An Example of How ‘Little Things Matter” Even 40 Years Later…

This past week Doug Glanville had a great read on his why for MLB Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt. It takes us through the young Glanville through his encounters as a Major Leaguer and beyond, and reenforced the power of friendship, mentorship and leadership over the decades. You can read it here.

Reading the story immediately took me back to my own Mike Schmidt encounter, a random of act of kindness that took place on a Friday afternoon 40 years ago this coming week, and led to a priceless rainy Saturday afternoon the next day…the 1986 NLCS Game Three encounter between…not Schmidt’s Phillies…but the Mets and Astros at Shea Stadium, what became known as “The Dykstra Game.”

What’s the conenction?

My Mike Schmidt story.

My dad was a lawyer at JCPenney in the 1980’s. They had a TV studio they rented out on top of what is now The Paramount building, across from The Winter Garden Theater. My dad oversaw the contracts for the studio and went up one day to see how things were going. A Japanese TV station had rented out the studio during the 1986 playoffs and they were doing interviews. Their guest that day was Mike Schmidt. My dad was not much of a sports fan but he knew I was and he stuck around when the show was over to maybe get an autograph for me…I had just graduated college and was working as Sports Info Director at Monmouth College. Mike met my dad and talked about me, and my brother Chris who was 11 years younger than me. 

He asked if we were Mets fans my dad said yes and Mike said to him, instead of an autograph, give your son these, and handed him two tickets to the Astros-Mets NLCS game, the one where Dykstra hit the homer to win it. My brother and I were there in the Loge, Section E Row 21 seats 15 and 16, in Mike Schmidt’s seats. We had no way to contact or thank him…or so I thought. Years later when I was with the Sixers Mike was at The Spectrum and I met him briefly. I told him the story not thinking he would remember, but he stopped me as I was telling it and said “The Japanese TV show.” 

He remembered. and I never forgot.

I sent Doug an email this week thanking him for rekindling the memory. He got right back to me, saying yes, that’s who Mike is.

Thanks for the memory.

Little acts matter!