 6 runs and 11 hits. Then the rain came! Big delay but almost everyone stuck around. Very rowdy. Every 5 minutes someone else was running onto the field and cops would chase them and the fans would whoop and roar every time a cop slipped and fell, which was often. Fidrych made just one more start before getting injured again, finished the 1977 season with a 6-4 WL, 2.89 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 81 IP.

I think you’re right, I was too negative. Perfect time to trade him, but I wish we had a stronger centre behind him. Those trade ideas are bone fide and intriguing but some I know will be non-starters, like the Leafs won’t trade the #1 for him. San Jose has youth and good contracts, what would we need to add to Larkin to get the #2 overall - Cossa? I’d do that.

Here is the WJR broadcast of another Fidrych start that magical summer. August 1976 vs the Angels at Tiger Stadium This is another Fidrych start from August at Tiger Stadium. It is the White Sox radio crew though.

Overtime!

Canes were on the ropes. Now they have life, after 3 goals in 5 minutes. Gostisbehere assist gives them a 3-2 lead with 4 1/2 minutes to go!