In Philadelphia Mike Schmidt is commonly referred to as the best third baseman that the game has ever seen, while that is up for debate, there has never been another power hitter to play the hot corner like Schmidt. Schmidt currently sits in 16th place all-time on the career home run list with 548, however 32 years ago Schmidt surpassed another legend of the game in Jimmie Foxx to move into eighth place all-time.
In the years since legends like Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt graced the field, power has become a staple in the way the game is played today. Sometimes it seems as though if you cannot hit for power then you will not find yourself on a major league roster.
That wasn’t the way the game was played prior to that though; Babe Ruth changed the way the game was played in the 1920s when he relied on the home run as much as he did. After Ruth started to belt 30 plus home runs a season it started to become popular to try to hit the long ball.
Even though it became popular to hit the long ball, players still worked on every part of the hitting game, it was not home run or bust. In fact, when you look at it only four players who retired prior to 1961 amassed 500 home runs: Babe Ruth (714), Jimmie Foxx (534), Ted Williams (521), and Mel Ott (511)—Lou Gehrig was close but ended up with 493 HR.
The home run may have been popularized because of Babe Ruth, but that was not the way the game was played. Somewhere in the mid-1950s though is when we saw the game start to transition into a power game. While the game wasn’t home run or bust at this time there were more home runs hit in this time period than the previous one.
If we move the list up another 30 years to players who retired prior to 1991 you would now have 14 players with 500 or more home runs, over triple the number of players from 30 years ago.
Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Willie Mays (660), Frank Robinson (586), Harmon Killebrew (573), Reggie Jackson (563), Mike Schmidt (548), Mickey Mantle (536), Jimmie Foxx (534), Willie McCovey (521), Ted Williams (521), Ernie Banks (512), Eddie Mathews (512), and Mel Ott (504).
One of these players who truly epitomized what it meant to be a power hitter was Mike Schmidt. Before Schmidt entered the league third base was never known as a position of power, it was more a position of defense. The leading third baseman in HRs at the time was Eddie Mathews with 512, the second was Ken Boyer at 282.
Schmidt really helped change the mold at the position and now third base is a premier power hitting position in the game.
Prior to Schmidt surpassing Foxx, he had to get 500 HRs, that ended up taking place over a year earlier in April of 1987, at this point Schmidt became the 14th player to join the 500 HR club. His next task was to surpass all of the legends before him.
A little over a year later Schmidt found himself tied for eighth place with Jimmie Foxx at 534 HR, at this point in Schmidt’s career we were starting to see a regression in power from Schmidt, he only hit 12 in 1988 and six in 1989.
On May 2, 1988 Schmidt hit his 534th home run to tie him with Foxx and he would have to wait before he could surpass him. 15 games later the Phillies were facing the Padres in San Diego with Andy Hawkins taking the mound for the Padres.
The Phillies started off the first inning right with a lead off double, however, after the next two batters got out it seemed like they would not be able to score the run, up comes Mike Schmidt. Schmidt did not keep the score tied for long, Schmidt belted the ball over the left field wall to hit his 535th HR and pass Jimmie Foxx to be all alone in eighth place on the all-time HR list.
Next up was Mickey Mantle at 536 HRs.