Sports Media Report
A new season of “The Road to Cooperstown,” the acclaimed podcast series from SiriusXM and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, debuts today with a candid and insightful conversation with Philadelphia Phillies great Mike Schmidt.
Each episode of “The Road to Cooperstown” features host Jon Paul Morosi sitting down with a different Hall of Famer to get their first-hand reflections on their remarkable lives and careers and the unique path they took to earn a place in baseball’s most storied club.
Episodes of “The Road to Cooperstown” debut Saturday mornings at 9 am ET on SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio channel and are available on the SiriusXM app and on all major podcast platforms.
Mike Schmidt’s Hall of Fame plaque cites his “unprecedented combination of power and defense.” A three-time MVP, Schmidt won 10 Gold Glove and six Silver Slugger awards, and his eight home run titles rank third all-time behind only Josh Gibson and Babe Ruth. He credits a tireless work ethic, but also a willingness to adjust, for his ability to perform at a high level for so many seasons.
“I’m able to turn awful into great sometimes a lot faster than a lot of people because of my brain or my sense of needing to change and change and change and change,” Schmidt said on the podcast. “One of my theories is, if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re gonna keep getting what you get.”
“I’m not sure it’s mental strength. I fought with insecurity. It’s easy for me to be by myself and have a batting tee or have somebody throwing me batting practice and figure things out maybe with a different way of holding the bat, or a different energy with which you swing the bat, move closer to the plate, move further away.”
Schmidt also speaks openly about his relationship with the fan base in Philadelphia, his struggles with dealing with criticism and the inability to open up to those fans.
“I wish I would’ve been much more outgoing, much more accessible,” Schmidt said. “I’d have brought the fans more into my game, into the little world of me on the baseball field. I often use the term ‘blinder.’ I didn’t look up in the stands very much when I played. Because I think I was more sensitive to what I might see or what I might hear. And I wish I had that to do over.”
Watch a clip of Schmidt on “The Road to Cooperstown” here.
Future episodes of “The Road to Cooperstown” will feature conversations with Hall of Famers Fred McGriff, Lee Smith, Robin Yount and many more.
The Bradenton Times called “The Road to Cooperstown” “the next best thing to being in the baseball museum,” and the series’ “in-depth interviews with the greatest names in the history of the game is episodic radio at its best.”
