Mike Schmidt to Pat Burrell: Do as I Say, Not as I Did
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Hall of Fame former Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt criticized current Phils leftfielder Pat Burrell on Friday for striking soo much in his career while giving him what may be some sound advice.
Schmitty who struck out 1,883 times in 18 seasons gave a talk at a breakfast in Dayton, Ohio where he had advice for Burrell, who has struck out 1,017 times in his 7 major league seasons.
According to Hal McCoy of Cox News Service, Schmidt said;
”He regretted the way he approached hitting during his Hall of Fame career.
“Now I know that if I had choked up on the bat with two strikes and hadn’t been so aggressive and gave in to the pitcher, I wouldn’t have struck out so much. And that’s what guys like [Adam] Dunn and Burrell have to realize,” Schmidt added.
Schmidt said that with a game on the line, pitchers don’t mind facing guys like the Reds’ Dunn and the Phillies’ Burrell because they know they can strike them out.
“How do I know this? Because when I played, pitchers wanted me up there with the game on the line,” he said. “They’d rather face me than a guy behind me like Greg Luzinski, who would put the ball in play.
“If these guys cut their strikeouts down to 75 or 80, they put the ball in play 85 or 90 more times a year.’ That’s at least 15 more home runs a year and at least 35 more RBIs a year.”
Schmidt, who says the pitchers preferred facing him rather than Bull Luzinski who struck out an average of a shade less than 100 times a year during his career, then goes on to wonder why the two players don’t emulate Albert Pujols;
He then wonders whether Dunn and Burrell watch St. Louis superstar Albert Pujols, a guy who hits not only for power but also for average, and strikes out fewer than 70 times a year.
“I mean, why would Dunn and Burrell watch what Pujols does and not want to be like him, as good as he is?” Schmidt said. “When their careers are over, they are going to wonder how much they left on the table, how much they left on the field. If only they had choked up with two strikes, spread their stances out. What they are doing now is not great, it is mediocrity.”
But for the life of me, I fail to understand why Schmitty didn’t follow his own advice and why he doesn’t also encourage Ryan Howard, as great as he was last year — 58 HRs, 149 RBIs, .313 BA but 181 strikeouts, along the same lines.
Would choking up on the bat with two strikes bring Schmidt’s desired result; “at least 15 more home runs a year and at least 35 more RBIs?” Has Schmitty conveyed this piece of wisdom to Burrell in person or to the Phillies’ hitting coach? And finally, this fan recalls how hard Schmitty worked until he achieved a comfort zone with his own stance. In short, advice is often easier said than done.
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