A lightening bolt blasted into a ho-hum check of a Tigers forum. Just curious about the latest gossip when I saw two posts. One was about a rumor that Mark Fidrych had died. A second echoed the news on the west side of Michigan. I went to AP, The Free Press, ESPN...nothing...turned on the TV.......Nothing...... then on SI.com....Breaking news.....It might as well be saying Breaking Hearts........I went back to the TV and waited for the news to spread like the wildfire he was in 1976.......

"What the hell's he doin?" He's shaking the shortstops hand after he made a good play..well after he made ANY PLAY!! He's showing the ball where to go, playing in the dirt and mowing down hitters in under 2 hours....over and over again..sellouts home and away...songs ...magazine covers...TV shows...9 innings...11 innings...9 innings.....11 again........It was a season of unimaginable joy for a piss-poor team coming off a 100 loss season...it was blur.....

He got hurt in 1977.......he was gone before we knew what hit us in 76.....I saw him get shelled in 1980......I left when he was pulled....

But, really gone.......NO.....he just cant be........but it makes sense........another blur.....all the good lives are like this...

He never changed. He never bitched. He just lived.....for a minute....... My son and I met him in November. I wont see Haleys Comet again in my lifetime, but I shook its hand on this pass......