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After a summer away from Ann Arbor, I’m back behind the desk of my university job that has been the backdrop for most of the articles I’ve written for this organization. This one captures my feelings about baseball, sure, but more about the end of my college career.

The majority of MLB has their season end after Game 162. Most of those teams, like a lame duck president, limp to the finish and have to play out the string with nothing on the line. During the back half of September, when the morning air feels more crisp than it had in the month before, cups of coffee are had, careers come to a close or are cut off, and teams fill out the last bits of data for a season that will be forever preserved on Baseball Reference.

Sports talk radio programs, ESPN television segments, and the local newspaper might call the season a failure. They might call it a step in the right direction. In any event, the narrative is shaped by the number in the “W” column. What if it doesn’t have to be? Why can’t we just enjoy what we have?

Deep from a bin of memorabilia in the basement that contains Free Press clippings about the Russian Five, tickets from the first Lions game at Ford Field, and a program from the 1954 Rose Bowl driven straight from Pasadena back to East Lansing by my grandpa, my mom hands me a faded, almost sepia-toned, autographed picture of a young man with light brown hair so curly you could cut it all off and use it as a ribbon on a birthday present.

Even as a middle schooler, I knew Cobb, Newhouser, Horton, Gibson, Ordonez, and even Todd Jones! Apparently this guy was famous enough to have a 40 year old picture hanging around that’s survived at least five major moves of house and two divorces and I’ve never heard of him.

I ask my mom his name. “‘The Bird,’” is all she can say in reply.

“The Bird”

Mark Fidrych was my first exposure to an era of Tiger baseball that bridged the gap between winners. Like I said previously, I was able to navigate the lineup of the ‘68 and ‘84 squads pretty well for a young pup, but I never learned how the team was torn down and built back up again in the interim. 

The 1976 Detroit Tigers were unremarkable for having finished 74-87, good for the third-worst record in the American League (although the 17-win improvement represented the AL’s biggest swing). But the season featured title-winning veterans from 1968 letting out a last gasp, a few players that wholly reflect the 1970’s, and a draft class that shaped the next generation.

The supporting characters do often have their moments to shine, but every team season has a singular storyline that defines it. The 1965 Kansas City Athletics was decided by the meddlesome ownership of Charlie O. Finley. The 1995 Baltimore Orioles saw Cal Ripken Jr. break Lou Gehrig’s game played record. The 1976 Tigers had Mark Fidrych.

The organization had had him since 1974 after making him their 10th round selection out of Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, Massachusetts. Once he got to Single-A Bristol, according to SABR member Doug Wilson’s book The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych, the youngster got his iconic nickname from team assistant Jeff Hogan who thought Fidrych’s mop made him look like Sesame Street’s Big Bird.

Fidrych spent 1975 working his way through the Tigers’ minor league affiliates, eventually earning the call up on April 20, 1976 in Oakland.

Although he posted only 3.5 K/9, Fidrych threw 250.1 innings and led baseball with an astounding 24 complete games. He did that while leading MLB with a 2.34 ERA. Not only that, but his first two career games were in relief. He didn’t earn his first start until May 15! It was a two-hit, one-run complete game gem thrown in a 2-1 win against the Indians.

Among rookies in the Modern Era that started as many as 29 games, Fidrych is the eighth to pitch at least 24 complete games. All others that accomplished the feat did it in 1905 or earlier. In the Integration Era, only the Philadelphia Athletics’ Alex Kellner in 1949 with 19 complete games in 27 starts and Fidrych’s soon-to-be teammate Dave Rozema who threw 16 complete games over 29 starts in 1977 even come close.

The Bird received decisions in 28 of his 31 appearances in 1976. He went 19-9 on a team that lost 87 of its games. That year’s AL Cy Young winner Jim Palmer started 40 games, going 22-13 on a Baltimore Orioles team that won 88 games.

The dude was ridiculous. He came in second and 11th in the AL Cy Young and AL MVP races, respectively, but was tied with only NL MVP Joe Morgan for MLB’s leader in bWAR (a statistic measuring total player value) at 9.6. It was the most by a rookie since 1910 until Mike Trout’s 10.5 bWAR in 2012.

On June 28, 1976 during a nationally televised game against the first place New York Yankees, Fidrych did what he normally did, but this time the whole country was watching. During a stretch in which Fidrych averaged 27.5 outs per game through his first eight starts, owing to two 11 inning complete game affairs, Fidrych knocked down 27 more en route to a 5-1 complete game victory. 

“This kid is terrific,” said the legendary Bob Uecker on the Monday Night Baseball broadcast after the last out.

The Bird was intensely superstitious. He would talk to the baseball. He’d throw back balls that “had hits in them.” Fellow rookie Bruce Kimm caught all of Fidrych’s games because the Detroit coaching staff was too scared to interrupt what he had going on.

