Forty years ago, Mark Fidrych of the Detroit Tigers was a phenomenon throughout baseball, but endured an incredible workload for a 21-year-old rookie pitcher.
On August 29, 1976, Mark Fidrych took the hill for the Detroit Tigers in a road game against the Oakland A’s. The Tigers scored a run in the top of the first and the A’s responded with a run in the bottom of the third. After the initial scoring, the game remained tied at the end of nine innings. Both Fidrych and A’s starter Mike Torrez continued to pitch in extra innings through a scoreless tenth and eleventh. Torrez was replaced by Rollie Fingers in the top of the 12th and Fingers set the Tigers down in order. Fidrych remained in the game in the bottom of the 12th. Oakland rallied with a single, a sacrifice bunt, an error by the third baseman, and a game-winning single by Gene Tenace.
The loss gave Fidrych a record of 15-6 and a 2.08 ERA for the season. It was his 22nd start and 19th complete game. He would finish the year with a league-leading 24 complete games. He had celebrated his 22nd birthday just 15 days before this game.
It was very obviously a different time, in more ways than one. In 1976, social media was non-existent, there was no Extra Innings Baseball package, no games online because no one was online, and pitchers were still expected to complete what they started. Into this world of baseball came Mark Fidrych, a tall, gangly, curly-haired, 6’3” right-handed pitcher from Northborough, Massachusetts. He had been a 10th round draft pick out of Worcester Academy High School in 1974. He moved quickly from A ball to AAA in 1975, then received a non-roster invitation to spring training in 1976.
With so little experience in professional baseball, Fidrych couldn’t crack the opening day rotation for the Tigers, so he languished on the bench for the first month-and-a-half of the season. He pitched just twice in relief in the team’s first 23 games. Heading into the Tiger’s game on May 15, 1976, Fidrych was unknown to the baseball world. This would change quickly.
Fidrych took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his first start, which he won 2-1. It was a complete game victory, one of many Fidrych would twirl in this magical season. He also endeared himself to the hometown fans with his childlike exuberance and quirky behavior on the mound.
After losing his second start, Fidrych got on a roll. He won eight straight decisions and had a record of 9-1, with a 1.85 ERA by July 3. The game that really launched the Fidrych phenomenon had come nearly a week earlier. It was a Monday Night Baseball game against the vaunted New York Yankees.
Next: A Star is Born On Monday Night Baseball