Fydrich

I was shocked to hear about the death of Mark Fydrich. He was probably the first Tiger I remember. The first game I went to was June 20 1977 he pitched against the Hated Yankees. I remember driving down to Tiger Stadium and standing in line to by tickets the day before. The game was on ABCs Monday Night Baseball - which was about as big as MNF at the time. Howard Cosell was in the booth etc.
We sat in the second to last row of the upper deck right behind home plate. I remember Billy Martin was the manager for the Yankees at the time. He was expected to be fired any day. The Tigers fans gave him the second biggest ovation other than Fydrich. I didn't know why, but he had been the manager of the last Tigers Division Champs team in '72.
I learned to keep the boxscore with my dad's help. Somewhere in my parents house we must have the program.
The Tigers led 2-1 in the 8th when the Yankees brought in their feared pinch hitter Cliff Johnson. I had to go to the bathroom... My dad reminded of me of this for a long time. The Bird Struck him but all we heard was the cheers of the crowd. I'd never seen a trough urinal like they had in the Stadium.
I see by the Googled box score the Yankees only got 3 hits. Reggie Jackson knocked home Thurman Munson on a sacrifice fly. Steve Kemp and Aurelio Rodriguez had the Tigers RBIs scoring Tito Fuentes and Jason Thompson.
The 1977 season was the last time Fydrich saw any real success. His injury in the spring of that season never really healed. But his 1976 season was magical. 19-9 2.34 era. on a 57th place team that had lost a team record number of games the year before.
If you look at the wikipedia account of his 1976 season you really see how ridiculous his season was. At least 2 of his losses were 1-0 or 2-0. He pitched two 11-inning complete games for victories and 24 total complete games.
I'll close with a line from John Greenleaf Whittier:
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: `It might have been!