The postgame interview against New York endeared him to every other baseball fan outside Detroit. He was no longer our secret.

It’s been estimated that his presence at major league ballparks in 1976 generated $1 million in extra ticket sales. His 18 starts at Tiger Stadium accounted for half of that total figure for the team’s 81 home games.

Fidrych wrapped up his spectacular season having started the All Star Game and winning AL Rookie of the Year. With what he accomplished as a rookie, many wanted to see what Fidrych would do if he could pitch for the entire length of the season.

The problem is, we never saw that happen.

A knee injury suffered while shagging fly balls in Lakeland during 1977 Spring Training knocked The Bird out until he made his season debut on May 27. After throwing complete game in seven of his first eight starts, Fidrych tore his rotator cuff on July 4 against the Orioles.

He pitched two more games that season, allowing six runs in 5.2 innings on July 8 and only managing two outs in the first inning on July 12. He did not pitch in the All Star Game after being selected to it. His career was effectively over before it even got started.

After parts of three seasons with Detroit from 1978-80, in which Fidrych posted only 81.0 innings over 16 starts, and a failed comeback attempt with his hometown Boston Red Sox, he retired in 1983.

On April 13, 2009, Fidrych was found dead at age 54 in Northborough. He had been underneath his modified dump truck, attempting to make some repairs, when he got stuck and suffocated. Once again, The Bird was tragically taken away from us too soon.

Fidrych’s singular season is what allowed ’76 to be in the same breath as ‘68, ‘84, ‘03, ‘06, and ‘12 in Tiger history. The ossification of those seasons occured because of the team that inhabited them, not because of one individual player. That’s how special he was.

Still, Detroit needed guys to start during Fidrych’s off-days and fill out the rest of the diamond. Who were they?

End of an Era

By 1976, only four Tigers remained from the triumphant 1968 World Series team that won the 75 year old franchise’s third championship. Other legends like Al Kaline and Norm Cash had retired in 1974, and Denny McLain had already embarked on what would become the wildest life possible after baseball for a former AL MVP after being dealt to Washington ahead of the 1971 campaign.

Detroit native and former Michigan Wolverine catcher Bill Freehan (who should have a plaque in Cooperstown) entered his final season in 1976, posting an average season with the bat while grooming future starter John Wockenfuss. Freehan was the American League’s most prolific catcher of his generation, and according to the recently passed Jim Price, “he was the heart and soul of the ballclub.” 

On Sunday, October 3, 1976, Freehan played his last game as a Tiger in a 5-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. He registered a walk, single, and two strikeouts in four plate appearances. He was unceremoniously released by the team in December.

The Comerica Park plaque underneath the statue of Willie Horton reads, “A hometown hero whose accomplishments on and off the field are a credit to the City of Detroit”. In my opinion, he is the most important Tiger of all time. Not only did Horton slug 206 homers and post a 132 OPS+ over the first eight years of his career that coincided with Detroit’s first perennial pennant challengers in nearly three decades, he was a rising star in a city facing rising unrest in the mid-1960’s.

In 1976, Horton registered a 117 OPS+ in his age-33 season. As a designated hitter entering his mid-30’s, Horton would play only one more game for the Tigers in 1977 before being traded to Texas. He played out the rest of his career with Cleveland, Toronto, and Seattle. Lucky for us, the first prominent black Tiger was and continues to be a symbol for all of the young African American baseball players around Metro Detroit.

John Hiller is one of the most under-appreciated relievers in MLB history. He was featured as a starter and in the Tigers bullpen during the 1968 World Series. Three heart attacks suffered in January of 1971 sidelined the Canadian for all of that season and part of the next. However, the following 727.2 innings (more than half of his career 1,242) after the incident saw Hiller post an ERA+ of 161. He’d retire in 1980 after two seasons of subpar pitching.

Though Mickey Stanley is one of only 54 hitters in MLB history who saw at least 5,000 plate appearances that finished with a career batting average below .250, the 15-year Tiger is beloved in franchise history. In the ‘68 series, Tiger manager Mayo Smith had to find a way to keep both Stanley, with his full season career high 102 OPS+, and Al Kaline, who had recently returned from a broken arm, in a lineup without the designated hitter. 

Stanley had won the Gold Glove in center field that season, but was slotted in at shortstop during the Fall Classic against St. Louis. The menagerie of Tommy Matchick, Ray Oyler, Dick Tracewski and their combined OPS+ just above 40, meaning 60% below league average, weren’t cutting it offensively.

Stanley would make only two errors in the series and even threw out Lou Brock on a close play at first in Game One. Stanley would retire in 1978 after spending the last four years of his career as a part time player.

