Magic Royals Moments, 1976: Leo flips The Bird

Dennis Leonard won more games than any other American League right-hander for the Kansas City Royals between 1975 and 1981. On the night of July 9, 1976, he got the best of Detroit Tigers rookie sensation Mark Fidrych, winning 1-0.

Mark Fidrych, known for his kooky antics, is shown manicuring the mound.

By Phil Ellenbecker
  In the summer of 1976, the 200th birthday of the United States, as the country rolled through Independence Day, rookie Mark ("The Bird") Fidrych was hotter than a firecracker, especially at Tiger Stadium where Detroit was drawing 40,000- and 50,000-plus (capacity 54,400) on the nights he pitched for a downtrodden team that would win only 74 games, whose attendance for the year averaged 18,338.

 But on Friday night, July 9, the Kansas City Royals' Dennis Leonard doused those fireworks somewhat by outdueling Fidrych, 1-0, before 51,041 faithful stuffed inside the venerable old ballyard at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull avenues.

  The battle of bulldog right-handers matched the Tigers' upstart against a third-year Royals' pitcher who was just coming into his own and would emerge from 1975 to 1981, with 130 wins, as the winningest right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball.

   Leonard certainly solidified his status this night, throwing a four-hitter with eight strikeouts and no walks. He retired 18 of the final 19 batters he faced, including five of six by strikeout in the seventh and eighth innings.                                                                                                     Fidrych, who had won eight straight starts and nine of 10 coming in with a 1.87 ERA over that span, was certainly no chump this time out, pitching well enough to win most times. Aided by three double plays, he scattered nine hits, struck out two (he was a pitch-to-contact hurler) and walked one. Only a fourth-inning hiccup cost him, and only because Leonard was so unyielding.

  "My father-in-law, God bless him, flew to Detroit to meet us," Leonard said as reported in "100 Things Royals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die," by Matt Fulks. "The night before I was to pitch, we were in a little piano bar – I was drinking water – and I told him, 'Fidrych, my ass, I’m going to beat him tomorrow.' ”

  Said longtime Royals announcer Denny Mathews in the book: "You had the feeling at the outset that this game could be something special. And it was. Fans hung on every pitch because it meant something. Not many baseball games give you something compelling like that."  Two Royals in their prime and one on his way out brought K.C. the win. After Amos Otis grounded out leading off the Royals' fourth, George Brett and John Mayberry, in the No. 3 and 4 spots, had back-to-back singles to right field. Hal McRae followed with a single to left that scored Brett.

  And that was enough for Leonard.

  Brett and McRae would finish 1-2, respectively, in the American League batting race that year. Mayberry, coming off a year in which he finished second in the AL MVP voting, plummeted from 34 to 13 homers and hit .232. Although he hit 20-plus homers the next four seasons, he never again approached the '75 form that saw him drive in 106 runs to go with a .291 average and the 34 homers.

  But even as he struggled Big John was still a threat to deliver, as he did on this night.

  Meanwhile, Leonard was lights out from the fourth inning on after allowing three runners into scoring position in the first three frames. None of those Tigers reached farther than second base, and catcher Buck Martinez helped out by nailing would-be base stealer Alex Johnson in the second.

  The Tigers got one more base runner in scoring position after the third when Rusty Staub singled and stole second leading off the seventh. But Leonard bore down to strike out Jason Thompson, Johnson and Aurelio Rodriguez.

  Leonard ran his record to 9-3 on his way to a 17-10 season with a 3.51 ERA, tying for eighth in the league in wins and strikeouts. He reached 20 or more wins in three of next four seasons.

  The Royals ended up reaching the playoffs for the first time with a 90-72 record to win the AL West. That was the first of three straight division titles, each of which ended with losses to the Yankees in the AL Championship Series.

  The always-a-bundle-of nerves Bird, known as much for his on-the-mound antics ("talking to the ball," manicuring the mound) as his stellar pitching, dropped to 9-2. He finished the year 19-9 with a league-leading ERA of 2.34. He was second in the AL Cy Young voting and obviously Rookie of the Year. He also led the league in complete games with 24 and in WAR, was third in hits plus walks per nine innings, fourth in wins, and fifth in walks per nine.

  Alas, knee and arm miseries limited him to 10 wins over the next four years before he was out of baseball. He died on April 13, 2009, at age 54, in an accident as he worked underneath a truck.  What a tragic, sad ending  for a humble, down-earth guy who'd taken Detroit and America by storm in 1976.

  Fortune didn't smile on Leonard, either, although he didn't have nearly the bad luck that Fidrych did. Limited by knee problems after 1981, he won but 24 games over his final four seasons before retiring after the 1986 season.

  But on that magical Friday night of July 9, 1976, Leo and The Bird were about as good as it got.