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Monday, December 23, 2024

What if this baseball great had played golf instead? We asked him


Mike Schmidt at bat in 1988 and playing in a pro-am in 2008.

Mike Schmidt at bat (left) and in a pro-am (right).

Getty Images

In the last episode of GOLF Originals with Michael Bambergerviewers may be surprised to see a legend from another sport as Bamberger’s interview subject. But 75-year-old baseball Hall-of-Famer-turned-golf nut Mike Schmidt is one of a kind.

“One of the things you get from Mike Schmidt, one thing that makes him original, is that he has a plan and an approach to getting better,” Bamberger said. “And I got a lot out of it.”

Schmidt combined his natural athletic gifts with a “cerebral” approach to the game of baseball, Bamberger said. And after Schmidt retired from the pro game, he applied that approach to golf.

“I can’t pick up the golf club without a mechanical thought,” Schmidt told Bamberger. “I tell you what, I swung and missed the ball once because I forgot what my swing was thinking in the middle of my backswing.”


mike schmidt teaser for golf originals

Mike Schmidt is a baseball legend. But he is consumed by golf

From:

Michael Bamberger



In his conversation with Bamberger, Schmidt went deep into his analytical process. What would Schmidt’s life have looked like if he had applied his talents to golf before baseball? Bamberger thought he could have had a career equal to the six-time major winner Lee Trevinobut Schmidt had another player in mind.

“I see myself as Tom Watson“, Schmidt said.

“Can you imagine committing to golf and reaching a Watson-like level, versus being Mike Schmidt and achieving what you did in baseball?” Bamberger asked. “Could a life in golf have been as satisfying to you as a life in baseball?”

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Schmidt replied. “Getting to that level in golf would be much more difficult than in baseball. I guess the really big question is, would I have the mental capacity to become a great golfer compared to what it took in baseball? I like to say I would have figured it out in any sport. I would have understood.”

As Bamberger noted in his response, that’s spoken like a true Hall of Famer.

For more from Schmidt, including why he thinks he could have helped of Michael Jordan Short-lived baseball career, watch the full episode of GOLF Originals with Michael Bamberger below.

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