27 Facts About Mark Fidrych

Son of an assistant school principal, Mark Fidrych played baseball at Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, Massachusetts, and at Worcester Academy, a day and boarding school in central Massachusetts.

Mark Fidrych later joked that when he received a call saying he had been drafted, he thought he was drafted into the military, not thinking there were any teams looking at him.

Mark Fidrych made the Tigers as a non-roster invitee out of the 1976 spring training, not making his MLB debut until April 20, and pitched only one inning through mid-May.

Mark Fidrych pitched well, allowing two earned runs in eight innings, but Luis Tiant shut out the Tigers, and Mark Fidrych received his first major league loss.

Mark Fidrych continued to pitch well heading into the All-Star break:.

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Mark Fidrych was named to the 1976 AL All-Star team; the game was played on July 13 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

Mark Fidrych was named the starter, at the time becoming just the second rookie to start an All-Star game following Dave Stenhouse in 1962.

Mark Fidrych gave up two earned runs in the first inning, none in the second, and took the loss.

Four days later in Minneapolis, before Mark Fidrych's thirteenth start, the Twins released thirteen homing pigeons on the mound before the game.

Mark Fidrych held the White Sox to five hits in a game which lasted only 108 minutes.

Mark Fidrych won the AL Rookie of the Year Award and was named Tiger of the Year by the Detroit baseball writers.

Mark Fidrych finished in the top five in several other statistical categories, including wins, win percentage, shutouts, walks plus hits per innings pitched, and bases on balls per nine innings pitched.

Mark Fidrych received the 11th-highest vote total in the year's AL MVP voting.

Mark Fidrych tore the cartilage in his knee fooling around in the outfield during spring training in 1977.

At the time Mark Fidrych injured his arm in Baltimore his record was 6 and 2 before the game.

Mark Fidrych pitched only three games in 1978, winning two, including an opening day win.

Mark Fidrych went to famed sports medicine doctor James Andrews in 1985.

Mark Fidrych was not an overpowering pitcher, posting strikeout rates below the league average throughout his career.

Mark Fidrych captured the imagination of fans with his antics on the field.

Mark Fidrych drew attention for the simple, bachelor lifestyle he led in spite of his fame, driving a green subcompact car, living in a small Detroit apartment, wondering aloud if he could afford to answer all of his fan mail on his league-minimum $16,500 salary, and telling people that if he hadn't been a pitcher, he'd have been happy pumping gas in Northborough.

Economists estimated the extra attendance Mark Fidrych generated around the league in 1976 was worth more than $1 million.

Mark Fidrych did an Aqua Velva television commercial after the 1976 season.

Mark Fidrych was considered for the role of the jock Tom Chisum in Grease, a role that ultimately went to Lorenzo Lamas.

Mark Fidrych appeared to have been working on the truck at the time of the accident.

Authorities said Mark Fidrych suffocated after his clothes had become entangled with a spinning power takeoff shaft on the truck.

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Mark Fidrych was inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals of the Baseball Reliquary in 2002.

On June 19,2009, Jessica Mark Fidrych honored her father at Comerica Park by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to manager Jim Leyland for the Tigers game against the Milwaukee Brewers.