1989 Mike Schmidt Redux

This 1989 Topps redux card is the final "playing career" card for this project.

You can see the entire collection HERE.

1989 was a rough year for the aging Mike Schmidt. He hit just .203 in 42 games and his play was well below the high standard he held himself to. His final game was on May 28, 1989 in San Francisco.

On May 30th, he announced his retirement after 18 seasons. His 313 home runs in the 1980s were the most of any player in that decade. Despite his retirement, Schmidt was elected as the Nation League's starting third baseman for the 1989 All Star Game.

1988 Mike Schmidt Redux

1987 Mike Schmidt Redux

Moving forward with the Mike Schmidt Redux Project

The picture: Nearing the end of his career, Schmidt delivered one of his most memorable highlights on April 18, 1987. Down 5-6 to the Pirates with two outs in the ninth in Pittsburgh, he smashed a Don Robinson offering into the left-field stands for 3 run home run for the 500th of his career.

Schmidt scores from 1st on a wild pitch...

Very cool post yesterday on The Hardball Times celebrating the 25th anniversary of Mike Schmidt proving he was a better baseball player than both Gary Carter and David Cone.

With Von Hayes at the plate, Cone threw an offering that was off the mark—well off the mark. Mets catcher Gary Carter couldn’t get to it, and the offering sailed to the backstop. Schmidt naturally enough moved into second.

However, the ball kept ricocheting around and bounced all the way to near the Phillies dugout. Seeing this, Schmidt didn’t let up and galloped over to third. Carter kept having trouble corralling the ball, and that’s when Schmidt made his move.

1986 Mike Schmidt Redux

In 1986, Mike Schmidt moved back to third base and back his old form. He led the league in homeruns, RBIs, and OPS and won his third career National League MVP Award. Houston Astros 1B Glenn Davis finished second in the MVP voting followed by a pair of Mets (Gary Carter & Keith Hernandez).

1985 Mike Schmidt Redux

And yes... Mike Schmidt was primarily a first baseman in 1985. He started 105 games at first and, thanks to the Phillies high expectations of Rick Schu... he only started 49 at third.

1984 Mike Schmidt Redux

1983 Mike Schmidt Redux

Happy Birthday Rich Schu

Happy 51st Birthday to former Phil Rick Schu. Best remembered as the man promoted to replace Mike Schmidt at third base for the Phillies.

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.

1982 Mike Schmidt Topps redux

The Mike Schmidt Project continues on...

I have had several requests to share the Photoshop templates used to make these cards.

Here are links to files I have used in this project so far:

1971  1972  1973  1974  1975  1976  1977  1978  1979  1980  1981  1982

1981 Mike Schmidt Topps redux

It has been a couple of months since I added a new card to the Mike Schmidt career redux project.
Here is the 1981 submission to the project.

1980 Mike Schmidt Topps redux

For Mike Schmidt, 1980 was a magical year both individually and the franchise he had come to represent. After three bitter playoff defeats following the 1976, 1977, and 1978 seasons -- the Phillies finally won the World Series. It was the first championship in the 97 year history of the franchise.

For his part, Mike Schmidt was the best player on the best team in the league. His 48 home runs broke his own team record from the season before. He won the NL HR crown for a fourth time, by a margin of thirteen over Bob Horner, his nearest competitor. Added with a league leading 121 RBIs and 342 total bases... Schmidt was a unanimous choice for the National League's Most Valuable Player Award.

On October 3, 1980 the Phillies went into Montreal tied with the Expos for first place in the NL East. He vaulted the team with a sacrifice fly in the first and a solo home run in the sixth. When it was done, the Phillies won 2-1 and were sitting in first place. The next day, Schmidt hit his 48th home run of the year in the 11th inning to give the Phillies the 6-4 extra innings division clinching win over the Expos. Listen to Andy Muser's memorable HR call here.

After a dismal NLCS (24 ABs, 5 hits, one double, 1 RBI) against the Houston Astros, his bat came alive in the 1980 World Series, hitting two homers and driving in seven runs against the Kansas City Royals to earn him the World Series MVP Award.

To me, no single image of Mike Schmidt is more memorable than him jumping into the arms of Tug McGraw as the rest of the 1980 World Champion Phillies mob them. I had to use it for the 1980 redux card.

