Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1976, the nation had a big party, celebrating its 200th birthday with fireworks, parades and cookouts.
As the country’s 250th birthday bash on July 4 is approaching, it’s time to remember a man from Northborough known as “The Bird” who captured the country’s imagination in that bicentennial summer.
Mark “The Bird” Fidrych seemingly came out of nowhere to become a pitching sensation, his popularity rivaling the biggest rock stars, political figures and entertainers of his day.
The small-town Fidrych was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 1974. He got his first major league start in May 1976 because the scheduled starter that day was ill. Fidrych won that game, then went on a tear that drew not only the excitement of Tigers fans, but also millions of people across the country, whether or not they liked baseball, or even cared about sports.
They just couldn’t get enough of The Bird.
The wins piled up. Fidrych ended the 1976 season with a 19-9 record. He also led the majors with a 2.34 earned run average and was the American League’s starting pitcher in that summer’s All-Star Game.
He was named American League Rookie of the Year and pitched a league-high 24 complete games, unheard of today with the game’s strict pitch counts and teams protecting their multimillion-dollar investments.
Besides the wins, Fidrych’s allure included his unique habits on the pitching mound. He talked to the ball, and to himself, before the windup, got down on his hands and knees between pitches to groom the mound to make sure the conditions were just right, and gleefully bounded off the rubber to congratulate teammates after great defensive plays resulted in outs.
His enthusiasm was like that of a child who experiences the thrill of discovering something new and pleasing, and it became contagious.
Detroit and the nation fell in love with The Bird.
A big deal in a small town
Back in Northborough, folks were glued to their television sets whenever Fidrych pitched on national television, including his breakout performance against the New York Yankees in June 1976 on ABC’s Monday Night Baseball. The Bird’s complete-game 5-1 victory and his on-the-mound-behaviors endeared him to a national audience.
Bob Murphy grew up with Fidrych in Northborough, where he still lives. He was The Bird’s good friend from the time they were youngsters.
“The summer of 1976 was very exciting. I couldn’t wait to watch him pitch,” said Murphy, who remembers hearing cheers spill out of open windows in Fidrych’s boyhood Northgate neighborhood when he pitched on national TV.
As for “The Bird” nickname, one of Fidrych’s managers in the minor leagues coined it because the pitcher’s physique, gait and flowing curly hair reminded him of Big Bird on “Sesame Street.”
The nickname stuck, with Tigers fans yelling it at the top of their lungs whenever Fidrych took the mound. Some held Big Bird stuffed animals while they cheered.
His reputation was soaring.
Mark Philbin was Fidrych’s friend when both were students attending Worcester Academy. Fidrych spent his senior year with the Hilltoppers because he turned 19 that year, making him too old to play public school baseball at Algonquin Regional High School.
As fate would have it, Philbin was in Detroit in the summer of 1976 when Fidrych burst onto the stage, and remembers driving around the city with Fidrych in the back seat to hide his buddy from the paparazzi and screaming fans.
Fidrych’s cover was sometimes blown, maybe because Philbin had Massachusetts plates on his car. Cars would sidle up beside Philbin’s to get a peak at The Bird. Many honked their horns or yelled words of encouragement to the friendly superstar.
“It was crazy,” said Philbin of those times. “We couldn’t go out to dinner. We couldn’t go anywhere … it was bedlam.”
Fidrych returned to Northborough in the offseason, where adoring fans rushed to meet him when he signed autographs at the former Worcester Center Galleria downtown. The Telegram & Gazette reported that more than 5,000 fans came to see “The Bird,” and he signed every baseball and photograph put in front of him.
Fans loved Fidrych’s down-to-earth personality and fun-loving spirit, but an injury sidelined him during spring training in 1977. He tore cartilage in a knee while shagging fly balls in the outfield during batting pratice.
He returned a few months after surgery and seemed to not miss a beat, winning five games in a row. That’s when he and Big Bird appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline, “The Bird is Back.”
A healthy return was short-lived, because in July 1977 Fidrych’s arm went dead while pitching against the Baltimore Orioles. Diagnosed with tendinitis in his throwing shoulder, Fidrych was done for the season. He never regained the form he had in the magical summer of 1976.
The Tigers released him in 1980, and he was out of baseball for good in 1983 after a minor league stint with the Pawtucket Red Sox. It was eventually discovered that he had a torn rotator cuff, an injury that today can be treated with orthopedic advances that didn’t exist in Fidrych’s era.
Life after baseball
Life moved on for The Bird back in Northborough, where he met Ann Pantazis. Her family owned and operated Chet’s Diner on Main Street. They were married in 1986 and had a daughter, Jessica.
Fidrych bought a farm in town and a Mack truck that he named Jessica for his trucking business.
Tragically, Fidrych died in 2009 at 54 while working on the truck. Authorities believe his clothes got entangled in machinery under the hood, and a friend found him hours later lying beside the truck. An autopsy showed he had suffocated.
Today, Jessica and her family own Chet’s, and she operates the grill, getting the orders out to her customers seated at the front counter.
Chuck Krouse was at the counter recently and recalled Fidrych’s “really curly hair.” Another customer, Dave Couture, had fond memories of Fidrych. “He was such a character. It was a fun summer watching him pitch.”
It was must-watch TV for longtime Chet’s customer Roberta Dolan whenever Fidrych took the mound. “I never missed him on TV.”
Chet’s is far from a shrine to Fidrych’s playing days. The only visible sign of his baseball life is a small framed photo near the front entrance. It shows Fidrych wearing a Tigers jersey while walking in a green field with Big Bird.
“Mark Steven Fidrych 1954-2009,” tops the photo. “Northborough resident, husband, father, friend and ball player” is written beneath it.
“My father didn’t talk about baseball at all. It was in his past,” said Jessica, 38. “He was a great father, honestly one of the best.”
When asked to explain his outsized popularity in 1976, Jessica said he was “unique, true and real.”
She continued: “The person you saw was the person he was. Fun, energetic, spontaneous, enthusiastic and caring. It was him all the time, day and night. He was a really, really all-around good person.”
Fidrych’s wife still lives in Northborough and noted that she wasn’t part of her husband’s life in the summer of 1976 (they met after Fidrych retired). She described her husband as selfless: “He always wanted to help people. It was his mission in life.”
That mission continues with the Mark Fidrych Foundation, which raises money to support local charities, including organizations that provide enrichment programs for people with special needs. Even though he’s been gone for 17 years, The Bird will likely never be forgotten in these parts. One sign of that is that the Worcester Red Sox recently inducted Fidrych into the team’s 2026 Hall of Fame class.
“One of the greatest guys I’ve ever met,” said Joe Sullivan, who coached Little League with Fidrych in Northborough after The Bird retired from the big leagues.
If Fidrych were alive today to reflect on his wondrous summer of 1976, Jessica believes he would have felt that he lived a dream.
“Honest to goodness, he believed he was so lucky and blessed to have an opportunity like that. He never could believe it.”
Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on X: @henrytelegram
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych’s magical season was 50 years ago
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