Vintage: When Mike Schmidt needed a disguise

The Phillies were on a road trip and, in Montreal, Mike Schmidt said some disparaging things about Philadelphia fans to a writer from the Associated Press. This was the 1980s, pre-Internet, but how a veteran ballplayer did not know that an Associated Press story would make it back to Philadelphia defied logic. But there it was. Schmidt and the fans had an on-again, off-again relationship with the fans, and when the team returned home, this had a chance to be World War III.

So, before the game, Schmidt put on this disguise and took some ground balls at first base, if memory serves. The crowd at Veterans Stadium, well, the people loved it. They came to boo Schmidt and ended up laughing with him and cheering him instead. It was a real turning point in the relationship between the town and its baseball star of the era.