From 1974 to 1977 the Detroit Tigers won only 43% of their games. People may say that the latter parts of these legends’ careers were lost, but maybe only to the rest of the country. Even when they weren’t winning, Detroit still had their legends, and nobody could take that away.

The 70’s, Man

Any baseball fan around the country knows the exploits of the last four players and Fidrych. They were the headliners of Detroit’s 1976 Topps set. Regular followers of the team latch onto their favorite team’s peripheral characters, though. Whether it be for a breakout season or an exciting personality, fan favorites appear in any season in Major League Baseball history.

For these five players, I want to dive into individual performances not only to introduce you all to them, but to see what made them last so long in the hearts of fans, and why they’re so damn indicative of American culture in the 1970’s.

Dave Roberts

By the time he finished his age-30 season, Dave Roberts, no, not that Dave Roberts, had become an accomplished, veteran starter on the Senior Circuit. He’d been with the San Diego Padres since their inception in 1969, and although he finished 14-17 in 1971, he finished sixth in Cy Young voting that season owing to a 2.10 ERA. It was a season in which pitcher wins mattered more than anything. Twenty four-game winner Fergie Jenkins bested 20 game-winner Tom Seaver despite his sparkling 1.76 ERA.

The Padres sold high on Roberts after 1971 and shipped him to the Astros that winter. In that same offseason, they acquired another one of the four Dave Roberts that have played in MLB (here’s the last Dave Roberts, just for fun). Three out of four of them played for Houston or San Diego.

Eventually, Dave Roberts the pitcher was acquired by Detroit along with Milt May during the 1975 Winter Meetings. Outside of Fidrych and John Hiller, no other Tiger hurler was as valuable as Roberts in 1976. No Tiger started as many games (36) or threw as many innings (252.0).

On the final day of the season, in that 5-2 win over the Brewers, Roberts surrendered Hank Aaron’s final hit and RBI in the sixth inning. Roberts would start 1977 Opening Day for Detroit in place of Fidrych, but he was eventually sold to the Chicago Cubs close to the deadline after pitching to the worst ERA (5.04) of his career.

Ben Oglivie

Ben Oglivie had been traded from the Boston Red Sox to Detroit after the 1973 season for star second baseman Dick McAuliffe. He enjoyed the first regular playing time of his career for the Tigers, and started a streak that saw him post an OPS above league average every season until his last

The lefty outfielder saw only 27 plate appearances against left handed pitching in his first year in Detroit. He’d be a semi-platoon player, but steadily increased his number of games played from 92 in his first season with the Tigers to 132 in his last. 

During the ‘76 season, it seemed that Oglivie would always come alive in games when Mark Fidrych needed him most. On June 5, Oglivie scored the winning run in one of those 11 inning complete games Fidrych had thrown before seeing the Yankees on national television. Oglivie went 3-4 with two RBI in another one of Fidrych’s complete game wins on August 7.

Oglivie finally broke out in 1976 with his 131 OPS+, but 1977 saw him return to being a league average hitter upon receiving the most plate appearances he’d ever seen in a season up to that point. The thing was, Oglivie mashed righties that year, hitting 18 of his 21 homers and 20 of his 24 doubles. His .592 OPS against same-handed pitching is what caused the Tigers to move on.

Detroit traded Oglivie to Milwaukee for 1977 All-Star Jim Slaton, who only ended up pitching one season for Detroit in 1978. Oglivie would author the best years of his career in Wisconsin after the age of 29, collecting three All-Star appearances. His 1980 season was a career year. Oglivie became the first non-American to lead the AL in home runs. His 41 bombs were tied with Reggie Jackson.

Jason Thompson

Jason Thompson was a multiple-time Tiger All-Star of whom I had never heard before the writing of this article. If his name sounds a little hip for the seventies, it’s because he came to Detroit from Hollywood following his selection in the fourth round of the 1975 MLB Draft. Thompson only spent parts of two seasons in the minor leagues before breaking in with the big league club.

Although he batted only .218 in 1976, Thompson was seen as a slick fielder at first. He was named to Topps’ All-Rookie team that year. During a two-game stretch from June 20 to June 24, Mark Fidrych pitched two complete games and Thompson homered in both of them, showcasing his 25-home run power that would take him to the Summer Classic in the years to follow.

By 1979, Thompson began to show signs that he may only have been a flash in the pan. By 1980 he started to hit like a shortstop at first base. Detroit traded him to the Angels that summer, and from that point on until an All-Star season with the Pirates in 1982, Thompson slashed .272/.398/.474. He was out of the league by 1986 following a brief stint with the Expos.

