Fans Are Right, Schmidt Deserves to Play

Somehow, Mike Schmidt got the idea that he did not belong in the All-Star baseball game, while Jose Canseco got the idea that he did. All I know is that Schmidt is the one I want to see play at Anaheim Stadium Tuesday night, because I am never going to get to see him play again.

He is the best third baseman of our time--possibly of all time. He is alive, healthy, on the premises, and only a few weeks removed from his active playing days. He played major league baseball in 1989, which is more than Jose Canseco can say. In my eyes, Mike Schmidt is not an ex-player until next year. He wasn’t waived; he walked.

So, somebody get Schmidt a bat, will ya? You, Tom Lasorda, you’re the National League manager, you’re a guy who talks a good game, you’re the one who could persuade Schmidt to pull a stick from the rack around the ninth inning, instead of sitting there like a civilian just because he decided to retire. The fans voted Schmidt in; put him in.

If he hits a homer, we’ll all end up bawling the way Mike did the day he retired.

Fans are not as foolish as some know-it-alls choose to believe. They know what they are doing. They know whom they want to see. They know Mike Schmidt is history. They know Jose Canseco is hitless. They know Darryl Strawberry’s batting average is disappointing, just as they know that this kid from San Francisco is turning into Babe Mitchell.

You do not alter an election, just because the voters elected the wrong candidate. You live with it. OK, if the fans used a write-in vote to elect “Jose Cuervo,” you would not be forced to bat a bottle of tequila. Canseco, though, is no write-in. He was a legitimate nominee.

Are the baseball fans of America any less observant than, say, the National League president and manager, who favored Willie Randolph over Bill Doran and Robbie Thompson, or the American League president and manager, who left the likes of Fred McGriff, Lou Whitaker and Rafael Palmeiro off the roster? Is it fair that, as of Sunday, at least, the Dodgers had as many All-Stars as the Angels and Orioles combined?

I do not particularly mind if Canseco wants to take a couple of cuts, but I suppose that I could live with a decision by baseball’s administrators to prohibit him from playing. Wouldn’t be the end of the world. I also completely understand American League Manager Tony LaRussa’s reminder to Canseco that he should concentrate on helping his Oakland teammates, who have not seen Jose’s shadow all season.

Nevertheless, where do we draw the line? Should Canseco’s election by the fans have been overturned if he had played, say, only the first month of the season? How about if Canseco had missed all of April and May, but played all of June? How about the last two weeks of June? Canseco is a major league baseball player who is physically and mentally prepared to play in the All-Star game, and has properly and honestly received enough votes, same as anybody else in the dugout.

I say, let him play.

Maybe if the governor of California had to help arrange a pardon to spring Canseco from jail on a three-month sentence for firearm and traffic violations, maybe then we could have some legitimate argument over his credentials. But why should Jose Canseco be punished for being injured?

As far as Mike Schmidt is concerned, to play or not to play should be strictly up to him. And it is. Schmidt, trying to be fair, has made it clear that he has positively no intention of playing. He is scheduled to be replaced in the National League’s starting lineup today, probably by a very deserving Howard Johnson.

The way I see it, though, the reason Schmidt gave up playing baseball was that he no longer could excel at the level to which he had become accustomed. He believed he was cheating both his ballclub and himself. Well, that was terribly classy of you, Michael, old boy, but might we make the observation at this time that you would be cheating absolutely nobody by manning third base for three or four innings in a midsummer exhibition game, to which you have been very fairly elected?

What are you going to do--strike out twice and make an error? Would anybody care? Does anybody think Mike Schmidt has to be dragged out there and pitched to underhanded, like a Hall of Famer in an Old-Timers game? If Strawberry and Benito Santiago and some of these other National Leaguers can make an All-Star lineup with their batting averages, then certainly Schmidt need not feel like some interloper.

Quick, somebody yank Schmidt by the lapels at the Big A and tell him to suit up, even if he has to go to a concession stand to buy a Phillie jersey. An “All-Star” game is supposed to have nothing but stars. I don’t know about anybody else, but I could stand to see Mike Schmidt shine one more time.