October 1st of 1980 wasnt a particularly special day in Blue Jays history. Nike Air Max 90 Damen . It was the final home game of the regular season at old Exhibition Stadium. The Jays were days away from wrapping up a 67-95 season. On this day, there were but 12,426 fans in the stands to watch the culmination of a fifth straight losing season. The fans on hand probably didnt even realize they were witnessing something special, something unique. Not the final score. Detroit out slugged the Blue Jays 11-7. So what was it about this game? Well it was the final start of the incredible, yet semi tragic career of Mark Fidrych. On this day the man-child they called the "Bird" went five innings giving up five runs, four of those earned. The Jays effectively ended his day by scoring four runs in the fifth. Ernie Whitt keying the rally with a three run homer, the last "Round Tripper" Fidrych would ever surrender. Fidrych gutted it out through that fifth inning and managed to get the win, to finish his season at (2-3). The starter for the Blue Jays that day was a 23-year-old Dave Stieb. He got torched for seven hits and six earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings and took the loss to fall to (12-15). Greatness was yet to come for Stieb who was in just his second season in the Majors, his first full campaign. For Fidrych, we were just left with memories and the lingering question of how great he might have been. Flash back to May 15th of 1976. The Tigers were home to Cleveland. Their scheduled starter that day had the flu. The manager, Ralph Houk "the Major" of Yankees fame, handed the ball to a 21-year-old long lanky right hander, who reminded a minor league coach of his at Lakeland of the legendary Sesame Street character "Big Bird". All Fidrych did was pitch a complete game two-hitter as he out-dueled Clevelands Pat Dobson in a 2-1 Tigers victory. There were 14,583 people on hand for the game. Remember that number. There were some great Blue Jays and Canadian baseball connections in that game. Rusty Staub was in right field for Detroit. Alan Ashby, a Blue Jay a year later was catching for Cleveland and the two DHs - the Tigers Willie Horton and the Indians Rico Carty - played with the Jays as well. For Fidrych this was only the beginning of one of most magical seasons in baseball history. After losing his next start at Fenway in yet another complete game, 2-0 to the great Luis Tiant, Fidrych would go on to reel off seven straight victories He was more than just a pitcher though, he was a fun loving unassuming kid who just loved playing the game. He would talk to the ball and carefully groom the mound before every inning. He caught the baseball world by storm. Fidrych appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice and was the first athlete ever to appear on the cover of "Rolling Stone" Magazine. In his first 13 starts, Fidrych worked an unbelievable 120 1/3 innings. If you do the math, thats over nine innings per start. How is that possible? Well three times over that span Houk let him go 11 innings. On June the 28th, he was featured in a Monday Night baseball national telecast, Fidrych beat the Yankees 5-1 in just an hour and 51 minutes. Fidrych would go on to start the All-Star game for the American League in his 12th Major League start. He would go on to finish the season at (19-9) for Detroit with a 2.34 ERA. But it was some of his other numbers that were truly astounding. Fidrych made 29 starts from mid-May till the end of the season. He pitched 24 complete games including four shutouts and pitched 250 1/3 innings. Pitchers today are proud just to hit 200 innings. On May 31st, he pitched a game that lasted one hour and 48 minutes. Then in his next start, he bested that taking just one hour and 46 minutes. Another unusual thing about Fidrych was he had his own personal catcher. He was 24- year-old Bruce Kimm, a rookie who played his first game with the Tigers just two weeks before Fidrych made his first start. They worked so well together in that first start Houk kept them as a battery all season. I dont know if that would ever happen today. As great as he was for Detroit that season, the Tigers still finished up the track at 74-87. Somehow, though he was voted Rookie of the Year, he didnt win the Cy Young too. That honour went to the Orioles Jim Palmer. But Fidrychs success on the diamond would be short lived. He injured his knee in the spring of 1977, and later in that season damaged his shoulder. Times being what they were, and medical advances in the treatment of arm injuries were still in their infancy, it wasnt discovered till 1985 that the "Bird" had a damaged rotator cuff. He finished his career with a (29-19) record and 3.10 ERA and 34 complete games in just 58 starts. This is the really incredible number. When Roger Clemens, one of the All-time greats pitched for the Blue Jays in 1997 and 1998, attendance barely increased on days he was on the mound at Rogers Centre. Yet in 1976, a year in which the Tigers drew 1,467,020 fans, more than half of that number showed up for the 18 games Fidrych pitched in. That is incredible. So if you were one of the few who were at