Mike Schmidt's disdain for the steroid era and those who chose to partake in performance enhancing drugs is well documented (meanwhile, his support for Pete Rose is equally well noted). But in yesterday's podcast, as in his most recent book, "Clearing the Bases: Juiced Players, Monster Salaries, Sham Records, and a Hall of Famer's Search for the Soul of Baseball" Mike Schmidt soft of comes off as a vindictive man with a chip on his shoulder about an era that really doesn't impact his legacy in the slightest.
Schmidt's biggest complaint about steroid era baseball has always been the power spike. He mentions in the podcast how even guys like Jose Bautista are a bit tarnished because of the legacy of other guys like Brady Anderson. But take a look at Schmidt's generation for one minute. George Foster was a guy who hit HR totals in the teens and twenties for his most of his entire career... except for the years he popped 52 and 40 to lead the league. Ben Oglivie averaged 20/season for his career... except for the season he doubled up and hit 41 to lead the league. Now, it's likely that Brady Anderson became an overnight sensation with a little "help." But to say that today's players have to live with the residue of the previous generation is a sham. He goes on to say that if guys like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez hadn't taken steroids they might have made the Hall of Fame. Might? MIGHT? Barry Bonds could have retired at the end of 2000 (before the 73 HR anomaly) and been just a few shy of both 500 HRs and 500SBs and maybe a few percentage points shy of .300. He already had a mantle full of gold gloves, silver sluggers and MVP awards. Do you think that might have been good enough for the HoF?
The question is then posed to Schmidt about his lack of interest in coaching to which Schmidt replies that he was very interested in coaching, but was never given the opportunity. He sets the stage in 2004, when Larry Bowa was fired, and Schmidt was denied even an interview for a job with the big club by then Phillies General Manager Ed Wade. Mind you, Schmidt spend that 2004 season as the coach of the Clearwater Threshers, the High A team in the Phillies farm. How did they perform that year? Second worst in the league with a 55-81 record. Surely they hit the ball well, though, with a hitting guru like Schmidt at the helm? No. 2nd fewest runs per game, 2nd fewest hits in the season, 2nd worst OPS. All that, despite having the most seasoned team in the league with an average age of 24.4. Why WOULD you hire that guy? He interviewed for a job with the Rays and wasn't offered that one either. The Rays hired Joe Maddon who hadn't been a major league coach either. So after ONE WHOLE YEAR of chasing down the dream of being a manager, Schmidt hung it up. Quite frankly, I spent longer trying to be an architect. Schmidt's teammate (for about 5 seconds) and fellow Hall of Famer, Ryne Sandberg, has been working his way up the coaching ranks since 2006 and he's just now gaining consideration for major league jobs. These kind of things don't just get handed to you, Mike.
But what irked me the most about the podcast interview was Mike Schmidt's take on strikeouts. He makes the comment that today's players are far too willing to accept a strikeout as part of the game and that a lot of leading power hitters will strike out "one out of every four times." Quick math, what's 1883 / 8352? Oh... 22%. Mike Schmidt's career K rate. What if we just take the 8 years in which Schmidt led the league in HRs... 24% K rate. So you're telling me that when Mike Schmidt was at the peak of his HR game, he struck out nearly one out of every 4 ABs? But today's players are monsters for doing the very same thing? Schmidt goes on to say "it's easy to hit 45 HRs in you're willing to accept 200Ks in a season." Maybe there's some truth to that, but let's look at some of the most recent 50+ seasons to see just what their K rate was (Eliminating Bonds, Arod, McGwire, Sosa, etc for the PED use)
- Ryan Howard 2006 - 58 HRs - 31% K Rate
- Jose Bautista 2010 - 54 HRs - 20% K Rate
- David Ortiz 2006 - 54 HRs - 21% K Rate
- Jim Thome 2002 - 52 HRs - 29% K Rate
- Andruw Jones 2005 - 51 HRs - 19% K Rate
- Prince Fielder 2007 - 50 HRs - 21% K Rate
But Schmidt does redeem himself in one regard. We can both agree that guys like Ryan Howard need to show a little more effort in trying to correct their shortcomings. Ryan knows he can hit the ball 500ft to right field. Shouldn't he at least WANT to learn to hit the ball through the shift in left? Have a little more pride in yourself, man.
And maybe I'm taking everything out of context. And maybe I'm just cranky because it's 100 degrees outside and the Phillies can't score runs. And maybe I'm the one off my rocker. But hell, if Mike Schmidt's goal was to rile people up and sell some books, he succeeded. I scored this guy off Amazon.com a few minutes ago. Download the podcast and take a listen for yourself...
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