Schmidt Picks Dramatic Moment to Hit Career Home Run No. 500

Mike Schmidt hit his 500th home run exactly the way he wanted--with two out in the ninth inning and the game on the line.

“You couldn’t write a more perfect script,” Schmidt said minutes after his three-run homer gave the Philadelphia Phillies an 8-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Saturday. “You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who hit a home run with a better storybook ending than that.

“Without a doubt, it was the most exciting moment of my career,” said Schmidt, the 14th major league player to reach the milestone.

Schmidt sent Don Robinson’s 3-0 pitch on a line over the left-field fence. There was no doubt from the time it left the bat, and Schmidt stopped to watch the ball’s flight before doing a slight hop, skip and jump around the bases.

“How could you ask for a better time for that homer?” Philadelphia Manager John Felske said. “We were all talking about it on the bench before he hit it, what a time it would be for No. 500. Everybody on the bench was excited as they could be.”

Phillies coach Mike Ryan retrieved the ball in the bullpen and rushed it to Schmidt, who was mobbed at home plate by his teammates.

The Phillies trailed 6-5 entering the ninth, and Schmidt came to the plate with runners on first and third. Schmidt had been hitless in three at-bats with a walk as he stepped in to face Robinson, against whom he was just 7 for 57 in his career--but with four home runs.

Schmidt took the first three pitches, all just low for balls.

“I had good intensity and concentration at the plate. I knew all we needed was a single to tie the game,” Schmidt said. “I had put home-run swings on my first three at-bats, and they were all poor, weak pop-ups. I was fighting the adrenaline of seeing the ball go out of the ballpark, over the left-field wall.”

But Robinson grooved a 3-0 fastball, and Schmidt’s smooth swing produced No. 500.

“It was a fastball right down the middle, a pitch I should’ve known better to throw,” Robinson said. “I wish it hadn’t been in that situation. It would’ve been all right if we would have been ahead 5-0 or 5-1.”

Schmidt’s fifth home run of the season also produced his first game-winning RBI of the year.

Schmidt became the sixth player to hit No. 499 and No. 500 in successive games. Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Eddie Mathews, Frank Robinson and Willie Mays also accomplished the feat. Schmidt hit No. 499 Friday night.

Schmidt said the only thing lacking about No. 500 was that it did not come at home, where he had been booed by Philadelphia fans for years. In recent seasons, however, the Phillies faithful have come to revere their 37-year star, who says this may be his final year.

“It didn’t happen at Veterans Stadium, and that’s unfortunate,” he said.

A crowd of 21,537 saw Schmidt’s historic home run. Among them was his wife, Donna, who had flown in from Philadelphia earlier in the day.

Schmidt, as is his usual regimen at road games, arrived at the ballpark Saturday before the team bus. He said he did not toss and turn overnight thinking about the big home run and instead “slept great, so good I woke up with a pinched nerve in my neck.”

Hank Aaron is the all-time home run leader in the major leagues with 755. He is followed by Ruth, 714; Mays, 660; Robinson, 586; Harmon Killebrew, 573; Reggie Jackson, who is still active, 548; Mickey Mantle, 536; Foxx, 534; Williams, 521; Willie McCovey, 521; Mathews, 512; Ernie Banks, 512, and Mel Ott, 511.