CHASE UTLEY

A Breath of Fresh Air

In this era of "look at me, I'm the greatest" athletes, Philadelphia has an exception. No dreadlocks, earrings, or tattoos, no personal life issues, no record, probably never got a traffic ticket, just no trouble, if fact, the only problem Chase Utley presents is his interest in going unnoticed. Can you imagine, a high paid athlete today, wanting no part of the limelight, never pointing the finger at himself, none of the on field or dugout made for TV show crap, dancing and hand slapping, you know, that stuff Melky Cabrerra was doing in the dugout before game 5. Chase is about one thing, getting the uniform on and competing today. All the other crap is show. Chase Utley is the Manny pachio of baseball, relentless, clawing, scratching, never quitting, pound for pound the best baseball player alive.

Chase Utley is a manager's dream. In fact, he is his manager's (Charlie Manuel) dream, and favorite player of all time. Yes, I know he said Kirby Puckett, but in a couple days Utley will be a clear number 1. Being Charlie's favorite is saying something. It puts him ahead of Rollins, Victorino, and Howard, and don't forget Thome and Manny who he coached in Cleveland, and many Hall of Famers including your truly. Charlie may be the most traveled dude in baseball, being his favorite will get you some Hall votes alone.

In a recent AP article previewing the Series, "I told you so". I love to say that, can I get away with it? I told you emphatically Chase Utley would be in the middle of this World Series, and so would Derek Jeter. Sure, Jeter was automatic to most, Mr. November, strong supporting cast, New York Yankees and all. He couldn't carry the team because he's a leadoff man, gets on base, sets the table for the big boys, Arod and Teixeira. Why Utley? He slowed toward the end of the year, and had a mediocre playoff season going. Because Utley is Philadelphia's Jeter, but with game changing power. Let me rephrase that, "Utley is the National League's Jeter but with game changing power. Can you imagine Jeter with 30 HR, 100 RBI power? It's Utley, ask CC and AJ.

Utley and Jeter, Jeter and Utley, I'm 60 years old and like most of us crotchety old veterans of baseballs past, I'm turned off by a lot of what I see in baseball today. These two would have been my idols if they played in the 60's. Aaron and Robinson were, all business, respect the opponent, quiet confidence, play everyday, just do your job and win. Assume they both have another 10-12 years, plus 5 after, and they get the 1st ballot Hall call, God willing, I'll be approaching 80 and if I have to crawl to Cooperstown to see them go in, I will.

Can you imagine being a great professional athlete today? How about in New York? No privacy, temptation everywhere, people leeching on to you for personal gain, money coming to you from all sides, television calling everywhere, radio talk shows, money, money, money. They don't want or need it. Yes I know, Utley has a way to go to reach Jeter's achievements, heck he hasn't even passed me in hits yet, but he will. But with all the interference out there, all the stuff that wants you to say it's about "me", not the "team", Utley and Jeter will always be true to "the game."

There is, however, reason to worry about Chase, its one of the elements that make him who he is. He plays without fear. He never backs off. Many guys do, but not like he does. He leads the league in hit by pitches, why, because taking one in the elbow puts him on base in front of Howard (might help the team win) He runs full speed on every ground out and fly ball out, no one else does. This alone wears you out over 162 games (might reach on an error and help win the game) He blocks the bases with his body on tag plays, runs to second to break up double plays like we used to, and he plays everyday (helps the team win). No days off against Randy Johnson like some left handed hitters we know. His fearless style cost him in 2007 when he broke his hand hanging in on an 0-2 pitch. He played over 100 games in 2008 with a bad hip that was surgically repaired and he returned one month sooner than projected for opening day this year. His fearless style can scare you.

