Schmidt Elected To Hall Of Fame Ex-Phillies Star To Go It Alone When Inducted At Cooperstown

Mike Schmidt, the player who rarely showed emotion, the man who made it all look so easy, began to get a bit shaky when he heard the news.

Schmidt, perhaps the greatest third baseman in baseball history, was the overwhelming and only choice Monday for election to the Hall of Fame.

“I’m just now starting to get some goosebumps about this thing,” he said during a news conference at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

Schmidt, whose 548 home runs rank seventh on the career list, was named on 444 of the 460 ballots by the Baseball Writers Association of America in his first year of eligibility. His 96.52 vote percentage was the fourth-highest ever.

Schmidt, a three-time N.L. MVP and MVP of the 1980 World Series for the Philadelphia Phillies, became just the 10th third baseman to be selected for the Hall. He joins Brooks Robinson, Eddie Mathews and Pie Traynor as the only third basemen elected by the BBWAA; the others made it through other committees.

“Brooks Robinson is the greatest defensive third baseman in history and I would say my numbers are a little better than the other third baseman offensively,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt, a 12-time All-Star who earned 10 Gold Gloves and had 1,595 RBIs in his career from 1972-89, will be enshrined in Cooperstown in ceremonies July 30.

None of the other 38 eligible players came close to election. It took 75 percent (345 votes) to make it, and 300-game winners Phil Niekro (286 votes) and Don Sutton (264) fell far short as carryover candidates. Tony Perez (259 votes) also missed, as did Thurman Munson (30 votes) in his 15th and final year of eligibility.

“You have to say it magnified the honor immensely,” Schmidt said of his solo election.

Pete Rose, who is ineligible because of his lifetime ban from baseball, received 14 write-in votes. He got 41 in 1992, which would have been his first year of eligibility.

“Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame,” said Schmidt, who teamed with Rose in two World Series.

The Veterans Committee, which considers older players, managers, Negro Leagues stars and others, will meet March 7 in Tampa, Fla., and could elect up to two candidates.

Schmidt’s election caps a string of honors for a sport that was shut down in midseason and whose foundation is threatened with plans to use replacement players come spring training.

Schmidt was headed to possibly his greatest season in 1981 when the players struck for 50 days.

Schmidt, the 220th Hall of Famer, became the 26th player to be elected in his first year following the initial 1936 selection of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson.

Only Tom Seaver (98.84 percent), Cobb (98.23) and Hank Aaron (97.83) got a bigger percentage of the vote than Schmidt. Last year, Schmidt’s longtime teammate on the Phillies, Steve Carlton, was elected with 95.8 percent.

Schmidt received the highest number of votes ever, surpassing Carlton’s 436 of 455, although there was a record number of ballots this year.

Schmidt brought a rare combination of power and grace to his position. He did it all while rarely seeming to strain or smile.

Those appearances, he said, were misleading. Up until the end, he once admitted, he got butterflies before every game.

“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,” he said.

Schmidt holds the N.L. record for leading the league in home runs eight times and tied the major league mark with four homers in a game at Wrigley Field in 1976.

Schmidt was a .267 career hitter - the same average as Robinson - and a .961 fielder.