YouTube Gold: Mark “The Bird” Fidrych

Wildly entertaining, his star burned out too early.

One of the great things about sports are the flakes. In basketball we had Al McGuire, Bill Walton, Kevin McHale and Abe Lemon, among many. In baseball, there are guys like John Kruk, who once traded his jersey number for a case of beer and when he was told by a women that he didn't look like a professional athlete responded by saying, “I’m not. I’m a baseball player.”

But when it comes to flakes, no one really outflaked Mark “the Bird” Fidrych.

A brilliant pitcher, Fidrych erupted onto the scene as a rookie in 1976 and became a wildly popular player. Called Bird because of his resemblance to Big Bird of Sesame Street fame, Fidrych had eccentric habits, like speaking to the baseball, walking a circle around the pitchers mound after an out and patting it down between pitches. His long hair and carefree attitude made him a perfect hero for the mid ‘70’s and he was massively popular. He was both gregarious and unassuming. Today he’d be meme’d into the 22nd century.

Sadly, due to injury, his career lasted just four years, but for that brief, glorious stretch, there was no one like him. There hasn’t been anyone like him since.