Yes, Chase Utley is a breath of fresh air. He embodies all things I felt were required to be a great baseball player. Baseball is not the game Tiger or Lebron, or Kobe plays, baseball asks you to humbly do your job and hope that those on the field and in the lineup around you do the same. You could be good, and if they aren't, no one will notice. To get credit for being great, you need post-season success, to get that you need to be on great teams. Derek Jeter is a given. His great teams are well documented, as is his Hall of Fame career. Chase Utley is on a great team, the 2008 World Champions. Win or loose, Chase and the Phillies will be back. They will be around for a long time, and he will be right in the middle, scratching and clawing, and finding ways to win. He's a breath of fresh air, like Jeter, but with power!

FALL BALL IS HERE

Momentum is the key!

In 1980, the Phillies just wanted another challenge. In fact, we wanted another challenge after beating KC in the Series, but there wasn't one. "Do we have to go home"? Maybe we can go conquer a Japanese / Korean All Star team? Are we done? We had to fight our way through every level, which started with the final regular season weekend, and ended with the World Championship. Last year's Phillies, similar, pressure the final weekend, each level a challenge, for some reason you know your going to find a way to win.

Sure, managers want to win 100 games, clinch early, set rotations, and heal injuries, but then you have to find the switch. You know, "the switch", the switch that changes the losing environment to a winning one. The switch that brings back winning ways. It's human nature to be content, to relax when given the opportunity, to feel good about your regular season and past accomplishments. A team with success, became successful by handling every at bat, every pitch, every play as if it were their last, by selling out on the bases, forcing the issue, taking it to them as they say. It's human nature to ease up, to relax after a long season when you have security, but this can permeate a team's attitude. The "were OK, we're in the post season, we know how to win when we have to" approach shows up and allows a team to let positive momentum slip away. All of a sudden it's "where's that switch"?

This is nothing new to post season combatants. Every year there are teams looking for the "switch". The "switch" can be found in many ways. It can come from a rallying point, in the case of the Angels who lost a teammate early in the season, or the Phils who lost their beloved friend and announcer, Harry Kalas. The team can adopt a "win it for them" mentality. It can, and often does come from strong individual leadership like Pete Rose in 1980. Usually that player is a disrupter, a leadoff man, someone who brings the crowd into the game, as well as setting a clubhouse tone. It can and should fall under a manager's scope of responsibility, saying the right thing at the right time, creating the right environment, tightening the reins when needed, and of course, home field advantage can flip the switch, the 10th man, the home crowd. Say what you want about the "foxhole" mentality of playing on the road, there's just some places where home field is a real advantage. The Metro-dome, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Philadelphia, maybe St. Louis, all offer a home environment worth 2 or 3 runs per game. Oh yes, and there's "last at bats", you know, the home team gets the last crack in a close game.

Having said all that, looking for the switch is not something managers like to do. Yes, I know, baseball games are won and lost by winning the individual battles. Hitters get on base, create run scoring opportunities, hitters deliver, defense and pitching, or good hitting, either wins or looses these battles. Win the majority of them and you move on, simple yes, better players win the most battles. The problem is the length of the test sample. The better talent wins out over 162 games. These are the best three out of five, then the best of seven, where there is no time to look for the switch once the first pitch is thrown. You can have the best players on paper, as well as on the field, but not the best team for the playoff challenge. There is no doubt the 1977 and 1978 Phillies had the best players in the national league, but not the best team for the post season. There is no doubt, with all do respect, the 1983 Phillies had better talent than the 1983 Orioles, they have the rings. I'll even go as far as to say the 1980 KC Royals might have had better talent than the Phillies, we got rings, why, we had momentum, we knew we would find a way to win. We were riding a winning wave.

Heck, it is what it is, you enter the post season all even, start over, everyone equal, every team has strengths and weaknesses, do battle and may the best team win. In Detroit/Minn.(?), and Colorado teams are battle ready. They have had to survive body blows all year and keep ducking the big punch. Heck, the Rockies were in a "rebuilding" mode in June, look at the size of the mountain they climbed. Never was Detroit or Minnesota expected to see the post season. These teams won't go easily. So the bottom line is momentum. If you have the best team you'll have found, or stolen the momentum switch early in October, You'll lose it occasionally, but will regain it with timely defense, a big hit, or great base running. For great teams, it doesn't stay away long, because players on those teams know how to do what it takes to win, and most of the time it's the little things that don't show up in the box score.

