Changes

==Retirement and death==

==Retirement and death==

The Bird retired to his hometown of Foxboro, Massachusetts, working on a farm and business he owned, happily married to his wife Ann, and raising his daughter Jessica.  Mark Fidrych died April 13, 2009, apparently the victim of an accident while working under a dump truck on his farm.

The Bird retired to his hometown of Foxboro, Massachusetts, working on a farm and business he owned, happily married to his wife Ann, and raising his daughter Jessica.  In a 1985 interview [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm_jU0b5Hgw Interview with Fidrych, from 1985] he explained what he did on the ballfield and why: his adjusting the mound had more to do with maintaining his own stance and position while pitching; he didn't like stepping in some other pitcher's hole, he explained.  His "talking to the ball" was, in reality, a verbal set of instructions to himself, helping him maintain focus just before he sent fastball across the plate.

 

Mark Fidrych died April 13, 2009, apparently the victim of an accident while working under a dump truck on his farm.

==References==

==References==