Rusty Staub

Following the worst season in franchise history the year prior, Detroit traded lefty legend Mickey Lolich to the New York Mets for quality hitter Rusty Staub. In Jim Hawkins’ column for the Detroit Free Press, Tiger GM Jim Campbell said, “We got the one thing we were looking for—a real sound RBI man.” If that and a name like Rusty Staub doesn’t scream old school baseball, I don’t know what does.

Staub would go on to lead Detroit in RBI with 96 in 1976 and make the last All-Star Game of his career. In 1978, Staub would become the first player to play all 162 games as a designated hitter. He hit for a career high 124 RBI, his second consecutive season over 100, and finished fifth in MVP voting despite an OPS only 17% better than league average.

The New Orleans native Staub, whose real name is Daniel, was nicknamed Rusty for his reddish hair. He was the Montréal Expos’ first star, and although he played only four of his 23 MLB seasons in Canada, his number was retired by Montréal, he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, and his nickname bestowed upon him by the Quebecois fans of that team, “Le Grand Orange,” works in Acadia, too.

Ron LeFlore

In a team chock full of stories, Ron LeFlore’s is the most interesting. From the Metro Times:

Discovered by a Detroit club owner and signed only three years prior by then-manager Billy Martin while playing jailyard intramural baseball, LeFlore was signed to a minor league contract which met the terms of his parole. He began his career with the Jim Leyland-managed Class A Clinton Pilots. LeFlore quickly rose through the farm and was Detroit’s best position player in 1976, earning his first All-Star nod and accruing the most bWAR in any single season of his career.

When he was at his best, LeFlore was a complete center fielder. He hit 16 home runs in 1977, stole 97 bags with Montreal in 1980, and almost always hit for average with a career .288 mark. His 1976 season represents the year it all came together, though.

From April 17 to May 28, LeFlore went on a 30-game hitting streak, which tied the third-longest streak in team history. He knocked two triples later that week on May 31 in another one of Fidrych’s 11 inning CG’s. Although he struck out at a clip more than double the average Tiger, he batted .318 in 1976, stole 58 bags, and was another homegrown talent that embodied the City of Detroit.

Like the City itself, Ron LeFlore was looking for a second chance in life. The Tigers were looking for another chance, too. They’d made the playoffs only once since winning it all in 1968 and were looking down the worst stretch in franchise history in 25 years. With three Tigers starting in the 1976 All-Star Game, though, maybe you didn’t need to look to the future. Maybe the future was already here.

No matter what you thought, these 1976 Tigers were fun; the most fun 74-win team in MLB history, I’d say. I don’t think one would’ve expected that none of the 1976 Tigers would eventually hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy in 1984, though.

A New Future

Future franchise legends Lou Whitaker (who should also have a plaque in Cooperstown), Lance Parrish, and Dave Rozema all were present on Detroit’s farmby 1976 and would make their major league debuts in 1977. That summer’s First Year Player Draft injected a whole bunch more talent.

You wouldn’t expect a team that drafted Pat Underwood second overall in the first round to be the only MLB franchise to ever net two Hall of Famers in the same class, but Tigers general manager Jim Campbell pulled it off. Alan Trammell (second round) and Jack Morris (fifth) represented two future Tigers superstars that would lift the team up and out of its five year funk. 

Dan Petry was also a key fourth round selection for the future health of the rotation as well as the current-day Bally Sports Detroit desk. Seventh round pick Ozzie Smith (!!!) would have been the third Hall of Famer of the class and the second shortstop, but he declined a $10,000 bonus. As a result, Trammell’s Topps rookie card only includes one other Hall of Fame shortstop, Paul Molitor.

One can always look to the future when the present is disappointing. However, I think it’s important, if we take the case of these 1976 Tigers, to embrace what you have at the moment. It’ll make the past feel warmer and the future more surprising.

I can only imagine, though, what Tiger fans felt as the last days of the season wore on when you knew there was nothing left to play for. You never want the season to end. The Tigers themselves only saw crowds over 13,000 once over the last 14 games. “Birdmania,” a phenomenon unique to 1976, though no one knew it, was almost over.

This spring I spent six weeks in New England for an English program at the University of Michigan. We had no technology so my consumption of baseball changed drastically. To satisfy my needs, a teacher shared a poignant piece of baseball writing.

“There comes a time when every summer will have something of autumn about it,” former Commissioner of Baseball A. Bartlett Giamatti writes in his 1998 essay “The Green Fields of the Mind.” 

Every day the air gets colder and the sunshine lessens. A lost season diminuendos into Game 162. There will be no extension of summer. You’ll never see that combination of men under those circumstances again, and a season of which none else ever were, or ever will be, like it is passed to posterity. 

If you love baseball, don’t dismiss baseball. You won’t know what you have until it’s gone.

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