Yesterday would have been the 57th birthday of my favorite baseball player of all-time, Mark Fidrych. It was declared “Bird Day!” by fellow writer, friend, and Fidrych follower Dan Epstein. Sports Illustrated photographer Joe McNally wrote a wonderful reminiscence about the Bird which brought tears to my eyes. I wish thinking about my favorite ballplayer didn’t do that as often as it does, but so it goes.
Unfortunately, I haven’t written much of anything about Fidrych after he died a tragic and terrifying death at the hands of his beloved truck, back in 2009. As Dan said about writing about the Bird, “it should have been as easy as falling off a dugout bench.” But it’s not.
