Mike Schmidt
Mike Schmidt
Michael Jack Schmidtis an American former professional baseball third baseman who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseballfor the Philadelphia Phillies. Schmidt was a twelve-time All-Star and a three-time winner of the National LeagueMost Valuable Player award, and he was known for his combination of power hitting and strong defense: as a hitter, he compiled 548 home runs and 1,595 runs batted in, and led the NL in home runs eight times and in RBIs four times. As a fielder,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth27 September 1949
CityDayton, OH
CountryUnited States of America
That was one of the most comfortable things about leaving baseball was to leave the environment. It's very much like a rock star existence - the nightlife, the hotels, lack of privacy... There's a lot of temptations out there. It was nice getting away from it.
I'm always there for Pete. Major League Baseball has created this Pete Rose purgatory, and that's where he is. I don't think he would mind if the commissioner said no, if the committee voted no.
It's sort of a study in the human nature of how things like this can happen and how turning a blind eye on the subject allowed baseball to recover in the late '90s and 2000 with the offensive explosion. And now, how the right steps have been taken by the players' association and the commissioner's office to totally cleanse the game.
There's a lot of sad elements in that thing. It was sad that Pete bet on baseball. It was sad that Pete thought he could get away with it. It was sad the way he confessed, so to speak. The way the league perceived that he admitted to it was sad, and it's sad now the way baseball is handling it. It truly could be put to bed one way or the other, and I think we all sort of wish that would happen for all the parties.
I think the Baseball Hall of Fame should take a stronger position on a lot of issues,
Major League Baseball has created a Pete Rose purgatory, and that's where he is. And that's where he's always going to be. It's unfortunate that the commissioner's office has decided to allow that to be the reality. I don't think Pete would mind if they said 'No' to Pete. Pete wants them to go one way or the other and get him out of the void he's in.
If you could equate the amount of time and effort put in mentally and physically into succeeding on the baseball field and measured it by the dirt on your uniform, mine would have been black.
Any time you think you have the game conquered, the game will turn around and punch you right in the nose.
I sort of ride the fence on that whole steroid era issue. I don't have a definite opinion like some of my fellow Hall of Famers. Some of the guys were very, very adamant about a person being associated with steroids: 'They'll never be in the Hall of Fame. If they are, I'll never come back.'
The whole Pete Rose issue, I believe, is dead for all practical reasons,
I was in a room with two guys who could have been my sons. ... We laughed and talked and told stories, ... I'm leaving St. Petersburg with a fantastic feeling about the interview.
Virtually every civilized society today holds sacred the right to peaceably bury their dead.
Pete's confession lacked one major thing in Bud's mind: remorse. I spoke to Bud later, and he told me he got the confession he had expected, but not the expression of genuine remorse he had hoped for.
Personally, I think the timing and manner of the book's release, given that it overshadowed the New York Hall of Fame news conference, sealed Pete's fate. For some reason, the commissioner wants to keep Pete on permanent hold.