The year was 1976, the Bicentennial celebration of the United States of America. It was 50 years ago but, to me, it seems like yesterday.
You probably have to be at least 60 years old if you remember anything about it. There was lots of patriotic stuff going on, and it was a healing time in America after Richard Nixon resigned from office in August of 1974. If you listen to Vice President J.D. Vance that wasn’t a big deal, but I lived through it and, believe me, it was a big deal.
Gerald Ford was president in 1976, having taken over after Nixon resigned. To this day he’s the only president who was not elected to either the presidency or vice president position, having taken over as Nixon’s VP after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. And God Bless You if you remember him.
Americans celebrated the Bicentennial with parades, historical reenactments and the famous Operation Sail with tall ships gathering in New York, much like last Saturday. On TV we enjoyed “Bicentennial Minutes,” with celebrities describing big events in our country’s history during breaks in popular television shows of the day like All in the Family, Happy Days, Charlies’ Angels and M*A*S*H.
Of course, there was a lot of action in cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia that were front and center during the American Revolution. Philadelphia hosted many Bicentennial events, not the least of which was the 1976 Major League Baseball All-Star game.
I had already been working for the paper for two years in the summer of ‘76, having transplanted from southeast Pennsylvania by way of Roanoke College. It was a big deal for Philadelphia to host the All-Star game, much like it will be next Tuesday, and it was special to me having been a Phillies fan since I was seven years old.
This was the third time the all-star game was played in Philadelphia, and the first at Veterans Stadium. “The Vet” was a subject of ridicule in its’ later years with a hard artificial playing field, much like a patio with what amounted to a large green doormat covering the surface. It was one of those round “cookie cutter” ballparks, just like ones in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and most ballparks not named Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park. It wasn’t until Baltimore’s Camden Yards opened did our modern day palaces start to replace the concrete monstrosities.
However, in 1976 I thought the Vet was the most luxurious ballpark I’d ever seen. Having grown up going to games in Connie Mack Stadium with hard wooden seats, benches in the bleachers and a constant stench of stale beer, Veterans Stadium was a comfortable, enjoyable place to watch a game.
It was all decked out in ’76. Bunting, I love bunting, hung from the concourse and upper deck and the green outfield fence was painted with “Happy Birthday America” in big red, white and blue letters. It was a fitting place for the game in our Bicentennial year and some of the greatest in the game participated. The National League had stars like Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tom Seaver and hometown hero Mike Schmidt. The American League roster included Rod Carew, George Brett, Carl Yastrzemski, Catfish Hunter and the late Thurman Munson.
Both rosters were chocked with future Hall of Famers, but ironically the two starting pitchers would only walk the streets of Cooperstown as visitors. Randy Jones would start for the National League and Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was the American League starter.
Jones was off to a great start for the Padres that season, his fourth in the big leagues. He ended up winning 22 games in 1976 with a 2.75 ERA but in the next six years he never had a winning record, ending his career with a 100-123 overall mark. Jones died in 2025 at age 75.
Fidrych was the big story in 1976. He was a rookie for the Tigers that year and was nicknamed “The Bird” because his lanky frame and curly hair reminded fans of “Big Bird” from Sesame Street. Through June he was the best pitcher in baseball and his bizarre antics only added to his popularity. He would “talk to the ball” on the mound, and that summer I did a tongue-in-cheek column like I was interviewing the ball. A writer in Detroit did an eerily similar column weeks later that was brought to my attention. I couldn’t prove it but I suspect somehow they got ahold of my column and ripped off my idea. Actually, I was somewhat flattered.
Like Jones, Fidrych turned out to be a “one-year wonder.” He finished that season with a 19-9 record and a 2.34 ERA but struggled with injuries after ‘76. He only pitched four more years and his career record was 29-19. I remember him being interviewed once the spotlight left him and he wasn’t at all concerned about a promising career gone awry, noting, “I don’t need baseball because I can fix cars.”
As for the game, the National League won 7-1 with Jones pitching three innings of scoreless ball to pick up the win. Fidrych went two innings and took the loss, allowing four hits and two runs. George Foster homered off Catfish Hunter and Cesar Cedeno took Frank Tanana deep for the NL team. Rose was the only National League player with two hits and Rusty “La Grande Orange” Staub was two-for-two for the American League. The only run for the American League came on a solo homer by Freddie Lynn off Tom Seaver.
A lot of those players are no longer with us, I hate to say. Thurman Munson died in a plane crash three years later. Catfish Hunter passed from Lou Gehrig’s disease a few years after he was our guest speaker for the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame banquet. Seaver and Morgan left us in 2020 and Rose died in 2024 without making the Hall of Fame due to his gambling activities.
As for the Bird, he was only 54 years old when he was found dead beneath his ten-wheel dump truck at his Northborough, Massachusetts home in April of 2009. Authorities concluded that Fidrych had suffocated after his clothes had become entangled with a spinning power takeoff shaft on the truck.
I feel lucky I got to see those 1976 all-stars play, some in person and all on TV. My gosh it doesn’t seem like 50 years ago. I remember getting excited about getting Johnny Bench’s rookie card in a pack of bubble gum cards.
For many years I took team pictures of kids as a side job for some extra money, as weekly sports editor is a far cry from being Elon Musk. I had a Johnny Bench catchers’ mitt I carried with me in case a kid was a catcher and didn’t have his mitt for the picture. One time, 15 or so years ago, I was talking baseball with some boys on a 12 year old team and asked them if anyone knew who Johnny Bench was? Dead silence followed until one the youngsters piped up, “isn’t he that guy on the paint commercial?”
Yes he was, and 50 years from now maybe Mike Trout’s name will get that same reaction. That sounds like I’m setting you up for a fish joke but I won’t go there.
It’s now 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the All-Star game is back in Philly next Tuesday at beautiful Citizen’s Bank Park. I most likely won’t be here 50 years from now to reflect on it so break out the cheesesteaks, Tasty Cakes and birch beer and kick back and enjoy the game. You’ll see a lot of future Hall of Famers on the field in Philadelphia, and if some of them don’t make it I hope they can at least fix cars.
