We Mark The Passing Of The Bird

Mark Fidrych, dead at age 54, had one incredible summer.

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

Truly a one of a kind. I will always remember the Yankees game on ABC. The only thing to make it more lovable would have been if Dizzy Dean broadcast the game.

[Danube of Thought]

Now we need to lose Robert ("The Fidrych") Byrd.

[Thomas Collins]

Rest in Peace, Bird.
Anyone know how Joe Charboneau is doing? I lived in Shaker Heights, Ohio (just outside of Cleveland) when Joe had his one year in the sun with the Indians.

[Thomas Collins]

Billy Rohr and Bo Belinsky. Two more who made their mark quickly and then faded from view.

[Ignatz]

I loved watching him.
Why are there so few athletes with real on the field personality? Other than overbearing, taunting arrogance, that is.

[Danube of Thought]

Ol' Bo disappeared from baseball stardom, but not from view. He married Jo Collins (former Playmate) and squired Ann-Margret around. He was engaged to Jayne Mansfield at one point.

Then there was Bobo Holloman, who pitched a no-no in his major league debut, went 3-7 and never played in the majors again.

[sbw]

[OT] I see the "Free Newt!" Ads by Giggle on the right of TM and can't help but think I like him where he is. If Newt wants to write a pithy analysis on some issue, fine. But, Newt helped make the bed we're forced to sleep in now.

Boost someone other than yourself, Newt. We don't need another steenkin' cult of personality.[/OT]

[Danube of Thought]

I'm with SBW. I love hearing Newt's take on a lot of issues, but in electoral politics he's a drag, and is going nowhere.

[Jim Glass]

Marilyn Chambers too.

The heros of my generation pass on.

They were so hot, but now they're cold.

When did everyone my age get so old?

[Jane]

When did everyone my age get so old?

I know. I find that really rude.

[jimmyk]

I saw him a couple of times at Tiger Stadium in 1976-77, including this game against the Yanks, one of the most masterful performances I've ever seen live. I think he was overused in his rookie season (no one would ever let a 21-year-old throw 250 innings nowadays), but maybe he would have burned out before long anyway. No doubt he lived his 54 years to the limit.

[Stephanie]

They had a replay of one of his Tiger's games on MLB TV on Saturday. Truly a master of his craft and like many pitchers, he was wonderfully "touched." It was too bad that so many couldn't get past his quirks to see his talent.

[matt]

pitchers is crazy anyway. RIP Bird.

[Captain Hate]

He was engaged to Jayne Mansfield at one point.

Wasn't that June Wilkinson, another blond with huge ta's?

Regarding Stupor Joe Charboneau, I think he still does stuff with the Tribe in training when they open things up to boomers with a lot more money than sense and let them live out their fantasy by being on the same field as their former heroes. I'm too cheap to do that, plus it would be hard to not fulfill the fantasy of every TRUE Tribe fan and kill Rick Manning.

I had a somewhat irrational dislike of Super Joe only because I attended one opening game (the only one I ever attended where idiot Kucinich was so f***ing paranoid he had police snipers on the roof of the old stadium; plus Dennis, ever the moron, was wearing a heavy coat the same color as the visiting KC Royals) and the idiotic fans (who loved Joe because, like them, he could open a beer bottle with his breath) were booing Andre Thornton, one of the nicest and best Tribesters from the era, for replacing him in the lineup.

[daddy]

Language History buffs may enjoy this sports related item from todays JoongAng Daily in Korea, Ubiquitous">http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2903593">Ubiquitous Ink. Korean Pro-Basketball Players in the KBL League are starting to sport massive tattoo's like their NBA brethren.

Like Japan, Korea originally used imported Chinese characters as their written language, rendering the mass of the population esentially illiterate for centuries. In the 1400's however, an amazingly scientific reform minded Emperor, ">http://www.koreanhero.net/kingsejong/ViewImage.htm?desc=King%20Sejong%20Portrait&name=kingsejongthegreat.jpg"> Sejong the Great, personally created a new written language, Hangul,">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul">Hangul, that is simple to learn and considered by language history guys as one of the greatest written languages in the world;

"The principal reason Hangul has attracted this praise is its partially featural design: The shapes of the graphs are related to the phonemes they represent. The shapes of consonant letters are based on the shape of the mouth and tongue in the production of that sound, sometimes with extra marks showing features such as aspiration."

So the glyphs show you where to place your tongue in your mouth to form the words. Ingenious!

Anyhow, The Koreans are proud, because now as their roundballers start tattooing themselves, no longer is it just 'centaurs or dragon's biting flaming basketballs', or various Chinese Characters, now Korean Hangul is starting to appear on the calves and biceps of local home town hero's, and even Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewer's sports a Hangul word on the back of his neck.

Kudo's are rightfully given by the story to Dennis "The Worm" Rodman and Allen Iverson for starting this phenomenon, but sadly this trend hasn't yet broken down through to the troglodytes running the Korean Women's Basketball League;

“There aren’t any female players with tattoos that I know of. I think tattoos give off a bad impression; if one of my players ever got one, they’d be in a lot of trouble,” said one head coach of a female basketball team."

Fans can only hope.

In other news, (on the same page) 3 KBL Basketball Players from the US were ">http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2903597"> were sentenced yesterday in Seoul to suspended jail terms for smoking marijuana.

[Alex]

You mention the case of Richard Serafin.

Serafin's "militia" was a group of friends who occasionally went shooting. The "hate" case was primarily due to the government capitalizing on an opportunity that arose from the arson attack on the home of one of Serafin's relatives who had reported activities of drug smugglers to police, and the smugglers eventually found out through their corrupt law enforcement sources who had filed the reports and then retaliated with death threats and the arson attack.

The arsonists were apparently never caught, or even pursued that much. Serafin had learned that there was at least one border militia type organization that might be operating in the area and wanted to volunteer as a response to the activities of the narco-terrorists who commonly conceal and intermingle their activities among laborer migrations and migrant labor populations. He apparently was going to volunteer with one of the organizations although it appears that he was doing so primarily in response to the arson attack on his relative's home than any particularly racist views. Serafin was arrested prior to any direct involvement with a border militia group.

The arsonists who attacked his relative's house were never caught

Serafin remains in federal prison.