A hot, humid Friday night in late July in 1977 and the Cincinnati baseball fans have started to get restless. Their major league baseball team, the Reds, hold a commanding 8-1 lead over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies but it might not stay that way for long. The Phillies have a couple of runners on base in the sixth inning and due to bat is Mike Schmidt, their clean-up batter.

After struggling as a human strikeout in the early part of his baseball career, Schmidt is now one of baseball’s premier home run hitters. The Cincinnati pitcher is well aware of Schmidt’s home run power. His swing is smooth and almost effortless. The bat is almost an extension of his body. He is perfectly balanced while standing at the plate and a pitch to his liking can become a souvenir for a fan as he turns his hips and swings the bat simultaneously.He doesn’t have to hit the ball squarely on the bat since his swing is so close to being technically perfect.

Sparky Anderson, the Reds’ manager, calls time because his pitcher is wiping his brow and beginning to show signs of fatigue. He walks to the mound as a way to buy time until he has settled down and regained his composure. He lets him pitch to Schmidt and the result is a three-run homer to put the Phillies back in the game. The ball was hit high and arching to left-center and cleared the wall by a few feet but was a home run nonetheless.

Anderson is mad and yells a few expletives in the dugout. “Those damn Phillies have us right where they want us – overconfident!” Anderson yells to his coaches. “We’re gonna end up losing a game that we had wrapped up! There’s nothing I can do about it!” He’s not feeling well and taps two white pills into his hand out of a medicine bottle and washes them down with a cup of cold water.

Mike Schmidt continued to hit homers at a record pace in a hall-of-fame career that ended in a visitors locker room in 1989. He is considered by many baseball experts to be the greatest Major League third baseman in history and led the Phillies to their first World Series title in 1980 and also to the National League championship in 1983, but lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1, in the World Series. He holds the team-record for most home runs in a career with 548. He is now a Phillies commentator.

Schmidt and Greg Luzinski teamed up to be a pair of formidable power hitters for the team starting in the mid 70’s up until Luzinski’s trade in 1982. The team couldn’t be counted out as long as they were in the lineup.