1979 Mike Schmidt Topps redux

If this story sounds like the 2012 Phillies, it is only a coincidence...

The 1979 Philadelphia Phillies were coming off of three straight NL East titles and three bitter NLCS defeats. In an effort to push the franchise over the hump the organization signed the biggest available free agent on the market... superstar Pete Rose. With Charlie Hustle wearing red pinstripes, batting lead-off and manning first-base the Phillies were the clear favorites to waltz away with the world championship. Except things don't always go the way you expect in baseball.

Instead the "We are Family" Pittsburgh Pirates won the NL East leaving the Phillies 14 games behind a distant fourth. Then the Pirates went on the win the World Series and Phillies fans were beginning to believe their window of opportunity for a championship was closed for good. It all turned out OK the next year, but 1979 was painful to Phillies fans.

After a mediocre 1978 season, Mike Schmidt returned to his typical elite level in 1979. With Rose now playing first, Schmidt was finally elected as the third base starter for the NL All Star team. He hit 45 home runs and drove in 114 runs. More importantly, for the first time in his career, he walked more times than he struck out. Mike Schmidt had developed into a great player.

My first 1979 redux card used a beautifully lit Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated image. It looked great. But  late last night my browser bumped into a rare image of Michael Jack Schmidt sporting the infamous all-burgundy Phillies uniform... and just like that I had a new colorization project. Worn only once on Saturday night May 19, 1979 in a 10–5 loss to the Expos. The all-burgundy "Saturday Night Specials" uniforms never saw the turf of Veterans Stadium again.

1978 Mike Schmidt Topps redux

Of the ten baseball card designs Topps produced in the 1970s, I would have to rate the 1978 set dead last. In my eyes the design is pretty darn boring and I have never found the correct font type to match the script for the team names, which makes creating a good template very hard.

For a non-action photo... the 1978 edition of the Mike Schmidt card catalog is pretty darn awesome. I love the mustache, the Dick Allen memorial ear-flapless helmet (I don't think Schmidt ever actually wore one to the plate) and the wide collared warm-up jacket under the jersey.

Besides a third straight NL East title and another gold glove, nothing about the 1978 season was that memorable for Mike Schmidt. He produced his lowest HR & RBI totals since his forgettable rookie season and his OPS+ was almost 30 points lower than his previous 2 seasons. He did not have a single multi-HR game and 1978 was the only season from 1974 though 1984 the he did not get at least one vote in the NL MVP ballot.

I couldn't recreate the magic of the original Topps card in my redux version, but I did use a era appropriate home action shot. I can't tell if this pic was from '78 or '79. From what I could tell he wore adidas shoes those seasons. I know it isn't from 1976 (no bicentennial sleeve patches) or 1977 (he wore Pumas). By 1980 he had moved to nike.

1977 Mike Schmidt Topps redux

The 1977 Topps set was the first year I attempted to piece together the entire 660 card set, the old fashioned way... one pack at a time. I was 11 years old. I bought an untold number of wax packs, rack packs, and celo packs. I even got into a bit of trouble because I pulled off what would be ruled an unfair trade with a younger (cough... stupid) neighborhood boy. I think it was something like 4 of my Detroit Tiger doubles (including Mark Fidrych) for his prized Pete Rose card. Little did I know, but this set would go onto become what the PSA would call "the Rodney Dangerfield of '70s baseball issues".

In 1977 Mike Schmidt led the Phillies to the first 100 win season in franchise history. They recorded the best record in the National League (KC won 102 in the AL), and a second straight NL East title. They lost to the LA Dodgers in a heartbreaking 4 game NLCS. Individually, Schmidt's streak of NL HR crowns was broken at three, but he won the 2nd of what would be 10 career gold gloves and continued to establish himself as a superstar.

For my redux card, I decided to show Mike Schmidt playing defense. In 1977 he recorded 2.5 dWARs (Defensive Wins Above Replacement), which would be the best defensive single season of his hall of fame career. Everyone remembers Mike Schmidt for hitting 500+ home runs, but it was the combo of this powerful offense and stellar defense that separates him as the greatest third baseman in the history of the game.

1976 Topps Mike Schmidt redux

I absolutely love Mike Schmidt's 1976 Topps card for a couple of reasons: 1) it is the first action shot card in his career 2) he appears to be bunting and 3) he is wearing the white shoes the team wore during the 1975 season.