One thing for sure, limping into the post season, or charging toward the next challenge with ole mo on your side, there are 22 teams who wish their switch wasn't on the TV remote control. The most exciting time of baseball's year is upon us again. Put on your jersey and grab the rally towel, here we go!

I'm not saying every playoff team that looses its last series of the regular season is destined to fail, no way, but no team has ever ended the season losing and been called a "team of destiny".

THE AUTOGRAPH QUANDRY

It was 1971, at The College World Series, where I signed my first autograph. I'll never forget, we had just beaten the #1 team in the country, USC, in game one, and I was asked to sign a ball on the way to our bus. What a high, not the victory, the elevation to celebrity status, the autograph. Of course that was back when an autograph was just that, an autograph, a signature of a person obtained in remembrance of a moment, a place, an exchange, that could be cherished for some personal reason. No commercial value was tied to it. No sneaking around security, no stalking, and no fake story or act was involved.

In the early 1960's my Grandparents shared space on a flight to Dayton, Ohio with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player. She brought me, then in my early teens, all three signatures on business cards. I still have them in a frame. One says, Best Wishes Mike, the other Mike, Best of Luck, and the other Mike, Best Wishes Always, followed by their names. That's where I got my often-used autograph salutations. Coincidentally, several months back I did an appearance with Jack Nicklaus and showed him the 45 year old signatures and he, not only agreed they were authentic, but was enamored at the very fact that I had them. He said they must have been obtained on a plane when they were headed to play Firestone in Akron, Ohio. I won't go into the value he put on them in today's market. The point is, I was an excited kid, on the other end of the "autograph", the recipient.

Therein lies the quandary. At some point back in the late 70's to early 80's, the sports memorabilia industry came to life and the autograph, as we once new it was history. Unfortunate yes, no longer would young Mikes have a chance to appreciate three business cards signed by three famous golfers in the same way ever again. Fortunate, yes, old Mike has made a couple million he never counted on. Companies like Upper Deck sprang up and paid celebrity athletes mega-bucks for exclusive rights to signatures on product. Dreams Inc. specializes in creation of unique sports and Hollywood related items designed specifically for signatures of famous people to be mass marketed. There are scads more, the point, none of the product has value without the authentic celebrity signature. I ask, isn't the provider of the value, the signature, entitled to a piece of the profit?

I just returned from Cooperstown, NY and the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. It happens every July in the quaint little town in upstate New, York. What once was a gathering of baseball fans for a once in a lifetime experience of seeing the Hall Museum and its annual Induction It is still that for some, but for many, it is memorabilia heaven. A chance for vendors to stock up on product, for collectors to expand their collection, and somewhere, lost in the crowd must be little Mike who just wants a memory. That is the sad part of it. Hall of Famers, including me, packed into a house, sitting behind tables selling autographs. Sad. That little guy who, along with his father, had a chance to meet and get an autograph remembrance of the moment spent with his hero, is gone, he'll most likely never again get that experience without paying for it.

The autograph might be the most sought after commodity in today's society. Even the targets want them. Yogi, Gaylord, Bob Feller, me, even Sandy getting signatures from friends to auction for a charity back at home. When will it end? Never, as long as there are famous people and a demand for the John Hancock.

I'll be perfectly honest, I hate playing the cat and mouse game with collectors on the street. It was one of the reasons I retired early. Being targeted and stalked everywhere by people seeking a chicken scratched slash on an inventory item is not fun. I'm not saying I'm a victim of paparazzi, but when airline luggage handlers wait for you in airports, your right to privacy is gone. When someone jumps out from behind a pillar in a parking lot as you're getting a rental car, your being stalked. This isn't little Mike and his dad. These guys play games, they dress in costume, they hire little kids with sad faces and pretty girls in skimpy outfits, they make up stories, they lie, they even act polite, anything to get you to sign. I even had some young adversaries who I came to know by name because we would laugh about the games they play on the streets. It was a friendly contest of who could fool whom. I'd figure out ways beat them at their own game, by taking secret routes to the park.

