Putting Schmidt's 'Four Aces' remarks into context

Observations, insinuations, ruminations and unvarnished opinions . . .

CLEARWATER, Fla. - As an aid to the thinking impaired, here is the complete Mike Schmidt segment that ends Pat Jordan's New York Times Magazine piece on the Phillies' Four Aces. The South Carolina author's eras-contrasting conclusions have incited a froth of pinstriped outrage, most of it focused on their Hall of Fame third baseman.

Jordan asked Schmidt what he thought about the Phillies' four pitchers, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels? This was his reply:

"Well," he said, "now when the Phillies come to town, the other team knows they're being challenged by four No. 1 pitchers. They have to amp up their mental game. I used to see my at-bats the night before a game when I laid my head down on the pillow. [Bob] Gibson, [Tom] Seaver, [Nolan] Ryan. I had to have a plan. When I went to Houston, they had three good pitchers. The fourth was Nolan Ryan. I could go to sleep with the other three, but Ryan kept me awake. Ryan! Ryan! Ryan! My plan was, don't miss his fastball if he threw it over the plate. If he got two strikes on me, I'd have to face his curveball."

He turned and looked at me with his small blue eyes, which had fear in them. "Ryan was scary!" he said. He shook his head, as if seeing Ryan on the mound. Ryan began his motion and fired the ball at his head. Schmidt had a split second to make a decision. Was it a 100 mph fastball that could kill him if it hit him in the head, or was it that wicked curveball? If he dove away from the plate and the pitch was a curveball that broke over the plate, he'd look like a fool and a coward. But if it wasn't a curveball, if it was that 100 mph fastball, and he didn't dive away from the plate . . . well, he didn't even want to think about that.

"Ryan, Gibson, Seaver, they made you defensive," he said. "Does that make sense? You were afraid of the ball. There's no fear of the ball today with cutters, splitters and changeups."

"What about the Phillies' four pitchers?" I said.

"They're not scary," he said. "Even if they all win 20 games, the Phillies don't have a pitcher who strikes fear in a hitter."

 So, there you have it. Go argue some more.

* The Phillies' weather has been typical early April, meaning great Eagles weather. But The Bank has been bursting at the seams, as usual, sellout No. 6 yesterday to watch Roy Halladay go about his business. I'm even starting to field complaints from fans who say it's becoming increasingly difficult to negotiate the jammed concourses, which are a game-day cross between Halloween, the Easter Parade and midnight at Mardi Gras. However, the first-week attendance picture has been bleak through the pastime's broad Bust Belt.

* The Rays continue to be the No. 1 candidate for contraction and their 0-6 start, the first five losses in DingyDome, could prove fatal. The much-worse-than-the-official-numbers recession has savaged the Tampa Bay area. Opening Day was preceded by one of the worst non-hurricane storms in the history of Central Florida. Widespread damage to trees, power lines, pool enclosures, roofs, you name it, over a seven-county area. The Rays won the AL East last season, remember? The opener drew 34,078, then the crowds sagged like Tiger Woods' tee game: 22,164, 17,408, 13,173, 11,836.

But it wasn't much better elsewhere. In Cleveland, for example, 41,721 turned out for the opener, followed by four straight crowds under 10,000. Three games with the Red Sox drew a total of 29,142. For the Red Sox . . .

* Now that Ben Francisco has used a big bat to hit the ground running as Jayson Werth's successor in rightfield and the No. 5 hole, it's time to run a daily Ben vs. Jayson box. After last night's game, in which Werth hit his first homer, that box read:

Werth: 6-for-22, .273, 1 HR, 1 RBI, .953 OPS

Francisco: 8-for-25, .320, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .970 OPS

* Did anybody see an 0-12 combined start by the Red Sox and Rays coming? If so, buy me a fistful of Lotto tickets. The numbers that only lie when they are finally wrong say that both AL East powers can forget about a World Series parade. No team that started 0-4 or worse has ever won a Series. When the Red Sox were at the Bright House for an ESPN-televised game, ESPN researcher and podcaster Pete Pascarelli said manager Terry Francona was having trouble finding a spot in the order where Carl Crawford was comfortable. You could see this coming. With all his speed, Carl is not a true leadoff hitter. And Dustin Pedroia is entrenched at No. 3. Crawford has been hitting No. 2 behind Jacoby Ellsbury. Both speed merchants are scuffling, as is a ballclub many experts picked to win the World Series after jumping off a Phillies bandwagon where Chase Utley is no longer in the driver's seat - except to field ground balls, that is.

* OK, trivia time. Let's go with two this week.

1) Which ballplayer was responsible for the Pittsburgh National League franchise finally being named the Pirates after going through their early days as the Alleghenies, Potato Bugs, Zulus and Smoked Italians?

2) Which player has the fewest wins - by far - of any pitcher in the Hall of Fame? And why was he enshrined despite a 2-year record of 21-22?

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