Picture of the day 4/14/09 and Blog- The Bird

[MikeF9]

Picture of the Day April 14, 2009

My autographed Mark Fidrych card

THE BIRD
Posted for Tuesday April 14th............................
Former Detriot Tigers pitcher Mark Fidrych passed away unexpectedly Monday. He was working under his truck when something went wrong.
I remember watching him in the late 70's. He was an original character. Manicured the mound, talked to the ball. An all around nice guy. I had read an article about him somewhere, maybe early 90's. Late 80's anyway. It told the name of the town in Massachussettes where he lived. So I dug out one of his baseball cards, and sent it to him with a self-addressed-stamped-envelope, and asked for his autograph. He did.
I dug it out Monday night and took a picture of it.
He only pitched 3 or 4 years before injuries sidelined him. He tried a comeback with the Red Sox in '83, but only made it as far a Triple A.

[MikeF9]

The sports world is also mourning the loss of Harry Kalas, who was the voice of the Philadelphia Phillies. He was also the voice of NFL Films, and did voice-over work on the Campbell Chuncky Soup commercials. A very distinctive voice.