Sure, there are some who say, "I'll never sell this", and maybe they are serious, but understand one thing, with my signature, sell it or not, that item increased in value from $10.00 to $100.00. Some day by someone it will be sold. No more throwing out the old baseball cards found in the attic like my Mom did.

So here's my "quandary". I feel sorry for little Mike, he's been squashed in this mess, I can't tell which one he is in the crowd of collectors who all claim to be him. On the other hand, I like that my signature has value, and that I'm paid well just to sign my name. I can't decide whether to sign freely on the street, and hope that little Mike is in the crowd, or refuse because most of them are collectors or working for dealers and sign only in a controlled environment, where both sides understand the industry parameters. Honestly, what has happened is ugly. Our society has become so callus, rude, and motivated by money that even something as American, and simple as shaking hands and signing a baseball for a young man can seldom occur today. Who would have thought that back in Omaha in 1971 my excitement over autograph # 1 would have led to this?

HOME RUNS & STRIKEOUTS

Peanut Butter & Jelly

Mark Reynolds' career is off to a great start. Much better than the one I started in 1972. I've never met Mark, someday I hope to have that pleasure, but it seems from all I've heard, his game is similar to what mine once was. Like Mark, I was a third baseman with a propensity for hitting home runs, as well as striking out. Generally, the two go hand in hand, with a few exceptions however, one is Hank Aaron, Bonds in his later years, Frank Robinson, and, of course today Albert Pujols to mention a few. A "tough to strike out" power hitter is a rear breed. Reggie has 563 home runs and leads all-time in K's with 2597. The top 20 all time includes Sosa, Thome, Mantle, & Schmidt, all 500 club members. Note though, that 200 strike outs was way out of reach until recently, and is becoming the new benchmark for some of today's long ball guys.

Reynolds seems to have sort of a cavileer feeling about setting strikeout records. "So what" he says. Ryan Howard has to deal with the issue all the time and he seems to be comfortable in his hitting style. Reynolds is just getting his feet wet, and Howard, comparatively speaking is an old pro. They are headed for good company though, if their career's pan out as expected. Both are the cleanup men and both have MVP numbers, Howard for the 4th year in a row, Reynolds just in his 3rd. Unfortunately, both will be chastised, no matter what they accomplish, if 200 K's is their norm.

Before we criticize, lets look at it from both sides. First, what do they bring to each game, that only baseball men understand? From an opposing manager's standpoint, they dictate the bullpen match ups in close ballgames because of the home run. Sure, some times they go down with little fight, but most times they strike significant enough fear to draw walks, cause deep counts, wild pitches, and big time game winning "bombs". They scare pitchers out of the strike zones and step aside and give teammates a chance often. Just ask Jason Werth and Raul Ibanez what hitting behind Howard creates? Causing havoc in opposing bullpens in highly underrated, and a daily concern to managers. With Howard and Reynolds, or Aaron, or Bonds, or Pujols, the game is in reach as long as they can get to the dish as a tying run. Herein lies their inherent value. They give you hope when your behind, and enough times with one swing they change a game. Home run hitters should drive Cadillacs, uh, I meant Bentley's, singles hitters, well, is there such an animal?