My redux card shows a photo of him from the 1976 season (note the Bicentennial patches on both sleeves) against Johnny Bench and the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds swept the 1976 Phils out of the NLCS en-route to their World Series victory.

On April 17th, 1976 Mike Schmidt hit four consecutive home runs at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Phillies and Cubs combined for a staggering 43 hits and 9 home runs, as the Phils won 18-16.

In the game Schmidt got Cubs starter Rick Reuschel twice and finished his record day going deep on Rick's big brother Paul. By the end of the month, Schmidt tied the National League record with 11 April home runs.

This was one of several "career" days at Wrigley Field for Mike Schmidt. With eight multiple home run days and 50 career blasts at "the Friendly Confines" Schmidt . This total is 21 more than any other ballpark the Phillies visited.

1975 Topps Mike Schmidt redux

Mike Schmidt hoped to build on his breakout 1974 season with a fast start to the 1975 campaign, but baseball has a way of humbling everyone. After leading the majors in 1974 with 36 home runs, he hit a grand total of two in April of 1975. May ended not much better, as the HR champ was sitting on six.

According to Schmidt, the 1975 season turned around in the second half for both Mike and the Phillies, because of one reason: Dick Allen.

From Schmidt's book Clearing the Bases:

At that time we badly needed a hitter in the five hole who would command enough respect to force the other team to pitch to Greg Luzinski. Dick became that man -- and more. I had another mentor, someone who decided to put on that Phillies uniform for one reason: to help us understand what it took to win. We responded. I can alive under Dick's and (Dave Cash) A.C.'s watch in the second half of 1975 to finish with 38 home runs and again lead the league. We finished second, one step closer to the top.

1974 Topps Mike Schmidt redux

In 1974 Mike Schmidt delivered a remarkable turnaround from what was a dismal rookie season. He struck out at a much lower rate (although he still led the NL in strike outs wit 138) he also raised his OPS from .697 to .914 while doubling his HR and RBI totals.

He captured his first (of eight) NL home run crowns and made the first (of 12) All Star appearances. He finished 6th in the NL MVP race.

In June of 1974, Mike Schmidt hit the longest single in MLB history when he hit the speaker mounted speaker 300 feet away and 100 feet high at the Astrodome. Don't believe me? Listen to this

Redux Project: 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt

Mike Schmidt shared his first baseball card with fellow NL rookies Ron Cey and John Hilton. Cey went on to have a solid career making six All Star appearances and blasting 316 home runs. John (Dave) Hilton was the #1 overall pick in the 1971 draft and accumulated a .216 batting average in 161 major league games before heading to Japan. For my 1973 redux card, I decided to give him his own card.

Following his 1972 cameo appearance, Paul Owens and the Phillies must have felt Mike Schmidt was ready to be their everyday third baseman. The club traded the popular Don Money to the Milwaukee Brewers to open a spot for him.

As his first full big league season unfolded, it was clear they may have jumped to gun. To put it simply.... Schmidt struggled. He played in 132 games and hit .196, the worst average among major league regular position players. He struck out in an astonishing 37.1% of his at bats. However, he did demonstrate his power potential with 18 home runs.

From an August 1974 Sports Illustrated article:

Last year Schmidt was swinging too hard, pulling away from the pitch and trying to jerk everything over the left-field fence. He did hit 18 homers, but Manager Danny Ozark had so little faith in him that once, with first and second open and a man on third, Ozark had the runner break for the plate on a grounder hit directly at the third baseman. The man was thrown out easily, and the manager explained his unorthodox tactics by saying, " Schmidt was the next hitter and he strikes out a lot."

Redux Project: 1972 Topps Mike Schmidt

Not many people remember this, but before Mike Schmidt wore the number 20, he donned number 22. That just happened to be the uniform the Phillies assigned him as a September call-up in 1972. He played in 13 games, including the only start at second base he would make in his career. He also hit his first major league home run off Montreal starter Balor Moore on September 16th to lead the Phils over the Expos.

You can see Phillies interim manager Paul Owens in the background of this photo. Owens had replaced Frank Lucchesi in July of 1972 in an effort to evaluate the entire franchise.