There are those players who make it to the Hall of Fame with their glove, and there are those who make it with their bat. I guess Mike Schmidt decided not to take any chances; he excelled in all phases of the game. He was the dominant offensive player of the ‘70s and ‘80s and he won ten Gold Gloves for his play at third. He played 2212 games at third base, third behind only Brooks Robinson and Graig Nettles at the position. There may be some room to debate whether he was a better fielder than those guys, but there’s no question he was the best-hitting third baseman in history.


     As a hitter Mike Schmidt was the power and thrust of the whole National League for most of his career. Schmidt was a big, powerful guy and he dominated the league in home runs pretty much on the order of Ralph Kiner. He did it longer than Kiner did, even though in many ways he wasn't as good a hitter as Kiner was. Schmidt had the league right where he wanted it. And the pitchers didn't have a clue how to handle him. That's a great feeling.

     Schmidt finished his career with 548 home runs, the seventh highest total in major league history and 1595 RBIs. He led the National League in homers eight times, in RBIs four times, in walks four times, in on base percentage three times, in slugging five times, and in runs scored once. Nine times he drove in over a hundred runs. He bested the league in the important statistic of production (OBP + SLG.) five times in his 17-year career.

     Schmidt hit a couple of different ways during his career, and he was successful both ways. He hit to right center for a while and then he changed his style and had some more great years as a pull hitter. That shows how he could adapt and how he analyzed what he was doing at the plate. He was an intelligent hitter who tried to put himself in the pitcher's shoes and think like the pitcher. He led his league in bases on balls four times.

     Schmidt was National League MVP three times, one of the only three players to achieve that level of dominance. His home run percentage (6.56 per 100 at-bats) is the eighth highest of all time. In 1976, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, he hit four consecutive home runs against the Cubbies and rang up 17 total bases in that ten-inning game. For an encore he homered in each of his next two games.

     His best single-season home run output came in 1980, when he powered 48 and led the Phillies' charge to the National League pennant. He continued to assault in the World Series, batting at a .381 clip and chipping in two more homers.

     His batting average is low - at .267, the lowest on the Hit List. He also struck out a lot more than he probably should have; almost a quarter of his trips to the plate ended up that way. But you can't deny his other statistics.

     I talked to Stan Musial about Schmidt, and he agreed that Schmidt was the dominant power in his league for a long time. That's good enough for me.