heros. mine.

as a kid i had a few heros. gus - a man who lived across the street from my granny's place in port alberni who taught me how to paint a fence and hammer a nail was one. kip, who, amongst other things, taught me how to be a decent young man, appreciate girls and how to excell as an athlete and, maybe, show a little too much emotion at times (read: get worked up and rant and rave a little...) was another. tom snyder, whose death a few years ago affected me more than i ever would have imagined it ever would have for someone i never met. although we did exchange a few very brief e/mails late in his career that i wished i had now to read even though the words were few they meant a lot to me. too was one. tom - who made me feel okay with who i had become and let me know that in no way were suits important to every day life. tom's death, as many know, kicked the shit outta me for a while but, as he would have wanted it, i/we moved forward eating burritos and living our lives with a piece of him still in it.
today, as i was about to turn off the tv, a short, end of the newscast story, came on telling of the death today of one of my all-time heros, mark "the bird" fidrych. mark was rookie of the year in the AL in 1976 and made his mark in baseball with the detroit tigers. his story is one of greatness and casualness at same time. a guy just so happy to be a part of baseball, to be paid for something he'd be doing for free anyways. or pumping gas. he'd be happy doing either. from grooming the mound betwen pitches, talking to the ball, running out and shaking hands with a team mate for a well played ball, he made baseball the game it was in the 70's. a more character driven game. long before free agency and the million dollar contrats, there was mark fidrych. a blonde curly haired pitcher with a huge heart and no internal editor. as a kid i was i awe of him. kip introduced him to me. tim robbins character in bull durham was based on mark. his was a tragic story as well. a story too long to tell here but it was one of injury and a, now very, untimely death.
mark was found under his truck monday. it appears there was an accident while he was working on it. he was a good man, from what i saw and read of him. the world is a little less great today without him.

g. xo