More than 20 years ago, Mike Schmidt spoke to a then-record-breaking crowd in Cooperstown, New York, during his Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
In April, he may be addressing a new crowd — one composed of his fellow Bobcats, Ohio University’s 2017 graduating class.
Schmidt, a candidate for commencement speaker, played shortstop on OU’s baseball team from 1969 to 1971 before being drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the second round of the 1971 MLB draft.
“He had a great work ethic,” Larry Starr, former assistant athletic trainer, said. “Most people would say that he had kind of a blue collar approach to the game that came out of his background and his upbringing in Dayton."
Schmidt consistently produced at the plate for the Bobcats, hitting home runs early in his sophomore season even when other players were struggling to score.
“Shortstop Mike Schmidt’s four-bag blast off Fannin in the fourth was just a solo job and Terry Raszka could only milk two runs out of another homer in the seventh,” read a Post story recapping the team’s contest against Miami in April 1969. The Bobcats lost 8-3.
The following year, Schmidt helped lead the team to the 1970 College World Series where they finished fourth.
As the only OU baseball team to reach the World Series, the triumphs of the ’70 team were unique, but so were their challenges.
“In May of 1970, because of the riots, Kent State killings and the same problems on our campus, they closed the school down and sent everybody home, but we still had two weeks left in the regular season,” Starr said.
The team wasn’t allowed to practice or stay on campus after the university closed, so they moved into the Ted Kluszewski baseball camp in Hillsboro to prepare for the season’s final games.
“As bad as it sounds like it was going to be, considering we didn’t have our home place, it kind of bonded the players,” Starr said. “We went there and the facility wasn’t ready to be used because it was still early. We, as a team, had to do most of the clean up and get it ready. We mowed the grass. We cleaned out the barracks. We lived and ate and watched baseball.”
Though the team didn’t win the series, Schmidt continued to produce hits and cement himself as an indispensable asset.
“Mike was one of the boys, and we were a family. We were a team,” Starr said. “You don’t have to be the best of friends, but you have to respect everybody’s talent. I think that team was unique that way, and it was probably why that team went on to such greatness.”
Starr remembers Schmidt’s resilience. He recalled a knee surgery, some shoulder problems and a “pretty significant” rotator cuff tear that the athlete overcame during his college career.
“He always thought ‘what can I do to be better’ and he worked at that,” Starr, who helped nurse Schmidt through those injuries, said.
In his senior season, Schmidt continued to excel in the batter’s box. With graduation approaching, however, his future as a middle infielder was in question.
“By his senior year I think most people knew that he probably wasn’t a professional, major league shortstop and that third base was going to be his spot,” Starr, who later served as head athletic trainer for the Cincinnati Reds, said. “He had great hands, a very accurate arm, but he probably didn’t have the range and speed to be a major league shortstop.”
After spending 30 years with professional baseball players, Starr maintains that Schmidt is the best all-around athlete he’s known.
“I think Mike Schmidt is the best athlete I’ve ever seen, period,” he said. “When he first came to Ohio University he wanted to play football ... and basketball, and baseball.”
Starr offers similar confidence in Schmidt’s ability to be a great commencement speaker
“He’s very articulate, obviously, and he has a story to tell,” he said.
