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October 1st of 1980 wasnt a particularly special day in Blue Jays history. Luis Sardinas Jersey . 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. Adrian Beltre Texas Rangers Jersey .Com Tour. The former Canadian Amateur champion, who made his rookie year as a professional a memorable one, has had a long wait to get back on the course and after last season, hes anxious to play. Nolan Ryan Authentic Jersey . -- Canadian Erik Bedard pitched into the fifth inning in his bid to win a spot in Tampa Bays rotation, helping the Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-3 on Saturday.Krasnaya Polyana, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) - Anton Kushnir of Belarus won gold in the mens aerials Monday at the Sochi Games, claiming his countrys second straight Olympic title in the freestyle skiing event. Belarusian skier Alexei Grishin, who won gold four years ago in Vancouver, failed to even make it to the three-round final before his compatriot Kushnir made it two straight Olympic aerials titles for the country. Kushnir had the highest-scoring jump of the day in his third attempt of the final round. His gold-winning jump earned a score of 134.50 from the judges to easily outpace silver medalist David Morris of Australia. Grishins aerials win in 2010 marked the first-ever gold medal for Belarus at the Winter Games, but the country has earned five golds in Sochi. Darya Domracheva has claimed three gold in womens biathlon and Alla Tsuper took the Olympic title in the womens aerials. The finals began with 12 skiers before the field was whittled to eight after the first jump. Only four skierrs make it to the third and final jump. Russell Wilson Jersey. Morris final jump earned a mark of 110.41 and Chinas Jia Zongyang was third with a score of 95.06. Jias countryman Qi Guangpu finished fourth. All three skiers to make the podium in Tuesdays event were first-time Olympic medalists. After earning the last of 12 spots for the finals, American skier Mac Bohonnon was the seventh of eight skiers to move into the second jump of the finals. He had a score of 105.21 to reach the final eight, but Bohonnon failed to qualify for the third jump. The 18-year-old was fifth in the second round with a score of 113.72, leaving him 1.33 points shy of the fourth berth in the last round. Bohonnon was the lone American in the field. Jeret Peterson, who claimed silver for the U.S. in Vancouver, tragically killed himself less than 18 months after competing in 2010. Travis Gerrits was the only representative for Canada and he finished in seventh place after Bohonnon and Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine. cheap jerseys from china cheap jerseys ' ' '