On the opposite side would be the contention that these athletes should be motivated and able to make the necessary adjustments to reduce their weaknesses. Seems like a lot of strikeouts, 200. In my day, the leaders were around 150, I went for 180 one year. Imagine punching out once every three at bats? I'm often asked what my hitting philosophy was, and in its simplest form it was, "go to bat and try not to strike out". I hated striking out, all 2000 of them. I guess my problem was I felt the opposing pitcher saw me as a "dangerous" hitter, not a good hitter. There is a difference. Most of my career I was that hitter, "dangerous". Make good pitches, fastballs up, and sliders away, and I'd get myself out, especially in pressure at bats where contact was a must. I wanted to be a "good" hitter, good in my eyes and the opposing pitcher's, not just a guy who whaled and occasionally hit a bomb.

There has been "Super K" guys in every generation, and fan's love to see them come to the plate. Today, more than ever, the strike out has more flare. It's not looked at as the degrading "out" it once was, or as I looked at it. It's a macho thing. Fans are giving a pass to hitters who thrill them enough other times. I like that, I wish it were that way in the 1970's. I made the "K man walking" trip, to a chorus of boos to many times.

If I could make one suggestion to Mark Reynolds, or anyone else listening, it would be to find a "go to" approach. In golf, the great ones have a swing and ball shape that they "go to" under pressure. It's a swing they know will keep the ball in play. In baseball, there are at bats where "contact" is paramount. At bats where a strikeout fails to advance runners, kills a rally, leaves a runner on third, stops momentum, and brings down the crowd. A "contact" or "go to" stroke is the answer. At the end of the year, tracking contact in those at bats would show a high percentage of times the team benefited. That, in itself, should be enough motivation.

Mark Reynolds, and any other high "K" guy, could choke up, spread out, and just center the ball and they'd hit 50 and around .300 in today's game. Eventually they will, like John Daly in golf, when he gets older, loses his length and ego that goes with it, he'll learn to play a simpler, more rewarding game. When hitters understand that a shorter, less violent, level swing, increases contact, when they realize that more contact means more production, more consistency, and more wins, they'll change. It took me 13 years to see the light, and make those changes, and become "dangerous" and "good". Why should they wait that long? Take it from me, and my buddies, sometimes a single is harder to hit than a home run!

Mike Schmidt Hits
Wine Biz

Celebrities love attaching their names to wine. Francis Ford Coppola, Lorraine Bracco and Wayne Gretzy are in the biz. As you just read here yesterday, Pierre Robert's smiling mug will be on labels from Chaddsford.

Now comes Mike Schmidt, the Phillies legend, doing a charity deal.

No. 20 and two other members of the 500-home run club -- Ernie Banks and Eddie Murray -- will have their names on wine labels, starting in about two months. (One of the driving forces behind this 500 Home Run Club promotion is Liz Banks, Ernie's wife.)

All proceeds will go to charity, and "Mike Schmidt 548 Zinfandel" will
help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Eos Estate Winery of Paso Robles, Calif., will label The 500 Club wines.

Expected retail is $17, says Charity Wines, the outfit setting this up.

Wine broker John Corcoran says he is working with the LCB to get the wine into Pennsylvania's State Stores by May 15. He says some New Jersey wine shops also will sell it.

Schmidt is expected to announce the deal officially at a May 2 news conference at Citizens Bank Park.

Thanks to blogs.phillynews.com

MikeSchmidt.com Launched!

August 29th, 2006
The latest news from Mike Schmidt is the recent launch of this website, MikeSchmidt.com, the only Internet site officially authorized by Mike himself.

"I wanted to give my fans, both old and new, a place online where they could enjoy learning about my life and career, and know that I approved every aspect of the content," says Mike. "I put care into everything I do, and my website is no exception."

While there may be more detailed compilations of statistics from Mike's playing career to be found elsewhere on the Internet, the goal of MikeSchmidt.com is to paint the full picture of the man, yesterday and today.

Fans will be able to return regularly for updates on Mike's latest activities, and purchase new, officially licensed products for Mike, the Phillies, and other major sports clubs and athletes. And they can do so secure in the knowledge their transaction is safe and their merchandise is genuine. As Mike says, "If you're looking for Mike Schmidt information that's accurate and products that are the real deal, MikeSchmidt.com is the place for you."