Exhibition Stadium on Oct. 1, 1980 consider yourself lucky. You saw the final appearance of one of the most unique talents and colourful characters the baseball world has ever seen. Adidas Neo Store . "Id been taking that 8-foot jump shot pretty much all night and I wasnt really driving all the way that much," Burke said. Adidas Superstar Damen .C. - Nick Merkley and Damon Severson each had a goal and two assists as the Kelowna Rockets downed the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds 6-3 on Saturday in Western Hockey League playoff action. AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Andre Drummond knows hes a poor free-throw shooter. He still doesnt like it when teams make an effort to remind him. On an afternoon when the Philadelphia 76ers started intentionally fouling him in the third quarter, the 20-year-old forward responded with a performance the NBA hasnt seen in 23 years. Drummond sat out the end of the third quarter after missing nine of 12 free throws in the period, but in the 34 minutes he did play, he became the first player to have 31 points, 19 rebounds and six steals in a game since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1990. He set career highs in all three categories, two days after Maurice Cheeks left him on the bench for the last 21 minutes of Detroits loss to the Lakers. "Thats a slap in the face for any player, so you get fired up," said Drummond, who also blocked two shots. "You cant get angry and lose your focus, though. I just told myself it was a good chance to work on my free-throw shooting and put some points on the board." Philadelphia coach Brett Brown, who watched Gregg Popovich use the strategy during his days as an assistant in San Antonio, said he didnt enjoy the idea, but thought it was his teams only chance when it trailed by 24 points at halftime. "It is one of the ugly parts of the game," Brown said. "You do not really like doing it, but it is a rule and it helped our team." The Pistons are used to the strategy -- Popovich was one of several coaches to use it against Ben Wallace -- but not usually in the third quarter. Drummond, though, is a unique case. He might be the worst free-throw shooter in league history -- he entered the game shooting 27 per cent from the line -- and Detroit collapsed late against the Lakers with him on the bench. "Andres a great young player, but I told him tonight that he needs to learn from this," Cheeks said. "If he becomes a better free-throw shooter, no one will be able to knock him out of a game." At one point, the Sixers immediately fouled Drummond on three straight possessions, forcing Cheeks to take him out of the game. The strategy worked, as Philadelphia cut the margin to 94-82 going into the fourth, and the Pistons had to put Drummond back into the game. "I left hhim in there long enough to see how well he was going to shoot, because he was having a great game, but there comes a point where you have to take him out," Cheeks said. Nike Free 3.0 Herren. "They broke the rhythm of the game -- thats why you do it -- and I didnt want that to keep happening." Drummond, though, changed things in the fourth. He finished off a three-point play and then swished a pair of free throws to give the Pistons a 103-85 lead with 9:04 to play. That kept Brown from intentionally fouling him until they trailed by 19 with 4:03 left. Drummond split a pair of shots before coming out of the game, just short of Detroits first 30/20 night since Dennis Rodman in 1991. "When you do anything over and over, you get better at it," he said. "My teammates kept telling me to take my time, and I hit more of them toward the end." Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith each added 20 points for the Pistons, while Thaddeus Young had 24 for Philadelphia before fouling out late in the game. The Sixers play at a much higher pace than the Pistons, so a up-tempo first half should have played right into their hands. Instead, it was Detroit that dominated, scoring 40 points in the first quarter and leading by as many as 25 on the way to the 70-46 lead. The Pistons outshot Philadelphia 55.1 per cent to 39.1 per cent, and had a 31-14 advantage on the boards. Jennings dominated his matchup with rookie Michael Carter-Williams in the half, outscoring him 13-8 and dishing out 11 assists to just three for Carter-Williams. Drummond also had a first-half double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Pistons had five players score in double figures in the half, while Philadelphia didnt have any. "Its pretty obvious that we need to come out better," Carter-Williams said. "Were fine scoring the ball, but we need to play defence. Its a team thing, and we have to put the pieces together." NOTES: Detroit native Bob Seger was in attendance and conducted the crowd in a sing-a-long of his hit "Old Time Rock-n-Roll" during a first-half timeout. ... Detroit wore its dark-blue "Motor City" jerseys for the second straight home game, while Philadelphia wore its white jerseys. wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap soccer jerseys wholesale jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap nfl jerseys china ' ' '
