Mike Schmidt had been struggling mightily to kick off his 1976 season. He had led the league in home runs for the second straight season the year prior, but had also seen his league-leading 138 strikeouts from 1974 increase to 180 in '75.
For someone trying to reverse that trajectory, a 3-18 start with nine strikeouts wasn't optimal. So coming into the third series of the season against the Cubs, Schmidt was really trying to shake off some offseason rust. According to Rich D'Ambrosio, a writer for the Society of American Baseball Research, Schmidt had injured his finger in the previous series against the Expos and opted to use teammate Tony Taylor's model of a bat.
Taylor's bat was an Adirondack model, which was also what Schmidt had used at times throughout his career, but Taylor's "was an inch shorter and an ounce lighter" according to D'Ambrosio. Taylor was by no means a power hitter, clubbing a career-high nine in 1970. By 1976, Taylor was 40 years old and practically a non-factor, with only 26 plate appearances throughout the whole season.
But something in Taylor's bat helped Schmidt to put it all together and deliver one of the most masterful performances in MLB history.
By the time Schmidt came to the plate for his second at-bat, the Phillies were trailing 12-1 and the slugging third baseman was 0-1. He got started with a single in the bottom of the third, and followed up that plate appearance by pulling a home run into the left field seats at Wrigley. The Cubs' lead was down to nine, not quite insurmountable, but still a long way off.
Two innings later, another one landed in the left field seats off of Schmidt's bat. The offense began to heat up, and by the time the eighth inning rolled around, the lead was down to six.
Bobby Tolan and Dave Cash led off the inning with back-to-back singles before Larry Bowa walked to load the bases. Mike Garman had just come into the game to replace Rick Rueschel, whose solid start to the game had quickly been canceled out. Jay Johnston and Greg Luzinski couldn't take advantage of the juicy opportunity, flying out and striking out respectively to leave the bases loaded.
With two away, Dick Allen ripped a single to center, scoring Tolan and Cash and moving Bowa to third. Down four, Schmidt came up to the plate with newfound confidence.
"I was feeling good and nice and relaxed," Schmidt said. And his performance reflected that sentiment, as No. 20 hit his third home run of the game, this timing going oppo field and cutting the lead to just one.
13-12 was the score as the Phillies entered the bottom of the eighth, sending in Tug McGraw to continue the magic required to pull off the greatest comeback effort in National League history. In five batters, McGraw was able to find three outs and end the inning without any further damage done to the scoreboard.
It was Bob Boone who started the top of the ninth with a dinger to tie up the ballgame at 13 runs apiece. Two more runs came in off the bats of Bowa and Jay Johnstone, but the Cubs got to McGraw in the bottom of the ninth, tallying two more runs of their own and forcing the game into extras.
Talk about an instant classic.
Dick Allen led off the top of the 10th with a walk, before Paul Reuschel came into the game. Schmidt had hit two of his home runs in the game off of Rick, Paul's brother, meaning that Paul could get some vengeance for their family's name with a big out here.
So, Schmidt hit another one. His fourth home run of the day but the Phils up two and was enough to push them over the top and secure the incredible win.
And he did it all with Tony Taylor's bat, which the veteran second baseman had apparently joked was guaranteed to be 'loaded with hits'.
It wasn't the only time Schmidt put on a show at Wrigley, including the 1979 game in which the Phillies pulled out a 23-22 win thanks to Schmidt's second round-tripper of the day.
Without any baseball, at least we have this incredible memory to look back on before we look forward to brighter times in MLB history.
All stats and game summaries retrieved from Baseball Reference and SABR.
