50 Years Ago Today I started to love baseball

[Tiger337]

7 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

If I recall at the time wasn't the knee injury a result of jumping over a chain link fence?

He was fooling around in the outfield catching flyballs.  Rusty Staub warned him, but he did not listen.  

[lordstanley]

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.

[oblong]

Fidrych is among my earliest memories.  I was born in 73 so obviously I doubt i remember 1976.... but I do remember going to Tiger Stadium to see him pitch, that may have been my first game.  What i remember most is we left an umbrella behind.

 

[lordstanley]

2 hours ago, NorthWoods said:

If I recall at the time wasn't the knee injury a result of jumping over a chain link fence?

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. 

Edited Friday at 06:19 PM by lordstanley

[oblong]

There were also rumors he got it from jumping from a window or fence when a woman's husband/boyfriend got home.

But without the injury he probably would have flamed out.

[Tiger337]

Fidrych was cruising along until this game right here:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL197707040.shtml

All of the sudden, he gave up 6 runs in the 6th inning and was never the same after that.  I don't know whether it was wear and tear that finally gave out, but the career ending injury seems to have happened in the 6th inning of that game.  He tried to work through it in the next game versus the White Sox and was terrible.  

[Tiger337]

14 minutes ago, oblong said:

There were also rumors he got it from jumping from a window or fence when a woman's husband/boyfriend got home.

But without the injury he probably would have flamed out.

I don't know if he would have totally flamed out since he was still good in 1977 before the injury, but he might never have lived up to the expectations set in 1976.  He was a finesse pitcher rather than a dominating pitcher, so I would guess that he would have had a hard time sustaining the success he had in 1976 for very long.  

[lordstanley]

29 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Fidrych was cruising along until this game right here:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL197707040.shtml

All of the sudden, he gave up 6 runs in the 6th inning and was never the same after that.  I don't know whether it was wear and tear that finally gave out, but the career ending injury seems to have happened in the 6th inning of that game.  He tried to work through it in the next game versus the White Sox and was terrible.  

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.”

 

[NorthWoods]

3 hours ago, lordstanley said:

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. 

Probably where I saw it since at that time in my life I got SI, TSN and Sport.  2 weeklies and I think Sport was a monthly.   

[lordstanley]

30 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

Probably where I saw it since at that time in my life I got SI, TSN and Sport.  2 weeklies and I think Sport was a monthly.   

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/

Edited Friday at 09:55 PM by lordstanley

[NorthWoods]

12 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

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/

I forgot about Inside Sports!   But I got that one too.   I made $2 an hour helping bale hay on my uncle's farm and used it to get those plus the 3 outdoor magazines - Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and Field & Stream.

I can't imagine a kid now sitting down with TSN and reading through all the box scores to see how players were doing.

A more innocent time in America, at least in my life.

[Tiger337]

 

TSN was the best.  There is nothing like it today.  I appreciate the immediacy with which we now get news, but the quality is bad.

[Motor City Sonics]

7 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Fidrych was cruising along until this game right here:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL197707040.shtml

All of the sudden, he gave up 6 runs in the 6th inning and was never the same after that.  I don't know whether it was wear and tear that finally gave out, but the career ending injury seems to have happened in the 6th inning of that game.  He tried to work through it in the next game versus the White Sox and was terrible.  

He told his catcher during that game in Baltimore that something went pop.   He felt something give.   

I heard the rumors about escaping a jealous husband too, but yeah, they overused him in 1976.   24 complete games and I think 4 of them went 11 innings. 

[Tenacious D]

 

[Tenacious D]

If you weren’t old enough, you can’t appreciate Bird mania.  Fernando Valenzuela was a big deal, too, but Mark was our guy.

[NorthWoods]

12 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

 

I'd forgotten baseball digest too.   I only took that for a while.  Don't recall why I dropped it.  

[Tiger337]

25 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

 

Fidrych is still the only MLB player to appear on Rolling Stone

[Tiger337]

13 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

I'd forgotten baseball digest too.   I only took that for a while.  Don't recall why I dropped it.  

I got that for years.  It was hokey by today's standards but is was great for a youg baseball fan growing up in the 70s.  

[lordstanley]

10 hours ago, DTroppens said:

Okay, more than I thought. The CD games you can get at Baseball Direct on the internet. I'm sure that's where I got them. The others are on cassette, but may be available at Baseball Direct. I'm sure most of these games are somewhere on the internet now as well. If not now, they eventually will be.

1976 – June 28 Yankees at Tigers (CD)    5-1W        Holtzman vs. Fidrych        NBC TV: Bob Uecker     

1976 - Aug 17 Tigers vs Angles         3-2W         Tanana vs. Fidrych        Harwell and Carey (CD)
1976 - Aug. 25 White Sox at Tigers    3-1W        Johnson vs. Fidrych        Harry Caray, Mercer
1977 – June 20 Yankees at Tigers    2-1W        Gullett vs. Fidrych        Rizzuto, White & Messer
1977 - June 25 Cleveland at Detroit (CD)   6-4W    Fidrych       Score, Tait 
1978 - April 7 Toronto at Detroit (CD) 6-2W    Fidrych vs.    Harwell & Carey
1978 – April 12 Tigers at Rangers    3-2W        Fidrych vs. Matlack        Harwell & Carey
1978 - Apri 17 Chicago at Detroit (CD)    10-9W     Fidrych vs.     Harwell Carey  Game Fidrych leaves hurt and the end of his season

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. 

 

[Motor City Sonics]

On 6/4/2026 at 11:22 PM, lordstanley said:

 

The innocence on display there.   A humble kid.  He remained that way too.  This was before it really blew up, but when it did he couldn't believe what was happening, but he went along for the ride and ejoyed it - in a genuine way.   No ego trip with him. Even after got so big and it evaporated so fast, he was never bitter about it.    Baseball seemed more pure then, but maybe that was beause I was 11 and everyting did.  Remember, this kid came along right after we lost Vietnam, right after Watergate.  We needed him.       I think there probably always was a sinister element of baseball, but with only 3 networks and local papers controlled by the teams, we never really saw that dark side. There were some horrible people mixed up in the game, but their stories got buried.      So much different now.  Most of the players are so removed from the fans now.  They aren't even approachable, for the most part.  For every Sean Casey there's five Will Clarks.    And now we're facing what I think is the very real possibility of not having a season next year.   The owners and most of the players have enoiugh money to hold out. 

 Money ruins everything.  

Edited Saturday at 04:33 PM by Motor City Sonics

[DTroppens]

On 6/5/2026 at 10:29 PM, Tiger337 said:

I got that for years.  It was hokey by today's standards but is was great for a youg baseball fan growing up in the 70s.  

I have about 100 random Baseball Digests. I loved the letters to the editor that led to interesting trivial answers or graphics, loved the other random statistical graphics they had beyond the letter to the editor and the game I'll never forget feature.

 

Beyond those things, a lot of the articles were very basic - even for then.

[DTroppens]

I got this one with a bulk purchase that was probably less then 50 cents an issue. Didn't know it was in there. Not perfect shape, but I sis plan on reading it so who cares.