In 1984, Schu hit .301 with 12 HRs and 82 RBIs for the (Phillies AAA team) Portland Beavers. In 1985 he was hitting .284 in Portland when his life changed.
In May of 1985, desperate to infuse some youth into what had quickly become a bad baseball team, the Phillies promoted Schu to big leagues. It was announced he would be taking over for Mike Schmidt at third base. Assuming the move would help his ailing knees and add a few more years to his hall-of-fame career, the struggling Mike Schmidt would be move to first.
Never a considered a major prospect, Schu wasn't terrible the rest of the 1985 season in Philadelphia. He played 112 games, hitting a respectable .252 with seven homers and 21 doubles.
However, Mike Schmidt was less than happy and obviously dismayed with his sudden move to the right side of the infield. By the start of the 1986 season... Michael Jack was back in his comfort zone at third and went on to have a monster season, winning his third NL MVP award. Schu became a bench player and never really got another chance to play regularly again.
He was eventually traded to the Orioles in 1988 in the deal the brought Jeff Stone to Philadelphia.
3 comments:
Nice to see you're back and postin g on your blog full time!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICK SCHU
My memory of him focuses around the dozen of his '87 Topps cards I pulled from packs. For every one Mattingly, I pulled six Schu cards.
Thanks. Maybe not full-time.... but at least a couple of times a week
Actually, Stone and Schu and another guy were traded to Baltimore for I believe Mike Young.
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